sustainable development in africa essay

Strategies to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals in Africa

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Belay begashaw bb belay begashaw director general - the sustainable development goals center for africa.

January 8, 2020

10 min read

Below is Chapter 1 of the Foresight Africa 2020 report , which explores six overarching themes that provide opportunities for Africa to overcome its obstacles and spur inclusive growth. Download the paper to see the contributing viewpoints from high-level policymakers and other Africa experts.

Foresight Africa 2020 Chapter 1- Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

Progress so far on the SDGs has been notable but falls significantly short

Progress so far on the implementation of the SDGs has been uneven across countries, goals, and targets. According to the Africa SDG Index and Dashboard 2019, the best-ranked country, Mauritius, had an aggregate score of 66.19—implying that the country is, on average, 66 percent of the way to the best possible outcome across the 17 SDGs. 1

Other top performers include Botswana, Ghana, and Rwanda. However,18 countries (of 46 total) in sub-Saharan Africa are, on average, less than 50 percent on the way towards meeting the best possible outcome on all SDGs. Overall, at the indicator level, these countries are off track on most of the SDGs, reiterating the urgency for countries and global partners to jointly accelerate reforms and implementation.

Gains in health and education show promise, but gaps linger

Notably, the under-five mortality rate for Africa (excluding North Africa) has fallen from 85 deaths per 1000 in 2015 to 76 deaths per 1000 in 2018, 2 an encouraging sign, but still double the global average of 38. Neonatal deaths have also improved from 29 per 1000 to 27 per 1000 over the same period. North Africa had already reduced under-five mortality rates to fewer than 35 deaths per 1000 births by 2015, and is likely to meet the goal of fewer than 25 deaths per 1000 births by 2030. With an intensified and accelerated response, the other African regions could feasibly meet this target. 3 Large-scale progress on both health and education remain a concern, though, given that most Africa countries have not carried out demographic health and national surveys over the SDG period.

The net enrollment rate for primary school in sub-Saharan Africa has increased marginally from 77.4 percent in 2015 to 77.6 percent in 2017. More than half of the countries in Africa have a primary school enrollment rate of over 90 percent and are likely to meet the target of 100 percent by 2030 if current efforts are sustained. In particular, North Africa is poised to meet the 2030 target, and the other African regions are also within range. However, the net enrollment rate for lower secondary education has fallen slightly from 28.9 in 2015 to 28.3 in 2017.

Infrastructure and service delivery improved but needs are apparent and pressing

To house and serve Africa’s young and fast-growing population—expected to increase from 1.3 billion today to over 2.5 billion by 2030—governments must address sorely needed infrastructure and service requirements quickly. There have been improvements in recent years: For example, access to clean drinking water in sub-Saharan Africa has increased from 59 percent of the population in 2015 to 61 percent in 2017. Access to electricity increased from 39.4 percent to 44.6 percent over the same period.

At the same time, African urban areas will need 565 million additional housing units between 2015 and 2030 just to keep up with rapid population growth and urbanization. 4 This is about 40 million new houses per annum over that time.

Poverty and hunger persist, exacerbated by climate change

Main obstacles to progress

Given the complexities caused by rapid population growth and climate change, African nations must attempt to achieve the SDGs with urgency, as many of the challenges will become harder to manage if left unattended. 10

Even with Africa’s enthusiasm, without a robust global and localized governance structure the SDG agenda will falter

One major reason to be hopeful for Africa’s progress is that the SDGs are in direct alignment with the African Union’s Agenda 2063—the continent’s long-term social and economic transformational blueprint for a prosperous continent. In fact, the two ambitious agendas align on over 85 percent of their goals, and African countries have shown enormous enthusiasm and endeavors in implementing the SDGs, with 90 percent of countries mainstreaming the SDGs into their national development plans.

At the same time, many weak links in the SDGs—largely due to the lack of a global governance structure—are waiting to be addressed. Despite data innovations embedded in the SDG formulation, the data gap remains wide and manifests into poor planning and, consequently, poor decision making and results. There is neither a defined reporting nor accountability mechanism, nor clarity on pathways and interventions, and little experience or scalable practice when it comes to social inclusiveness. Not much has been done in changing mindsets; we are continuing to do new things the old way. Like in decades past, key stakeholders continue to work in silos, duplicating interventions with little coordination. Finally, the world only agreed on goals and targets, leaving solutions to be developed locally.

State fragility and large financing gaps hinder progress

The continent is disadvantaged with a low starting point. Fragility—which manifests in many forms such as weak institutions and economic, political, and social insecurity—remains prevalent in parts of the region, with 80 percent of the world’s fragile states found in Africa. Despite being one of the fastest-growing regions in recent decades, 40 percent of African countries are still classified as “low income,” with a GNI per capita of below $1,025 per year. 11

Financing continues to be a constraint as well. The financing gap for SDGs is large for low-income countries, estimated to be, on average, in excess of 14 percent of GDP. 12 Alone, sub-Saharan Africa’s annual additional spending requirements are estimated at 24 percent of the continent’s GDP, approximately $420 billion. 13 This financing gap is a sizeable challenge for many Africa countries given that, as of 2018,over 20 of the 54 African countries are either in or at a high risk of debt distress. Compounding this challenge, official development assistance, though rising overall, is declining in per capita terms, and foreign direct investment has been dwindling in recent years. Furthermore, while more than a third of the required financing for the SDGs was expected to come from the private sector, the actual contributions from the private sector so far are significantly smaller, at only 4 to 8 percent.

Looking ahead: The time for action is now

Going forward, leaders at all levels must tackle the SDGs head-on with a comprehensive and interconnected approach to effectively optimize resources. Since such an approach seeks high-level horizontal and vertical coordination, it requires persistent and logically framed action plans for ensuring synergies. The domestication process must thus go beyond just mainstreaming the SDGs into national plans; it must now strive to contextualize both the target and its indicators to local socio-economic realities. Our strategy must be changed from the conventional present-to-future to future to-present planning, cascading from 2030 backward.

