2022 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT REPORT

Jun 02, 2022

Global Plan to Finance the UN Sustainable Development Goals Urgently Needed Says New SDSN Report   

The Sustainable Development Report (SDR), including the SDG Index and Dashboards tracks progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The report shows that multiple and simultaneous international crises have halted progress on the universal goals adopted by all UN member countries during the historic 2015 summit. 

For the second year in a row, the world is no longer making progress on the SDGs.

Multiple and simultaneous health, climate, biodiversity, geopolitical and military crises are major setbacks for sustainable development globally. The SDG Index world average has slightly decreased in 2021 for the second year in a row, largely due to the impact of the pandemic on SDG1 (No Poverty) and SDG8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and poor performance on SDG11-15 (climate, biodiversity, and sustainable urban development goals). Besides their massive humanitarian costs, military conflicts – including the war in Ukraine – have major international spillovers on food security and energy prices, which are amplified by the climate and biodiversity crises. They also crowd out space for long-term thinking and investments. Peace, diplomacy, and international cooperation are fundamental conditions for the world to progress on the SDGs towards 2030 and beyond.

The 2022 SDG Index is topped by Finland, followed by three Nordic countries –Denmark, Sweden and Norway – and all top 10 countries are European countries. Yet even these countries face major challenges in achieving several SDGs. Overall, East and South Asia is the region that progressed most on the SDGs since their adoption in 2015. Bangladesh and Cambodia are the two countries that progressed most on the SDGs since 2015. By contrast Venezuela has declined the most on the SDG Index since their adoption in 2015. 

A global plan to finance sustainable development is urgently needed.

Achieving the SDGs is fundamentally an investment agenda in physical infrastructure (including renewable energy, digital technologies) and human capital (including health, education). Yet the poorest half of the world lacks market access to capital on acceptable terms. Poor and vulnerable countries have been hit hard by the multiple crises and their spillovers. Rising budget pressures, increased military spending and major shifts in strategic priorities, especially in European countries, might squeeze development funds available to support sustainable development globally. In this context, the report presents a five-point plan for financing the SDGs globally. It underlines the key role of the G20, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to expand SDG financing globally. 

At mid-point on the way to 2030, policy efforts and commitments for the SDGs vary greatly.

At mid-point on the way to 2030, the integration of the SDGs into policies, regulations, budgets, monitoring systems, and other government policies and procedures still varies greatly across countries. Among G20 member states, the United States, Brazil, and the Russian Federation exhibit the least support for the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs. By contrast, Nordic countries demonstrate relatively high support for the SDGs, as do Argentina, Germany, Japan and Mexico (all G20 countries). Some countries, such as Benin and Nigeria, for example, have large gaps in their SDG Index yet also earn relatively high scores for their policy efforts. Interestingly, Benin and Mexico have both issued SDG Sovereign Bonds in recent years to scale up their sustainable development investments.

For the second time since their adoption in 2015, UN Member States will meet in September 2023 on the side-line of the UN general Assembly for the SDG Summit to define priorities for restoring and accelerating SDG progress by 2030 and beyond. Ambitious and sound national targets, strategies, and plans are crucial to turning the SDGs into an action agenda. 

Other findings of the Sustainable Development Report 2022:

• Rich countries generate negative international spillovers notably through unsustainable consumption. The 2022 international Spillover Index included in this report underlines how rich countries, generate negative socioeconomic and environmental spillovers, including through unsustainable trade and supply chains.

• New partnerships and innovations that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, including in scientific cooperation and data, should be scaled-up to support the SDGs. Science, technological innovations, and data systems can help identify solutions in times of crises and can provide decisive contributions to address the major challenges of our times. These call for increased and prolonged investments in statistical capacities, R&D, and education and skills.

Since 2015, the SDR provides the most up-to-date data to track and rank the performance of all UN member states on the SDGs. The report was written by a group of independent experts at the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), led by its President, Prof. Jeffrey Sachs. The report is produced by SDSN, published by Cambridge University Press, and co-funded by Bertelsmann Stiftung.

