The Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) published its annual Sustainable Development Report, which includes the 2023 SDG Index and Dashboards, ranking the performance of all UN Member States on the SDGs. The report shows that, for the third year in a row, global progress on the SDGs has been static. It warns “there is a risk that the gap in SDG outcomes between high-income countries (HICs) and low-income countries (LICs) will be larger in 2030” than in 2015, when countries adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The report reveals that on average, since 2015, the world has made “some progress” on improving access to key infrastructure under SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation), SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy), and SDG 9 (industry, innovation, and infrastructure). However, only limited progress has been made on the environmental Goals, including SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production), SDG 13 (climate action), SDG 14 (life below water), and SDG 15 (life on land).

According to the report, “the most significant reversals in progress include subjective well-being, access to vaccination, poverty, and unemployment rate,” with SDG targets on hunger, sustainable diets, and health outcomes being particularly off track. It underscores that, based on the current rate of progress, none of the Goals will be achieved by 2030. On average, it warns, only about one-fifth of the SDG targets are on track to be reached.

The 2023 SDG Index ranks Finland, Sweden, and Denmark first, second, and third, and all top ten performers are European countries that are “on track to achieve more targets than any other region.” Denmark, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, and Slovakia are “the top five countries that have achieved or are on track to achieving the largest number of SDG targets this year.” Lebanon, Yemen, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Venezuela, and Myanmar are the five countries with “the largest number of SDG targets moving in the wrong direction.”

The report emphasizes that the disruptions caused by multiple crises have shrunk the fiscal space in LICs and lower-middle income countries (LMICs), which led to “a reversal in progress on several goals and indicators.” In a press release, Jeffrey Sachs, SDSN President and the report’s lead author, urged wealthy nations to use the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact, the G20 Summit, the SDG Summit, and the UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 28) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), to increase international financial flows “based on SDG needs.”

The SDGs remain fundamental for the future we want.

– Jeffrey Sachs, SDSN President

The report calls for “deep reform” of the global financial architecture, while advancing the implementation of the SDG Stimulus “to close the significant financing gap facing developing and emerging countries.” It outlines the following six priorities for reform:

• Greatly increase funding to national and subnational governments and private businesses, especially in LICs and LMICs, to carry out needed SDG investments;
• Revise the credit rating system and debt sustainability metrics to facilitate long-term sustainable development;
• Revise liquidity structures for LICs and LMICs, especially regarding sovereign debt, to forestall self-fulfilling banking and balance-of-payments crises;
• Create ambitious, internationally agreed criteria for sustainable finance that are mandatory for all public financial institutions;
• Align private business investment flows with the SDGs through improved national planning, regulation, reporting, and oversight; and
• Reform current institutional frameworks and develop new mechanisms to improve the quality and speed of deployment of international cooperation and monitor progress in an open and timely manner.

The report calls for all countries to commit to strengthening multilateralism, and identifies the need for further investment in statistical capacity and data literacy “to support long-term pathways for key SDG transformations.”

The report features a pilot Index that gauges countries’ support for multilateralism and an Index to track government efforts and commitments to the SDGs.

SDSN launched the report at a 21 June event in Paris, France, ahead of the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact. SDSN works to mobilize expertise for problem solving for sustainable development. Its yearly resources provide data to track and rank the performance of all UN Member States on the 17 SDGs.

SDSN’s Sustainable Development Report is one of several SDG assessments released each year in the lead-up to the annual High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF). The UN Secretary-General’s SDG Progress Report and the Sustainable Development Goals Report by the UN Statistics Division (forthcoming) will also inform HLPF deliberations. [Publication: Sustainable Development Report 2023: Implementing the SDG Stimulus] [Publication Landing Page] [SDSN Press Release] [SDG Knowledge Hub Story about SDSN’s 2022 Report]