Firmly determined to take its future into its own hands, Africa is growing out of adopting agendas to, instead, setting the agenda. Agenda 2063 is one mechanism for doing so. So is the African Continental Free Trade Area, which will integrate a market of 1.2 billion people with a GDP of over $3.4 trillion, creating new opportunities for Africa and its business partners. In addition, many African countries are embarking on ambitious development plans that are driving the adoption of technologies and new sources of energy. Countries are also showing a greater appetite for information technology and knowledge. While Africa should remain committed to working with its development partners over the next decade and beyond, achieving the SDGs should primarily be its own responsibility.

Africa essential for sustainable development, poverty reduction and peace

Women attend a community meeting in Cameroon.

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Africa’s rich, diverse cultural and natural heritage, is important for sustainable development, poverty reduction, and “building and maintaining peace”, the UN chief said on Tuesday, marking the international day celebrating the continent. “This year’s Africa Day highlights arts, culture and heritage as levers for building the Africa we want”, Secretary-General António Guterres said in his commemorative message.

“This year’s Africa Day highlights arts, culture and heritage as levers for building the Africa we want”, Secretary-General António Guterres said in his commemorative message.

Africa Day marks the 1963 founding of the Organization of African Unity, now known as the African Union (AU), and provides an annual opportunity to reflect on the challenges and achievements of the Governments and peoples of the continent.

🌍HAPPY #AFRICADAY 2021!! 🌍Today we celebrate Africa's wealth of culture, heritage, indigenous knowledge, possibilities, and much more.At @ UNDP , we are strongly invested in the people of Africans, and work with governments in 46 countries to advance sustainable development. pic.twitter.com/sgJoBhcylb UNDP Africa UNDPAfrica

Countering COVID

COVID-19 has triggered a global recession that has “exposed deep-seated inequalities and vulnerabilities”, according to the UN chief – endangering hard-won development gains throughout Africa and beyond.

The pandemic has also heightened the drivers of conflict by increasing inequalities and revealing the fragility of governance in many nations – particularly in delivering basic services, such as healthcare, education, electricity, water and sanitation.

The impact of the pandemic has also been exacerbated by the climate crisis, which disproportionately affects developing nations.

Currently, there is a “profound imbalance” in vaccine distribution among countries, with the latest figures revealing that African countries have received just two per cent of vaccines, said the top UN official.

To end the pandemic, support economic recovery and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals ( SDGs ), he stressed the need for “equitable and universal access to COVID-19 vaccines”.

The UN chief upheld that Africa Day can “can provide a strong foundation for inclusive economic progress as the continent strives to meet the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic”.

“On this Africa Day, I renew my call to developed nations to stand in solidarity with Africa”, concluded the Secretary-General.

Support the continent

Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, a former senior government minister in Nigeria, observed that Africa Day “comes at a difficult time as we are countering the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences with its acute impacts on Africa”.

She also noted that Africa has experienced a slow-down in economic growth, which is expected to increase only three per cent this year, “about half the world’s average”.

“While world leaders must continue to support our AU partners, we also call upon African leaders to further their efforts in establishing good governance, fighting corruption and supporting Africa’s youth”, she said.

Social media tributes

Other senior UN voices marked the day on Twitter.

“We celebrate the generous hospitality given in many African communities to refugees and displaced people, and we pledge to support them as they share limited shelter, food, services and resources with those fleeing war and violence” tweeted UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.

The UN health agency chief, Tedros Ghebreyesus wished a happy Africa Day to his “brothers and sisters across the continent”, with the hope of working “even harder together to make Africa a more prosperous, peaceful, healthier, safer and fairer place for our children!”.

And the UN refugee agency in the Horn of Africa and Great Lakes region offered “a huge thank you” to citizens there for generously opening their doors to refugees.

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African Environmental Ethics: Keys to Sustainable Development Through Agroecological Villages

Charles verharen.

1 Department of Philosophy, Howard University, Washington, D.C USA

Flordeliz Bugarin

2 Department of African Studies, Howard University, Washington, D.C USA

John Tharakan

3 Department of Chemical Engineering, Howard University, Washington, D.C USA

Enrico Wensing

4 Center for Global Health, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA USA

Bekele Gutema

5 Department of Philosophy, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Joseph Fortunak

6 Departments of Chemistry and Pharmacology, Howard University, Washington, D.C USA

George Middendorf

7 Department of Biology, Howard University, Washington, D.C USA

This essay proposes African-based ethical solutions to profound human problems and a working African model to address those problems. The model promotes sustainability through advanced agroecological and information communication technologies. The essay’s first section reviews the ethical ground of that model in the work of the Senegalese scholar, Cheikh Anta Diop. The essay’s second section examines an applied African model for translating African ethical speculation into practice. Deeply immersed in European and African ethics, Godfrey Nzamujo developed the Songhaï Centers to solve the problem of rural poverty in seventeen African countries. Harnessing advanced technologies within a holistic agroecological ecosystem, Nzamujo’s villages furnish education spanning the fields of ethics, information communication technology, microbiology, international development, and mechanical, electrical, civil and biological engineering in a community-based and centered development enterprise. The essay proposes a global consortium of ecovillages based on Nzamujo’s model. The final section explores funding methods for the consortium. The conclusion contemplates a return to Africa to supplement environmental ethics that enhance life’s future on earth.

Introduction: Environmental Ethics in a Time of Existential Crises

This essay proposes African-based ethical solutions to profound environmental problems and a working African model to address those problems. The model promotes sustainability through advanced agroecological and information communication technologies. Climate change, the sixth mass extinction, and weapons of mass destruction threaten humanity’s survival (Gardiner, 2011 ; Kolbert, 2014 , 2021 ; Schell, 2000 ). The zoonotic Covid-19 pandemic poses a threat of another order.

To help avert these catastrophes, we propose an African environmental ethics linked together with the physical and social sciences to confront the existential challenges to African peoples. Grounded in an African sense of communalism first expressed in ancient Egypt some five thousand years ago (Verharen et al., 2014 ), this ethics must be the product of all stakeholders in the communities that adopt it.

This essay’s presupposition is that the task of ethics is to issue prescriptions as to how we should live to promote life’s survival and flourishing. Unless an ethics addresses the well-being of every human as well as other organisms together with the environment that makes life possible, life as we know it will have no future on the planet.