The overall performance of all 193 UN Member States

Rank	Country	Score	Performance by SDG
1	Finland	86.51
2	Denmark	85.63
3	Sweden	85.19
4	Norway	82.35
5	Austria	82.32
6	Germany	82.18
7	France	81.24
8	Switzerland	80.79
9	Ireland	80.66
10	Estonia	80.62
11	United Kingdom	80.55
12	Poland	80.54
13	Czech Republic	80.47
14	Latvia	80.28
15	Slovenia	79.95
16	Spain	79.90
17	Netherlands	79.85
18	Belgium	79.69
19	Japan	79.58
20	Portugal	79.23
21	Hungary	79.01
22	Iceland	78.87
23	Croatia	78.79
24	Slovak Republic	78.66
25	Italy	78.34
26	New Zealand	78.30
27	Korea, Rep.	77.90
28	Chile	77.81
29	Canada	77.73
30	Romania	77.72
31	Uruguay	77.00
32	Greece	76.81
33	Malta	76.77
34	Belarus	75.99
35	Serbia	75.89
36	Luxembourg	75.74
37	Ukraine	75.69
38	Australia	75.58
39	Lithuania	75.42
40	Cuba	74.66
41	United States	74.55
42	Bulgaria	74.29
43	Cyprus	74.23
44	Thailand	74.13
45	Russian Federation	74.07
46	Moldova	73.93
47	Costa Rica	73.76
48	Kyrgyz Republic	73.72
49	Israel	73.51
50	Azerbaijan	73.45
51	Georgia	73.35
52	Fiji	72.93
53	Brazil	72.80
54	Argentina	72.78
55	Vietnam	72.76
56	China	72.38
57	North Macedonia	72.31
58	Peru	71.93
59	Bosnia and Herzegovina	71.73
60	Singapore	71.72
61	Albania	71.63
62	Suriname	71.59
63	Ecuador	71.55
64	Algeria	71.54
65	Kazakhstan	71.14
66	Armenia	71.05
67	Maldives	71.03
68	Dominican Republic	70.76
69	Tunisia	70.69
70	Bhutan	70.49
71	Turkey	70.41
72	Malaysia	70.38
73	Barbados	70.34
74	Mexico	70.20
75	Colombia	70.13
76	Sri Lanka	70.03
77	Uzbekistan	69.93
78	Tajikistan	69.68
79	El Salvador	69.60
80	Jordan	69.41
81	Oman	69.19
82	Indonesia	69.16
83	Jamaica	69.02
84	Morocco	68.98
85	United Arab Emirates	68.84
86	Montenegro	68.81
87	Egypt, Arab Rep.	68.66
88	Iran, Islamic Rep.	68.59
89	Mauritius	68.40
90	Bolivia	67.99
91	Paraguay	67.43
92	Nicaragua	67.14
93	Brunei Darussalam	67.10
94	Qatar	66.78
95	Philippines	66.64
96	Saudi Arabia	66.56
97	Lebanon	66.30
98	Nepal	66.18
99	Turkmenistan	66.05
100	Belize	65.73
101	Kuwait	64.53
102	Bahrain	64.27
103	Myanmar	64.27
104	Bangladesh	64.22
105	Panama	64.00
106	Guyana	63.89
107	Cambodia	63.75
108	South Africa	63.72
109	Mongolia	63.51
110	Ghana	63.44
111	Lao PDR	63.39
112	Honduras	63.07
113	Gabon	62.83
114	Namibia	62.72
115	Iraq	62.25
116	Botswana	61.43
117	Guatemala	61.00
118	Kenya	60.96
119	Trinidad and Tobago	60.41
120	Venezuela, RB	60.34
121	India	60.32
122	Gambia, The	60.17
123	Sao Tome and Principe	59.42
124	Rwanda	59.42
125	Pakistan	59.34
126	Senegal	58.70
127	Cote d'Ivoire	58.42
128	Ethiopia	58.01
129	Syrian Arab Republic	57.37
130	Tanzania	57.37
131	Zimbabwe	56.77
132	Mauritania	55.83
133	Togo	55.57
134	Cameroon	55.55
135	Lesotho	55.06
136	Uganda	54.86
137	Eswatini	54.63
138	Burkina Faso	54.47
139	Nigeria	54.23
140	Zambia	54.16
141	Burundi	54.05
142	Mali	54.05
143	Mozambique	53.57
144	Papua New Guinea	53.56
145	Malawi	53.25
146	Sierra Leone	52.98
147	Afghanistan	52.49
148	Congo, Rep.	52.33
149	Niger	52.20
150	Yemen, Rep.	52.08
151	Haiti	51.91
152	Guinea	51.27
153	Benin	51.24
154	Angola	50.94
155	Djibouti	50.31
156	Madagascar	50.12
157	Congo, Dem. Rep.	50.00
158	Liberia	49.89
159	Sudan	49.63
160	Somalia	45.57
161	Chad	41.29
162	Central African Republic	39.28
163	South Sudan	39.05
-	Andorra	-
-	Antigua and Barbuda	-
-	Bahamas, The	-
-	Cabo Verde	-
-	Comoros	-
-	Dominica	-
-	Equatorial Guinea	-
-	Eritrea	-
-	Grenada	-
-	Guinea-Bissau	-
-	Kiribati	-
-	Korea, Dem. Rep.	-
-	Libya	-
-	Liechtenstein	-
-	Marshall Islands	-
-	Micronesia, Fed. Sts.	-
-	Monaco	-
-	Nauru	-
-	Palau	-
-	Samoa	-
-	San Marino	-
-	Seychelles	-
-	Solomon Islands	-
-	St. Kitts and Nevis	-
-	St. Lucia	-
-	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	-
-	Timor-Leste	-
-	Tonga	-
-	Tuvalu	-
-	Vanuatu	-

The Sustainable Development Report (formerly the SDG Index & Dashboards) is a global assessment of countries' progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. It is a complement to the official SDG indicators and the voluntary national reviews.