The global goals we've made progress on -- and the ones we haven't | Michael Green

Summary

The speaker discusses the progress of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), three years into the 15-year plan. Using the Social Progress Index, they assess global quality of life and project the likelihood of achieving the SDGs by 2030. While some goals show promising progress, others, particularly in personal rights and inclusiveness, are concerningly stagnant or regressing. The speaker urges wealthier nations to lead and calls for a comprehensive approach to ensure no one is left behind.

Takeaways

• 🗓️ In 2015, the UN adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a 15-year commitment to improve the lives of billions with no one left behind.
• 🌐 The SDGs consist of 17 goals, ranging from ending poverty to promoting sustainable fisheries, aiming for a comprehensive plan for the future.
• 📊 The Social Progress Index is used to measure the quality of life, providing a snapshot of progress towards the SDGs with data from 51 indicators.
• 🏆 Denmark is leading in achieving the SDGs, while the Central African Republic has the furthest to go.
• 📉 Despite progress, current trends suggest the world will not meet the 2030 SDG targets until 2094, indicating a need for accelerated action.
• 🔍 The G7 countries, except Germany and Japan, are projected to fall short of achieving the SDGs, highlighting the need for action from wealthier nations.
• 📈 Mexico is expected to make the most progress among the world's most populous countries towards the SDGs, but still fall short of the target.
• 🛑 Personal rights and inclusiveness are areas of significant concern, with many countries experiencing declines in these areas over the past three years.
• 🚀 There is potential for optimism in areas like nutrition and basic medical care, where the world is projected to score high on the SDG targets by 2030.
• 💧 Water and sanitation (SDG 6) is an area where progress is slow, and there is a need to scale solutions to achieve the SDGs faster.
• 🌟 The SDGs are a holistic set of goals, and while focusing on solvable issues is crucial, neglecting the broader package would be missing the point of the SDGs.

Q & A

What was the significant promise made by world leaders in 2015?

In 2015, world leaders made a promise through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to improve the lives of billions of people over the next 15 years, ensuring that no one is left behind.

How many goals are there in the SDGs?

There are 17 goals in the SDGs, each focusing on different aspects of sustainable development, ranging from ending poverty to promoting sustainable fisheries.

What is the Social Progress Index and how does it relate to the SDGs?

The Social Progress Index is a measure of the quality of life in countries, covering basic needs, foundations of well-being, and opportunity. It is related to the SDGs as it fundamentally measures the same concepts but has the advantage of available data for tracking progress.

What is the current global score on the SDGs according to the Social Progress Index?

As of 2018, the global score on the SDGs is 70.5, indicating some progress since the baseline year of 2015 when the score was 69.1.

Which country is closest to achieving the SDGs?

Denmark is the country closest to achieving the SDGs, according to the Social Progress Index.

Which country has the furthest to go in achieving the SDGs?

The Central African Republic has the furthest to go in achieving the SDGs based on the Social Progress Index.

What is the projected global score on the SDGs by 2030 if current trends continue?

If current trends continue, the projected global score on the SDGs by 2030 is 75.2, which is significantly below the target of 100.

What does the speaker suggest as the first step to improve progress towards the SDGs?

The speaker suggests that the first step to improve progress is to call out rich countries that are falling short, emphasizing that every country needs a plan to implement and deliver the SDGs for their citizens.

In which area of the SDGs are most countries making significant progress according to the transcript?

Most countries are making significant progress in the area of nutrition and basic medical care, which covers SDG 2 on no hunger and basic elements of SDG 3 on health.

What is the current trajectory for SDG 6 on water and sanitation, and is it sufficient to meet the 2030 target?

The current trajectory for SDG 6 shows some progress, with a projected score of around 85-86 by 2030. However, this is not fast enough to meet the 2030 target, indicating the need for accelerated efforts.

What is the most worrying aspect of the SDGs according to the speaker's analysis?

The most worrying aspect of the SDGs, according to the speaker, is the decline in personal rights and inclusiveness, which are critical for ensuring that no one is left behind.

What is the speaker's final message regarding the importance of the SDGs?

The speaker's final message emphasizes that while focusing on solvable SDGs is important, it is crucial not to forget the entire package of goals. The SDGs are an unwieldy set of indicators, goals, and targets, but they also represent the challenges the world faces, and neglecting any aspect would mean failing the promise of the SDGs.