African ethics challenges the assumption that only scientists or philosophers are competent to make ethical pronouncements. Scientists like the physicist, Stephen Hawking ( 2010 ), the biologist E.O. Wilson ( 2012 , 2014 ) and the psychologist Stephen Pinker ( 2011 , 2013 , 2018 ) have been optimistic about science’s capacity to yield viable answers to the question of how we should live. European and North American philosophers insist that three European-derived ethical systems—utilitarianism, virtue and duty ethics—deliver viable answers to the question. The collective United Nations Declarations of Universal Human Rights propose a direction for humanity’s future that does not elaborate the means to achieve that future.

Do these ethical systems have the power to promote life’s future? After five thousand years of speculation on how we should live, perhaps one billion humans are at risk of food insecurity with their children suffering from malnutrition. As many as three billion do not have access to toilets. As many as five thousand children die daily from drinking contaminated water.

Twenty-seven of the poorest countries in the world are in Africa. According to the World Bank, if circumstances continue as expected, global poverty will be 90% African in 2030. Africa is particularly hit hard, since many of its most vulnerable people face abject, multidimensional, and chronic poverty. An estimated 40% of Africans live below 1.90 USD a day (World Bank, 2019 ). Beumer and Swart ( 2021 ) document the correlation between African poverty and agriculture. Covid-19 will exacerbate poverty not only in Africa but in Asia and the Americas as well.

The essay’s methodology includes a literature review of African environmental ethics together with field observations and conversations with experts in agroecology in Benin in West Africa. The essay addresses an African response to the question, “How should we live?” Populations at risk have an incentive to imagine novel answers. The essay’s first theoretical section concentrates on the ethical system proposed by the Senegalese scholar, Cheikh Anta Diop. While his broad claims about the cultural unity of Africa have been widely criticized, the essay focuses on his consilience of philosophy and science generating an environmental ethics that has the potential to confront humanity’s current existential crises.

The essay’s second section shows how a Nigerian philosopher, Godfrey Nzamujo, has developed a model that translates Diop’s ethical theory into practice. Nzamujo’s model, the Songhaï Centers, establishes ecovillages grounded in a philosophy of sustainability made possible through advanced technologies in information communication, renewable energy and agroecology. Nzamujo’s villages are rooted in African traditions, enhanced by independence from commercial fertilizers and pesticides, and interlinked with a network of Songhaï Centers and the communities in which the centers are embedded. Starting in Porto Novo in Benin, the Songhaï Center model has spread to more than fifty sites in seventeen African countries.

The essay’s next section outlines a proposal for a global consortium based on the Songhaï model of agroecological villages and facilitated through the International Network on Appropriate Technology (INAT). We examine initiatives in Africa and Asia grounded in the model’s ethical principles. Critical to an implementation of the Songhaï model is the capital required to establish a global network of ecovillages. The final section offers fund-raising proposals directed by local communities to promote a global consortium of ecovillages.

The conclusion advocates the implementation of a continental and diasporic African environmental ethics to help ensure life’s future on earth. For the first time in Homo sapiens’ ~ 300,000 year history, technologies such as fossil fuel and weapons of mass destruction have given humanity the power to exterminate life as we know it. Advanced technologies implemented within an agroecological ecosystem have the potential to provide every human with a life of flourishing. The coronavirus pandemic and its inevitable successors demonstrate the need for a “whole Earth” response to threats to life.

A brief literature review provides examples of research on sustainable development in agroecological villages in the essay’s primary areas. A comprehensive review is a matter for another essay. Research in education for global sustainability has been converging on the model we propose in the paper (Adenle et al., 2015 ; Barlett & Chase, 2013 ; Bennett et al., 2018 ; Kates & Dasgupta, 2007 ). Extant research addresses links between environmental ethics and sustainability (Fernandes & Guiomar, 2016 ). The literature on agroecological villages in Africa is extensive (Bellwood-Howard & Ripoll, 2020 ; Brombin, 2019 ; Gliessman, 2018 ; Miller, 2018 ; Mousseau, 2015 ; Nicholls & Altieri, 2018 ; Pimbert, 2017 ; Xue, 2014 ). Critical to a consortium of African ecovillages is expansion of information communication technology in Africa’s poorest regions (Asonguab et al. 2018 ; Oladipo & Grobler, 2020 ; Tchamyoua et al. 2019 ; Wei, 2020 ). The content delivered by that technology is also critical. A current volume reviews the efforts of ten universities in Eurasia and South America to link higher education to sustainable development (Sabogal et al., 2020 ). That volume, initiated by the Free University of Berlin and The Catholic University of Peru, does not include African universities. Other research records the efforts of African universities to link higher education and sustainable development (Lotz-Sisitka, Belliethathan, et al., 2017 ; Lotz-Sisitka, Shumba, et al., 2017 ; Matiwaza & Boodhoo, 2020 ).

African Environmental Ethics: Survival and Flourishing

The essay’s environmental ethics is an “African Survival Ethics” that emerges from reflection on humanity’s collective ethical systems, starting with the ancient Egyptian ethical system and concluding with recent African responses to challenges to their communities’ survival and flourishing (Verharen, 2012 ). Extensive literature on African environmental ethics is now available (Behrens, 2010 , 2012 , 2014 ; Bujo, 2009 ; Chemhuru, 2016 , 2019 ; Horsthemke, 2005 ; Kelbessa, 2005 , 2010 , 2015a , 2015b and Masaka, 2019 ).

This essay focuses on the environmental ethics of the Senegalese scholar, Cheikh Anta Diop, because of his consilience of science and ethics. Initially taking degrees in philosophy and chemistry and studying with anthropologists such as Gaston Bachelard and Marcel Griaule, Diop received his doctorate at the Sorbonne in history. His education in Paris also included Egyptology, linguistics, economics, and sociology. After teaching chemistry and physics in Paris, he began to pursue studies in nuclear physics with Marie Curie’s son-in-law (Diop C.M, 2003 ).

