The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) has launched its annual SDG progress report, which provides an overview of progress on the Global Goals in the Asia-Pacific region. Highlighting the region’s strong performance on several SDG targets compared to the global average, the report warns that persistent challenges such as climate change, natural disasters, and critical data gaps risk leaving marginalized communities behind.
‘Asia and the Pacific SDG Progress Report 2025’ showcases innovative community-level partnerships and explores how local efforts can help bridge the evidence gap to ensure inclusive progress towards the SDGs that leaves no one behind.
The report reveals that the region has made substantial progress on reducing income poverty (SDG 1), addressing undernourishment (SDG 2), supporting small-scale industries (SDG 9), reducing hazardous waste (SDG 12), mitigating land degradation (SDG 15), and combating human trafficking and intentional homicide (SDG 16). The availability of sufficient SDG data has also increased and is now at 54%.
At the same time, the report acknowledges that overall, SDG progress in Asia and the Pacific is significantly off track, with most targets advancing too slowly or stagnating, and SDG 13 (climate action) even showing signs of regression. Persistent data gaps continue to affect critical areas such as gender equality (SDG 5) and peace, justice, and strong institutions (SDG 16).
The report underscores the importance of partnerships between governments, development partners, and local communities to address these data gaps. “Achieving the SDGs for everyone and everywhere requires a transformative shift in statistical systems,” it argues, including by fostering strong political leadership and mobilizing investments. The report urges governments in the Asia-Pacific region to “lead this transformation by adopting a whole-of-society approach and investing in the digital transformation of their statistical systems.”
Case studies featured in the report “showcase[e] innovative solutions and regional cooperation, demonstrating that shared commitment and collaboration can yield transformative results,” UN Under-Secretary-General and ESCAP Executive Secretary Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana noted in a foreword. “Across Asia and the Pacific, new partnerships and creative approaches offer hope and actionable pathways to overcome the most persistent challenges,” she stressed.
Examples that empower lives through data include:
- Empowering communities in Viet Nam for real-time disaster preparedness and response;
- Using citizen data to uncover the challenges faced by nomadic tribes in India;
- Making all voices heard: The impact of community scorecards in Nepal;
- Tracking the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s learning continuity in Indonesia; and
- Family-led monitoring of child wasting in Indonesia.
The report was launched on 18 February 2025. It will contribute to the deliberations during the Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development, taking place from 25-28 February.
Each year, outcomes of the five Regional Forums on Sustainable Development (RFSDs) feed into the discussions during the July session of the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF). HLPF 2025 will convene under the theme, ‘Advancing sustainable, inclusive, science- and evidence-based solutions for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its SDGs for leaving no one behind.’ It will conduct in-depth reviews of SDG 3 (good health and well-being), SDG 5 (gender equality), SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth), SDG 14 (life below water), and SDG 17 (partnerships for the Goals). [Publication: Asia and the Pacific SDG Progress Report 2025: Engaging Communities to Close the Evidence Gap] [Highlights] [ESCAP Press Release] [UN News Story]