Outlines

00:00

🌏 The Promise of SDGs and Global Progress Review

The script introduces the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a commitment made by world leaders in 2015 to improve the lives of billions by 2030 without leaving anyone behind. It's been three years into the journey, and the urgency to stay on track is emphasized. The speaker aims to provide an overview of the current status, future projections, and suggestions for necessary changes. The complexity of the 17 SDGs is acknowledged, and the Social Progress Index is introduced as a tool to measure the quality of life and track progress towards the SDGs, despite its limitations in not accounting for environmental sustainability. The world's starting point in 2015 was a score of 69.1 out of 100, indicating room for improvement. The summary highlights the weighted impact of populous countries like China and India on global forecasts and identifies Denmark as the closest to achieving the SDGs, with the Central African Republic lagging behind. The goal is to move all countries towards a score of 100 by 2030, but current trends suggest a shortfall, with a projected global score of only 75.2 by that year.

05:02

📊 Analyzing Progress Towards SDGs with Emphasis on Key Nations

This paragraph delves into the progress of specific countries toward achieving the SDGs. It starts by discussing the performance of the G7 countries, noting that while Germany and Japan are on track, others like Canada, France, the UK, and Italy will fall short, with the US significantly behind. The focus then shifts to the world's most populous countries, which are critical to the overall success of the SDGs. Mexico is highlighted as the most progressing towards the goals, with Russia, China, Indonesia, and Brazil following. However, it's emphasized that none of these large countries, including India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Ethiopia, are expected to fully achieve the SDGs. A global forecast projects a score of 70.5 in 2018, with an anticipated increase to only 75.2 by 2030, based on current trends, which would mean not reaching the 2030 targets until 2094. The paragraph calls for action from wealthy nations and suggests a need to identify opportunities for accelerating progress and reversing negative trends in areas such as nutrition, basic medical care, water and sanitation.

10:04

🚩 Addressing the Critical Areas of SDGs: Rights and Inclusiveness

The final paragraph addresses the critical areas of the SDGs related to personal rights and inclusiveness, which encompass goals on poverty, gender equality, inequality, inclusive cities, and peace and justice. It emphasizes the importance of these aspects for ensuring that no one is left behind. The discussion begins with an overview of personal rights in the world's largest countries, showing a concerning trend of stagnation or regression, particularly in countries like Brazil, India, China, and Bangladesh. Inclusiveness, which includes issues like violence against minorities and gender equity, is also found to be lagging, with most countries, regardless of wealth, struggling to build inclusive societies. The paragraph concludes with a warning about the potential decline in personal rights and inclusiveness scores by 2030, highlighting the urgent need to focus on these areas to fulfill the promise of the SDGs. It ends on a note that while the SDGs are challenging, they are essential for addressing the world's crises and must be pursued holistically, not selectively.

Keywords

💡Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, are a collection of 17 global goals set by the United Nations to address a wide range of social, economic, and environmental challenges by 2030. They are central to the video's theme, as the speaker discusses the progress made and the challenges faced in achieving these goals. For instance, the script mentions that the SDGs range from ending poverty to sustainable fisheries.

💡Social Progress Index

The Social Progress Index is a metric used to measure the social and environmental performance of a country. In the video, it is used as a tool to track the progress towards the SDGs, with the speaker noting that it covers various aspects of life, from basic needs to opportunities, and is based on 51 indicators.

💡Quality of Life

Quality of life refers to the general well-being and satisfaction of individuals and societies, encompassing factors such as health, education, and living standards. The video uses the Social Progress Index to assess the quality of life in relation to the SDGs, highlighting that it includes basic needs, well-being foundations, and opportunities.

💡Data

Data in this context refers to the quantitative information collected to measure and assess the progress of the SDGs. The speaker emphasizes the importance of data in tracking progress, noting that the Social Progress Index is advantageous because it has the necessary data to measure the concepts related to the SDGs.

💡Indicators

Indicators are specific measures used to track performance or progress in a particular area. The script mentions that there are 51 indicators drawn from trusted sources to measure the concepts within the Social Progress Index, which in turn helps in assessing the progress towards the SDGs.

💡Denmark

Denmark is highlighted in the video as the country closest to achieving the SDGs. The speaker uses Denmark as an example of a top-performing country, indicating that it is on track to meet the SDGs by 2030, which underscores the importance of national efforts in achieving global goals.

💡Central African Republic

The Central African Republic is mentioned as the country with the furthest to go in achieving the SDGs. This serves as a stark contrast to Denmark and illustrates the disparities in progress among different nations, emphasizing the need for a global effort to ensure no one is left behind.