Diop exemplifies a philosopher who pursues philosophy as synoptic vision in the tradition of Plato ( Republic, 543b) and Aristotle ( Metaphysics, 982a9-10,), Hegel ( The Philosophy of History 1956 /1837) and Nietzsche ( The Gay Science 2001 /1887). Although STEM disciplines currently threaten philosophy and the other humanities’ futures, the idea of gathering together knowledge in all disciplines in pursuit of wisdom as total knowledge is gaining ground (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 2018 ). Following in the footsteps of Nietzsche, the American pragmatist Richard Rorty insists that philosophy’s immortality springs from what Nietzsche calls its “mountain top” vision (Rorty, 2016 , 61; Nietzsche 2014/1886, 114–115). Frodeman and Briggle ( 2016 ) call this methodology “field philosophy” with the idea of joining the physical and social sciences together with the humanities in order to address the existential crises that threaten life’s future on earth.

Anticipating the concept of field philosophy, Diop believes that a conflation of philosophy and science has the power to overcome the “barbarism” of unchecked science and technology that promises to destroy civilization’s future. In advance of this consilience, a scientist “has almost had the status of a brute, of a technician, unable to extract the philosophical importance” of scientific research. “Classical” philosophers, ungrounded in scientific research, produce metaphysical research disconnected from existential crises. Diop calls for the merger of science and philosophy “because of the one fact that the future of humanity is at stake.” Recognizing the distinction between facts and values, he insists that environmental ethics must take its foundation in ecology: “what knowledge or ‘science of the epoch’ decrees as harmful to the whole group thus becomes progressively a moral prohibition” ( 1991 , 375). Like nineteenth century German philosophers such as Kant, Hegel, Marx and Nietzsche, Diop envisions a future where all humans are united in a single group. German optimism joins together with an “African optimism” that “inclines us to wish that all nations would join hands to build a planetary civilization instead of sinking down to barbarism” ( 1991 , 7). He is confident that “[h]umanity’s moral conscience progresses” toward a “new perception of humanity without ethnic coordinates” by reason of a “forced progress of the world’s ethical conscience” ( 1991 , 375–6). Such moral progress coupled with advanced technology could lead to terraforming the planets. Anticipating recent research in genetic engineering, he speculates that humans will develop the dangerous capacity to create a “super- Homo sapiens ” that would threaten their own survival ( 1991 , 366).

Diop’s research has been criticized for making claims about the cultural unity of the African continent in the absence of detailed research grounding that hypothesis (Appiah, 1993 ; Howe, 1998 ; Moses, 1998 ; Walker, 2000 ). He places particular emphasis on the origins of a continental cultural unity in ancient Egypt, holding that ancient Egyptian culture through its three millennial run emerged from more southerly African cultures and influenced them as well. In particular, he believed that a critical examination of ancient Egyptian culture would constitute a “necessary condition for reconciling African civilizations with history….” He insists that in a “reconceived and renewed Africana culture, Egypt will play the same role that Greco-Latin antiquity plays in Western culture” ( 1991 , 3). Critical examination of Diop’s sweeping hypotheses about African cultural unity grounded in ancient Egypt is beyond this essay’s scope.

What is important is Diop’s hypothesis that ancient Egyptian ethics anticipates an environmental ethics grounded in both bio- and ecocentrism. Prominent Egyptologists such as Erik Hornung ( 2001 ) and Ian Assmann ( 2002 ) second his conviction. Ancient Egyptians were the first in written record to delimit the anthropomorphism and anthropocencentrism characteristic of ancient cultures.

Anticipating the pre-Socratic Greek philosophers, the five-thousand-year-old Egyptian text, the Book of the Dead, states that the world emerges from natural processes rather than a human-like being with an infinite power of creation. Primordial matter called Nun exists in a chaotic state. The substance is like water but not identical to water. Nun undergoes an evolutionary transformation called Khepera to become the sun called Ra.

The ordered universe emerges out of chaotic water. The principle of organization is called Maat, translated as harmony and balance, truth and justice. Because the chaos surrounding the universe threatens the harmony of Maat, humanity’s ethical mission is to promote a universal harmony that includes humans, other life forms and the earth’s inorganic features (Faulkner, 2005 ).

Around two millennia later, the renegade pharaoh Akhenaten in his two Hymns to Aten proclaimed that light known as Aten rather than chaotic water was the primordial substance of the universe. Like Nun, Aten transforms itself into the billions of other forms that constitute the universe (Hornung, 1999 , 1995 ). Assmann calls Akhenaten’s cosmogony a “cosmotheism” (Assmann, 1996 ). Because humans are literally creatures of light, all humans have equal moral standing. Akhenaten promotes both bio- and eco-centrism insofar as both life and inorganic matter are manifestations of the sacred (Hornung, 1999 , 2001 ).

Diop paints African cultural unity with a broad brush. However, his claim that an ancient Egyptian ethics of Maat as harmony serves as a foundation for examination of environmental ethics across other African cultures. Abundant contemporary research on Bantu ethics discloses principles of community harmony called Ubuntu with other variations in numerous Bantu languages (Behrens, 2010 ; Gyekye, 1997 ; Murove, 2009 ). Research in traditional Oromo ethics in Ethiopia discloses a principle called Naaga comparable to the ancient Egyptian Maat and translated with comparable terms (Kelbessa, 2010 ; Verharen, 2008 ).

Close examination of ancient Egyptian and Ethiopian ethics could help researchers formulate environmental ethical principles grounded in a confluence of scientific and philosophical methodology. Both systems understood ethics as a process emerging from evolutionary principles. The contemporary biologist, Edward O. Wilson, argues that the human capacity for ethical behavior emerges from a genetic trait of eusociality, defined as the capacity to sacrifice self-interest for the sake of group-interest in appropriate circumstances. His controversial theory conflicts with the classical Hamiltonian hypothesis that self-sacrifice for group interest extends only to genetically defined groups (Wilson, 2012 , 2014 ). The psychologist Stephen Pinker, like Cheikh Anta Diop, claims that ethics undergoes an evolutionary progression in which the “better angels of our nature” emerge (Pinker, 2011 , 2018 ). Contemporary research efforts to conjoin ethics and the sciences may encourage researchers to re-examine our African ancestors’ reflections while developing environmental ethics that have the promise to guarantee life’s future on earth.

An African Agroecological Model for Translating African Environmental Ethics into Practice 1

Immersed in the study of European and African ethics, Professor Godfrey Nzamujo, a Nigerian Dominican priest, developed a model of rural ecovillages that translates Diop’s conception of field philosophy into an instrument for sustainable development in Africa’s rural regions. Nzamujo found his inspiration for ecovillages in a Diopian conception of field philosophy (for other sources of Nzamujo’s ethical reflections, see Chardin, 1959 , 2004 ; Du Bois, 1973 ; and Fanon, 1952 , 2008 ).

In the footsteps of Diop, Nzamujo did not restrict his own education to philosophy or history. He included mathematics, computer systems, development economics and microbiology. Finishing his studies at the University of California/Irvine, Nzamujo taught at Marymount College in Los Angeles, California before returning to Africa to attack the rural poor’s existential crises (Nzamujo, 2002 ).

After Nigerian governments rejected Nzamujo’s petitions for land to start the first ecovillage, the Beninoise government granted him a tract on the outskirts of Porto Novo with barren soil and useless land. Translating his advanced studies into action, Nzamujo applied microbiology and biomimicry principles to restore the land to fertility without using chemicals and pesticides. Nzamujo deploys appropriate sustainable technologies within a holistic agroecological ecosystem that spans the fields of ethics, information communication, microbiology, agroecology, international development, and mechanical, electrical, civil and biological engineering in a community-centered development enterprise.

Nzamujo named his model the Songhaï Center in honor of the Songhaï Empire that took power from the Mali Empire in the early fifteenth century. The Songhaï Center in Porto Novo led to the founding of three additional sites in Benin. As a measure of its success, fifty four “centrally managed Songhaï Centers” now embody the Songhaï model in seventeen African countries including Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Malawi, Nigeria, Republic of the Congo, Togo and Uganda (Songhaï Center, 2018 , 4).

Three ethical principles guide the development of the Songhaï ecovillages. First, the villages must be autochthonous, rooted in the historical traditions of local cultures (Vodouhe & Zoundji, 2013 ). Indigenous knowledge forms the foundation of the village (Tharakan, 2015 , 2020 ). Humanity’s collective knowledge in the humanities, social sciences and STEM disciplines adds the superstructure. The complementarity of the old and new must be worked out to guarantee the survival and well-being of the community members. Communities that resist relevant changes to their long-standing traditions exercise autonomy at risk of disrupting the natural rhythms of their environment.

Nzamujo’s second ethical principle is that the village must be autonomous. Self-governance and independence depend on extensive knowledge. Nzamujo envisions the ecovillage as a “knowledge enterprise,” facilitated by information communication technology (ICT). With local knowledge and ICT access to the global pool of information, the village builds the foundation for self-reliance in producing the necessities of a flourishing life: energy, housing, clean air and water, food, healthcare and the advanced education that makes such a life possible. Nzamujo distinguishes between autonomy and independence (Nzamujo, Personal Communication, 15/05/ 2020 ) . His version of autonomy stresses inter-dependence over independence. The ecovillages form a network of co-operation with one another and with neighboring communities. Communities that dismiss the principle of inter-dependence introduce technologies that deplete resources and devastate their environment.

Nzamujo’s third ethical maxim is that the village must be authentic in two senses: ethical and practical . Authenticity has three distinct aspects. First, the village must be dedicated to the well-being of its residents and those of the networked ecovillages as well as the residents of neighboring communities. Second, the foundation of the village must be “authentic technologies…that generate only positive effects/benefits to the producers, consumers and the environment at the same time” (Nzamujo, Personal Communication, 15/05/ 2020 ). Such technologies enhance the flourishing of the villages and their neighbors.

Third, authentic technologies are defined as those “aligned with the basic working principles of our planet” inasmuch as they “create synergy, complementarity, supplementarity, cooperation as they operate” (Nzamujo, Personal Communication, 15/05/ 2020 ). Critical to authenticity is biomimicry defined as the attempt to model technologies on natural processes. Authenticity includes the community’s bonding with its members, its technologies and its environment (Fig. 1 ).

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Intersection of the three ethical principles guiding the development of the Songhaï ecovillages

In developing his principle of authenticity, Nzamujo, like both Teilhard de Chardin ( 2004 /1959) and Edward O. Wilson ( 2012 , 2014 ), subscribes to an ethics of moral evolution. With Chardin, Nzamujo believes that nature itself evolves from the biosphere to the noosphere—from life to life conscious of itself. A primary characteristic of self-conscious life is empathy. Like the biologist Wilson, Nzamujo holds that Homo sapiens has become “ Homo empathicus ” (Nzamujo, 2018 , 3) In Wilson’s terms, humans like 19 other species are “ eusocial ” or genetically disposed in appropriate circumstances to sacrifice self- for group-interest.

An authentic community ensures the survival and flourishing of all its members. All in the community are guaranteed the means of survival: clean air and water, nourishing food, health care and basic education. A life of flourishing demands advanced education that enables community members to create their own choices about how to live in a community dedicated to the excellence of all its members. Excellence is defined by the diversity of choices that promote the future of the group’s life. In an authentic community, survival and flourishing are inter-dependent and co-evolutionary.

Authenticity includes not only community bonding principles but also community connectivity to its organic and inorganic environment through sustainable technologies. Authenticity includes three spheres: ethical, technological and environmental. The ethical addresses community bonding. The technological includes the community’s instruments for survival and flourishing. The environmental binds the community to its environment through sustainable technology.

To foster authenticity’s development Nzamujo initiated the Songhaï Leadership Academy to teach villagers and interested students how to establish their own ecovillages. The Academy offers “mathematics, statistics, agriculture (all branches), economy, environment, sociology, administrations, town planning, etc.” (Nzamujo, 2020 , 31). In addition to producing scientists, engineers and technologists, the Songhaï Academy is designed to produce “spiritual leaders, mystics, wisdom writers, artists, poets, dancers, musicians, painters, philosophers” (Nzamujo, Personal Communication, 15/05/ 2020 ). Nzamujo envisions the Songhaï Centers as counterfoils to university education. He claims that “[u]niversity culture today is largely elitist” (Nzamujo, 2018 , 7).