💡G7

The G7 refers to a group of seven major industrialized nations, including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The video discusses the progress of these countries towards the SDGs, noting that some, like Germany and Japan, are closer to achieving the goals, while others are falling short.

💡Population-Weighted

Population-weighted data takes into account the size of the population when calculating averages or totals. The speaker mentions that the world forecast for the SDGs is population-weighted, meaning countries with larger populations, like China and India, have more influence on the overall score.

💡Trend

A trend refers to a general direction in which something is developing or changing. The video uses the Social Progress Index's time series data to identify trends in how countries are progressing towards the SDGs, which is crucial for making projections and understanding where improvements are needed.

💡Inclusiveness

Inclusiveness in the context of the video relates to the concepts of equality, diversity, and the absence of discrimination. It is a key component of several SDGs, including those on gender equality, reducing inequality, and peaceful, inclusive societies. The speaker discusses the challenges in building inclusive societies and the negative trends observed in some countries.

💡Personal Rights

Personal rights refer to the fundamental freedoms and protections granted to individuals, such as the right to life, liberty, and security of person. The video script discusses the importance of personal rights in achieving the SDGs and notes a decline in these rights in some countries, which is a concerning aspect of the progress towards the goals.

Highlights

In 2015, world leaders made a promise to improve the lives of billions through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The SDGs consist of 17 goals aimed at creating a comprehensive plan for the future of our world.

The Social Progress Index is used as a measure of the quality of life to track progress on the SDGs.

Denmark is the closest country to achieving the SDGs, while the Central African Republic has the furthest to go.

The world score against the SDGs in 2015 was 69.1, indicating progress but with a long way to go.

Projections show that if current trends continue, the world will not hit the 2030 SDG targets until 2094.

Rich countries, despite having the resources, are falling short in achieving the SDGs.

Nutrition and basic medical care are areas where most rich countries have achieved SDG targets.

Bangladesh and Ethiopia are projected to make significant progress towards the SDGs by 2030.

SDG 6 on water and sanitation shows a slower rate of progress, with a projected score of 85 by 2030.

Personal rights and inclusiveness are areas where the world is struggling, with some countries moving backwards.

The majority of the world's largest countries will not achieve the SDGs, affecting the global outcome.

Accelerating progress in areas like water and sanitation could bring us closer to the SDG targets.

The SDGs encompass a wide range of challenges, including the critical issues of personal rights and inclusiveness.

The SDGs serve as a reminder that we face a crisis in personal rights and inclusiveness, which must be addressed.

The speaker emphasizes the importance of not neglecting any SDG and the need for a comprehensive approach.

The SDGs provide a framework for ensuring no one is left behind, but require focused efforts and political will.

Transcripts

In 2015, the leaders of the world made a big promise.

A promise that over the next 15 years,

the lives of billions of people are going to get better

with no one left behind.

That promise is the Sustainable Development Goals --

the SDGs.

We're now three years in;

a fifth of the way into the journey.

The clock is ticking.

If we offtrack now,

it's going to get harder and harder to hit those goals.

So what I want to do for you today is give you a snapshot

on where we are today,

some projections on where we're heading

and some ideas on things we might need to do differently.

Now, the SDGs are of course spectacularly complicated.

I would expect nothing less from the United Nations.

(Laughter)

How many goals?

Maybe something tried and tested, like three, seven or 10.

No, let's pick a prime number higher than 10.

Seventeen goals.

I congratulate those of you who've memorized them already.

For the rest of us, here they are.

Seventeen goals ranging from ending poverty

to inclusive cities

to sustainable fisheries;

all a comprehensive plan for the future of our world.

But sadly, a plan without the data to measure it.

So how are we going to track progress?

Well, I'm going to use today the Social Progress Index.

It's a measure of the quality of life of countries,

ranging from the basic needs of survival --

food, water, shelter, safety --

through to the foundations of well-being --

education, information, health and the environment --

and opportunity --

rights, freedom of choice, inclusiveness and access to higher education.

Now, the Social Progress Index doesn't look like the SDGs,

but fundamentally, it's measuring the same concepts,

and the Social Progress Index has the advantage that we have the data.

We have 51 indicators drawn from trusted sources

to measure these concepts.

And also, what we can do because it's an index,

is add together all those indicators to give us an aggregate score

about how we're performing against the total package of the SDGs.

Now, one caveat.