Nzamujo would like to see African universities restructuring themselves “to serve society by spurring efforts to generate knowledge, innovations, ideas and cultures commensurate with the scale, scope and complexity of the challenges that confront Africa today” (Nzamujo, 2018 , 1). Nzamujo envisions the Songhaï Center as a community university that is dedicated to solving community problems. The Center curriculum is organized on the principle that “many of our technological problems have already been solved in nature in elegant, efficient and ecologically sustainable ways” (Nzamujo, 2018 , 10).

The Songhaï Leadership Academy covers the humanities, social science, and STEM disciplines. Its courses are described in the Songhaï Leadership Academy Bulletin (Nzamujo, 2018 ).The program entails mastery of the techniques of organic agricultural production, including organic fertilizers, soil biology, drip irrigation, mulching, rotation, grafting, pest, parasite and predator control, agricultural machinery, animal, avian and fish husbandry, food production, storage, distribution and export from the ecovillages. Additional courses cover major aspects of ICT.

Nzamujo’s principle of authenticity enables the village to begin to be carbon–neutral through appropriate technologies such as photovoltaics, wind turbines, and the use of organic waste to produce biogas and organic fertilizer. The village offers instruction on constructing and maintaining housing for residents, students, and visitors. It also covers basic health care instruction. Specialized courses address manufacture and servicing of agricultural equipment. The Solidarity Fund for Development of French Cooperation helped the Songhaï Center in Porto Novo set up “a foundry to manufacture spare parts for agricultural machinery and food processing equipment that suit the agronomic conditions of the environment” (Nzamujo, 2018 , 3).

Extensive capital investment in ICT is key to the founding of the Songhaï village. Funding from USAID helped the Songhaï Center in Porto Novo inaugurate “a network of community teleservice operations starting in 1999” and radio technology “to give the population in general and farmers in particular access to new information technologies” (Vodouhe & Zoundji, 2013 , 2).

Assessment of the Songhaï Centers finds that they employ “local resources, the combination of traditional and modern agricultural practices, technology adaptation and diversification of activities” (Vodouhe & Zoundji, 2013 , 3). Through its agroecological technologies, “Songhaï integrates ‘zero waste’ and ‘total productivity’ concepts” (Vodouhe & Zoundji, 2013 , 3). In recognition of its successes, Benin and the United Nations contributed funding to the centers. Songhaï is acclaimed as a regional center of excellence by the Economic Community of West African States (UNDP, 2008 ).

To summarize, Nzamujo’s philosophy aims to harmonize autochthony, autonomy and authenticity. While communities may ground themselves in any of these three principles, Nzamujo insists that dismissal or exaggeration of the importance of any single principle challenges community survival and flourishing. The pragmatic test of the Songhaï philosophy is its capacity for replication from the inaugural center in Porto Novo, Benin to fifty four centers in seventeen African countries. The next section explores other examples of ecovillages in Africa and India to assess whether the Songhaï model might be globalized. May a consortium of ecovillages create a global green glide path to a sustainable future for life on the planet? (Fig. 2 ).

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Dispersion of the Songhai model across 17 countries in Africa,including Burkina Faso, Uganda, Chad, DRC, Equatorial Guinea, The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Malawi, Nigeria and Togo, with over 50 ecovillage sites established

Toward a Global Consortium of Agroecological Villages Grounded in African Environmental Ethics

We propose a global consortium of groups working toward sustainable development through what Nzamujo calls authentic technologies. Many other groups throughout Africa and the rest of the Global South engage ethics to address development based on unsustainable technologies. Ecovillages are a growing global force (Brombin, 2019 ; Miller, 2018 ; Xue, 2014 ). The International Network on Appropriate Technology ( www.appropriatetech.net ) may serve as a base for establishing the global consortium. INAT members have already laid the foundation for the global consortium through their research efforts and their practical engagement with African and Indian communities. Through networking in INAT’s International Conferences on Appropriate Technology (ICAT), participants like Gada Kadoda, an independent researcher in Khartoum, have worked with Bunker Roy, the founder of the Barefoot College in India. Together, they have worked to solarize villages in Sudan. Howard University professor Joseph Fortunak will work with Godfrey Nzamujo to inaugurate production and distribution of pharmaceuticals in the Songhaï Centers. Fortunak will use the model he and his African and United States colleagues established at the St. Joseph College of Pharmacy in Tanzania (Verharen et al., 2013a ).

INAT members are examining ecovillage models throughout India to determine whether their ethics would incline them to become members in a global consortium. The idea of an ecovillage has roots in the Indian independence movement with Gandhi’s call to use local resources, and develop indigenous technologies (Singh et al., 2019 ).

The history of the ecovillage community in India dates back to the establishment of self-sufficient Ashrams where residents grow their own food, engage in small and medium enterprises to produce goods and services, use renewable energy and aspire to zero-waste circular economies and ecosystems. An ecovillage community, the Muni Seva Ashram in Vadodaral Gujerat ( www.greenashram.org ), is dedicated to health care. The village includes a hospital, a cancer research and treatment center, and schools devoted to nursing, pre-K-12 education, vocational skills, and girls and women of all backgrounds. The Ashram includes a guest house for patients’ families and other guests, as well as residential facilities for the students in the various educational units.

Grounded in the principle of sustainability, the Ashram produces renewable energy through biogas, biomass gasifiers and plasma arc recycling. Both the world’s first solar crematorium and the air-conditioning systems are solar powered. While currently dependent for some power from the Vadodaral Gujerat grid, the Ashram is installing a 1.2 MW biogas plant that will render the ecovillage grid-independent and 100% renewable. Organic farming and animal husbandry provide dairy products and manure to power the biogas plants.

In Africa in The Gambia, two models embody the philosophy of the Songhaï model. The first focuses on the beekeeping industry. BEECause Gambia , founded in 2009 through a consortium of bee farmers, strives to use beekeeping as a method to improve the lives of the rural poor (Rahman Sallah, 2015 ; Africa BEECause, 2020 ). BeeCause Gambia regularly trains both new and old bee farmers to support sustainable bee farming. They address poverty in the region by creating new jobs while also protecting the environment through eco-friendly farming techniques. Available courses in the program include building hives, forest protection, production of bee products, and environmental conservation.

A second strategy designed to help Gambians address food insecurity revolves around the threat of global warming. To combat climate change with an early warning system, the Gambian government, United Nations Environment Programme, and other partners established fourteen pilot villages in 2014 (UN Environment Programme, 2020 ). Each was supplied with cell phones, radios, and loudspeakers to facilitate a mobile network. Forecasting equipment was distributed to stations to share climate information more widely. Trained volunteers transferred knowledge to community members in meetings, home visits, and “theatre” (e.g., through drama groups). With shared lessons regarding the impacts of climate change, communities have developed alternative ways of adapting. In addition to improving and developing appropriate technologies for information communication, projects have focused on community gardens that include supplemental crops to grains that rely solely on rain. They have also tried solar-powered irrigation techniques.

African Stakeholders Directing Global North Initiatives to Capitalize Agroecological Villages

Economic resources are needed to fund agroecological start-up costs for a global consortium based on African ethics. While Nzamujo’s villages are self-sustaining once they are operational, their start-up costs are extensive, particularly with respect to information communication technology (ICT), biological laboratories, energy technologies, manufacturing tools, reservoir construction, as well as agricultural technologies such as drip irrigation, field cover and the like. Personnel training adds additional capital investment. Historical top-down funding initiatives often arise from Global North investors who direct capital flow and development technologies into unsustainable intervention. Stakeholders at the grassroots level must have a major voice in the management of funds. We propose bottom-up funding initiatives controlled by African stakeholders with emphasis on local community member engagement. Since the consortium focuses on ethical education from primary through post-secondary education, it must consider whether sufficient capital can be produced to ensure universal broadband connectivity in the Global South. The education model in Nzamujo’s Songhaï Centers is based on capital-intensive ICT.

A problem for a global ecovillage consortium is access to basic texts in all disciplines. ICT solves the problem of the immense cost of physical texts due to their production costs and publishers’ profits. A second problem is access to published research in all fields (Miguel et al. 2011 ; Packer, 2009 , 2014 ). The global consortium’s task would be to encourage open source publication of basic introductory texts and a universal research library. Perhaps the most significant problem is raising the capital necessary to provide the advanced technologies that are indispensable to global ecovillages.

To promote international development that underscores the needs, voices, and perspectives of the poor, particularly in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in Africa, we must use the methods established by social scientists who have worked with local and indigenous communities and communities of color since the early 1900s and who regularly navigate between appropriate technologies and the most vulnerable populations in the world. Derived from applied anthropology and other social science fields (Bernard, 2013 ; Kedia & van Willigen, 2005 ; van Willigen, 2002 ), particularly those who work in international development (Sumner & Tribe, 2008 ), our proposed methods consist of the following:

First, we recommend establishing small projects that emerge from the ground up. Designed on little to no seed money, they set test conditions that allow us to determine probability of success. Faculty at universities can fund these initiatives through early concept grants, exploratory research grants, or rapid response research grants.

Second, we analyze and test the effectiveness of initial projects through a variety of methods born out of the assessment techniques used by many in international development (e.g., rapid rural and urban assessments, participatory assessments, surveys, and interviews). We collect qualitative and quantitative data that provide meaningful insights about each project. We need to use techniques that measure non-linear, multi-dimensional success that may occur in incremental steps over long periods of time.

Third, we use rigorous analysis and data to demonstrate that our innovative solutions are making a difference that outshines other initiatives. Statistical projections will be used to show that benefits from our efforts will double exponentially as we continue to establish more centers, grow networks, and launch additional projects.

Fourth, we facilitate a convergence of stakeholders and bring aboard the right actors. We ensure that our agenda and projects fit into the goals of local governments as well as different stakeholders within a community.

Fifth, we must recognize that every donor and funding organization has a unique culture. Each has mission statements, goals, and guidelines that determine the allocation of funds. Each has their own experts that abide by the social norms of their organization or discipline. Knowing the donor cultures and creating solid relationships with them will enable us to develop fundable projects that nevertheless fit into the ethical and community-driven framework.

Sixth, we must demonstrate that investment into the Songhaȉ centers serves a global benefit. We must collect data that illustrate how local challenges and hardships impact a universal collective.

Lastly, we can create a brand, market our initiatives, and empower multiple communities to share their successes through growing networks of support. A brand can help supporters remember the Songhaȉ centers and projects and raise awareness about their significance (Fig. 3 ).

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Global branding and dispersion of the Songhai Agroecological community development model using a fully integrated ethical approach to project initiation, development implementation, monitoring, evaluation and sustainable scaling

Conclusion: African Environmental Ethics Linked to Agroecology for Global Survival and Flourishing

African ethics complements Asian and European ethical systems that have accompanied their cultures’ survival and flourishing for thousands of years. The ethical prescriptions proposed by cultures over the past five thousand years are diverse. Empirical confirmation of universal value claims is impossible. Nevertheless, nominal profession of faith in diverse ethical systems has accompanied the survival and flourishing of cultures for 3300 years for the ancient Egyptians, 3500 years for the Hindus, 2500 years for the Greeks, and 2000 years for Christians. Nineteenth century European philosophies have been tested over briefer spans, yet they have exerted global influence that shows no signs of diminishing. Our hypothesis is that such powerful and long-lasting value systems must be indispensable to survival and flourishing (Verharen et al. 2013a , b ).

Ancient Africans insisted that a viable ethical prescription must harmonize conflicting values (Verharen et al., 2014 ). They called for a value that created harmony and balance, truth and justice. The ancient Egyptians called their single ethical value that embraced all other values Maat (Assmann, 1996 , 2002 ; Verharen et al. 2014 ) .

Their ethical principle of Maat anticipates contemporary bio- and ecocentric proposals for granting rights not simply to humans but to other living beings and the inorganic features of the earth as well (Naess, 1989 ). The ancient Egyptians astound us with their cultural artifacts that have endured through the centuries (Hornung, 1999 , 2001 ). Their greatest creation, their ethical system, joined together with the history of Africana ethical reflection, can be a guide to a global consortium of agroecological villages (Verharen, 2012 ).