The Social Progress Index is a measure of quality of life.

We're not looking at whether this can be achieved

within the planet's environmental limits.

You will need other tools to do that.

So how are we doing on the SDGs?

Well, I'm going to put the SDGs on a scale of zero to 100.

And zero is the absolute worst score on each of those 51 indicators:

absolute social progress, zero.

And then 100 is the minimum standard required to achieve those SDGs.

A hundred is where we want to get to by 2030.

So, where did we start on this journey?

Fortunately, not at zero.

In 2015, the world score against the SDGs was 69.1.

Some way on the way there but quite a long way to go.

Now let me also emphasize that this world forecast,

which is based on data from 180 countries,

is population weighted.

So China has more weight in than Comoros;

India has more weight in than Iceland.

But we could unpack this and see how the countries are doing.

And the country today that is closest to achieving the SDGs is Denmark.

And the country with the furthest to go is Central African Republic.

And everyone else is somewhere in between.

So the challenge for the SDGs

is to try and sweep all these dots across to the right, to 100 by 2030.

Can we get there?

Well, with the Social Progress Index, we've got some time series data.

So we have some idea of the trend that the countries are on,

on which we can build some projections.

So let's have a look.

Let's start with our top-performing country, Denmark.

And yes, I'm pleased to say that Denmark is forecast to achieve the SDGs by 2030.

Maybe not surprising, but I'll take a win.

Let's look at some of the other richer countries of the world --

the G7.

And we find that Germany and Japan will get there or thereabouts.

But Canada, France, the UK and Italy are all going to fall short.

And the United States?

Quite some way back.

Now, this is sort of worrying news.

But these are the richest countries in the world,

not the most populous.

So let's take a look now at the biggest countries in the world,

the ones that will most affect whether or not we achieve the SDGs.

And here they are --

countries in the world with a population of higher than 100 million,

ranging from China to Ethiopia.

Obviously, the US and Japan would be in that list,

but we've looked at them already.

So here we are.

The biggest countries in the world; the dealbreakers for the SDGs.

And the country that's going to make most progress towards the SDGs

is Mexico.

Mexico is going to get to about 87,

so just shy of where the US is going to get

but quite some way off our SDG target.

Russia comes next.

Then China and Indonesia.

Then Brazil -- might've expected Brazil to do a bit better.

Philippines,

and then a step down to India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria,

and then Ethiopia.

So none of these countries are going to hit the SDGs.

And we can then take these numbers in all the countries of the world

to give ourselves a world forecast

on achieving that total package of the SDGs.

So remember, in 2015 we started at 69.1.

I'm pleased to say that over the last three years,

we have made some progress.

In 2018, we've hit 70.5,

and if we project that rate of progress forward to 2030,

that's going to get us to 75.2,

which is obviously a long way short of our target.

Indeed, on current trends, we won't hit the 2030 targets until 2094.

Now, I don't know about you,

but I certainly don't want to wait that long.

So what can we do about this?

Well, the first thing to do is we've got to call out the rich countries.

Here are the countries closest to the SDGs,

with the greatest resources,

and they're falling short.

Maybe they think that this is like the Old World

where goals for the UN are just for poor countries and not for them.

Well, you're wrong.

The SDGs are for every country,

and it's shameful that these wealthy countries are falling short.

Every country needs a plan to implement the SDGs

and deliver them for their citizens.

G7, other rich countries --

get your act together.

The second thing we can do is look a bit further into the data

and see where there are opportunities to accelerate progress

or there are negative trends that we can reverse.

So I'm going to take you into three areas.

One where we're doing quite well,

one where we really should be doing better

and another where we've got some real problems.

Let's start with the good news,

and I want to talk about what we call nutrition and basic medical care.

This covers SDG 2 on no hunger

and the basic elements of SDG 3 on health,

so maternal and child mortality, infectious diseases, etc ...

This is an area where most of the rich world has hit the SDGs.

And we also find, looking at our big countries,

that the most advanced have got pretty close.

Here are our 11 big countries,

and if you look at the top,

Brazil and Russia are pretty close to the SDG target.

But at the bottom --

Ethiopia, Pakistan -- a long way to go.

That's where we are in 2018.

What's our trajectory?

On the current trajectory,

how far are we going to get by 2030?

Well, let's have a look.

Well, what we see is a lot of progress.

See Bangladesh in the middle.

If Bangladesh maintains its current rate of progress,

it could get very close to that SDG target.

And Ethiopia at the bottom is making a huge amount of progress

at the moment.

If that can be maintained, Ethiopia could get a long way.

We add this all up for all the countries of the world

and our projection is a score of 94.5 by 2030.

And if countries like the Philippines, which have grown more slowly,

could accelerate progress,

then we could get a lot closer.

So there are reasons to be optimistic about SDGs 2 and 3.

But there's another very basic area of the SDGs where we're doing less well,

which is SDG 6, on water and sanitation.

Again, it's an SDG where most of the rich countries

have already achieved the targets.

And again, for our big countries --

our big 11 emerging countries,

we see that some of the countries, like Russia and Mexico,

are very close to the target,

but Nigeria and other countries are a very long way back.

So how are we doing on this target?

What progress are we going to make over the next 12 years

based on the current direction of travel?

Well, here we go ...

and yes, there is some progress.

Our top four countries are all hitting the SDG targets --

some are moving forward quite quickly.

But it's not enough to really move us forward significantly.

What we see is that for the world as a whole,

we're forecasting a score of around 85, 86 by 2030 --

not fast enough.

Now, obviously this is not good news,

but I think what this data also shows is that we could be doing a lot better.

Water and sanitation is a solved problem.

It's about scaling that solution everywhere.

So if we could accelerate progress in some of those countries

who are improving more slowly --

Nigeria, the Philippines, etc. --

then we could get a lot closer to the goal.

Indeed, I think SDG 6 is probably the biggest opportunity

of all the SDGs for a step change.

So that's an area we could do better.

Let's look finally at an area where we are struggling,

which is what we call personal rights and inclusiveness.

This is covering concepts across a range of SDGs.

SDG 1 on poverty, SDG 5 on gender equality,

SDG 10 on inequality,

SDG 11 on inclusive cities

and SDG 16 on peace and justice.

So across those SDGs there are themes around rights and inclusiveness,

and those may seem less immediate or pressing

than things like hunger and disease,

but rights and inclusion are critical to an agenda of no one left behind.

So how are we doing on those issues?

Let's start off with personal rights.

What I'm going to do first is show you our big countries in 2015.

So here they are,

and I've put the USA and Japan back in,

so it's our 13 biggest countries in the world.

And we see a wide range of scores.

The United States at the top with Japan hitting the goals;

China a long way behind.

So what's been our direction of travel

on the rights agenda over the last three years?

Let's have a look.

Well, what we see is actually pretty ugly.

The majority of the countries are standing still or moving backwards,

and big countries like Brazil, India, China, Bangladesh

have all seen significant declines.

This is worrying.

Let's have a look now at inclusiveness.

And inclusiveness is looking at things

like violence and discrimination against minorities,

gender equity, LGBT inclusion, etc...

And as a result, we see that the scores for our big countries are generally lower.

Every country, rich and poor alike, is struggling

with building an inclusive society.

But what's our direction of travel?

Are we building more inclusive countries?

Let's have a look -- progress to 2018.

And again we see the world moving backwards:

most countries static,

a lot of countries going backwards --

Bangladesh moving backwards --

but also, two of the countries that were leading --

Brazil and the United States --

have gone backwards significantly

over the last three years.

Let's sum this up now for the world as a whole.

And what we see on personal rights for the whole world

is we're forecasting actually a decline in the score on personal rights

to about 60,

and then this decline in the score of inclusiveness to about 42.

Now, obviously these things can change quite quickly

with rights and with changes in law, changes in attitudes,

but we have to accept that on current trends,

this is probably the most worrying aspect of the SDGs.

How I've depressed you ...

(Laughter)

I hope not because I think what we do see

is that progress is happening in a lot of places

and there are opportunities for accelerating progress.

We are living in a world that is tantalizingly close

to ensuring that no one need die of hunger or malaria or diarrhea.

If we can focus our efforts, mobilize resources,

galvanize the political will,

that step change is possible.

But in focusing on those really basic, solvable SDGs,

we mustn't forget the whole package.

The goals are an unwieldy set of indicators, goals and targets,

but they also include the challenges our world faces.

The fact that the SDGs are focusing attention

on the fact that we face a crisis in personal rights and inclusiveness

is a positive.

If we forget that,

if we choose to double down on the SDGs that we can solve,

if we go for SDG à la carte and pick the most easy SDGs,

then we will have missed the point of the SDGs,

we will miss the goals

and we will have failed on the promise of the SDGs.

Thank you.

(Applause)