An Africana environmental ethics can serve as the impetus for a global agroecological movement that challenges catastrophic climate change through green energy and wholesale recycling of other resources. In search of an environmental ethics that complements Asian, European and American traditions, we contemplate a return to Africa.

1 This section is a revised and expanded version of earlier presentations of Nzamujo’s model in articles published in Science and Engineering Ethics (Verharen 2020a ) and Ethics and Education (Verharen 2020b ). Those articles focused on Nzamujo’s ethics as an example of field philosophy and his efforts to deliver ethical education to impoverished Africans. This revised and expanded section focuses on agricultural technologies appropriate for sustainable development in impoverished rural Africa. This section is intended for a different group of readers than the earlier presentations. The present article is a revised and expanded version of a paper presented at the 9th International Conference on Appropriate Technology, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa, November 2020 and available in the Proceedings ( https://www.appropriatetech.net ).

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World Food Program USA (2020). Gambia: World Food Program. https://www.wfpusa.org/countries/gambia/ #. Accessed 13 June 2020.
Xue J. Is ecovillage/urban village the future of a degrowth society? An urban planner's perspective. Ecological Economics. 2014; 105 :130–138. [ Google Scholar ]

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Achieving the SDGs could open $12 trillion in market opportunities and 380 million jobs by 2030. For Africa, the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) provides a unique opportunity to implement the SDGs and Agenda 2063 .
The average score across all African member States was 53.82 in 2020, which is slightly higher than the 2019 average, but still implies that, after four years of SDG implementation, the African continent is only halfway towards achieving the SDG goals and targets by 2030

Addis Ababa, 28 February 2022 (ECA) - Africa has made progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) goals and targets by 2030, according to the 4th 2020 Africa Sustainable Development Report: Accelerating Equitable and Sustainable Development in Africa launched at the 8th Session of the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (ARFSD) side event on February 28, in Kigali, Rwanda.

The report shows that African governments have made significant efforts to incorporate the SDGs and Agenda 2063 goals into national strategies and development plans, have identified government units to coordinate their implementation and prioritized specific targets and indicators.

“Overall, the average score across all African member States was 53.82 in 2020, which is slightly higher than the 2019 average, but still implies that, after four years of SDG implementation, the African continent is only halfway towards achieving the SDG goals and targets by 2030,” says the report.

The report was produced by the United Nations Economic Commission of Africa (ECA) in collaboration with the African Union Commission (AUC), the African Development Bank (AfDB), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

“We should celebrate the progress made by the continent: decline in maternal and child deaths, decrease in the incidents of infectious diseases, progress in primary school enrolment, increase in youth literacy, and improvement in women's representation in government, as seen in Rwanda, which is leading the path,” said Antonio Pedro, ECA Deputy Executive Secretary.

“SDGs represent tremendous investment opportunities, and the UN estimates that achieving the SDGs could open $12 trillion in market opportunities and 380 million jobs by 2030. For Africa, the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) provides a unique opportunity to implement the SDGs and Agenda 2063.”

This edition of the report uses an analytical lens that places all the SDGs into five “Pillars” or clusters: People, Prosperity, Planet, Peace, and Partnerships.

An analysis of the five-Pillar shows that most African member States (especially those south of the Sahara) are not on track to meet the intended goals and targets. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the situation, resulting in severe socio-economic impacts on the lives of millions of people.

People Pillar

Nearly 40 percent of all Africans are still living in extreme poverty. The poverty headcount remains consistently low in Northern Africa, at around 2 percent, but slightly rises from 2015. To eradicate absolute poverty in Africa (excluding Northern Africa) by 2030, the speed of reduction has to be four times higher than between 2013 and 2019.

Prosperity Pillar

Over four decades between 1980 and 2019, the economic growth (measured by per-capita income growth) has lagged behind real income growth in every sub-region of the continent, which implies that even periods of modest growth have not necessarily translated into higher standards of living for most Africans, but instead, resulted in the paradox of greater income inequality.

Peace Pillar

Based on current trends, Africa is unlikely to achieve any of its goals for peace, security and governance found in either of the two Agendas. While there are State exceptions, the slow progress in improved governance is generally the overriding drag on the Peace Pillar. There has also been a decline in democratic values, challenges in holding free and fair elections, and unconstitutional changes of government. Africa underperforms on the rule of law, with even essential governing functions—such as civil registration systems— falling short.

Planet Pillar

Although many African member States have put in place the legal and policy frameworks required to address environmental concerns, progress within this Pillar has been slow on many fronts. Seychelles was the highest-ranked in Africa, at thirty-third. Six other African States were among the top 100 States in the EPI: Egypt, Gabon, Mauritius, Morocco, South Africa and Tunisia. Conversely, 33 African States south of the Sahara were among the bottom 50.

Partnerships Pillar

The majority of African member States are not on track to take “full responsibility for financing their development Goals” as defined by either the 2030 Agenda or Agenda 2063. The analysis also reveals that Africa’s debt management situation is unsustainable. Between 2011 and 2018, Africa’s average debt ratio as a proportion of Gross National Income increased by 22.2 percent (from 34.2 percent in 2011 to 39.6 percent in 2018) or 7.2 percentage points. At the time, the debt service coverage ratio increased to 183.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2018.

Recommendations.

The report calls for ‘higher order’ strategic approaches for pushing forward the two Agendas of the SDGs and Agenda 2063. Accelerating the pace of inclusive and sustainable development will require governments to commit to strong, proactive and responsible governance frameworks based on a long-term vision and leadership, shared norms and values; and rules and institutions that build trust and cohesion.

Issued by: Communications Section Economic Commission for Africa PO Box 3001 Addis Ababa Ethiopia Tel: +251 11 551 5826 E-mail: [email protected]

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How Africa can build inclusive, safe and sustainable cities

Associate Research Scholar, Center for Sustainable Urban Development, Columbia University

Post-doctoral Research Fellow , Columbia University

Disclosure statement

Jacqueline M Klopp receives funding from the Volvo Research and Educational Foundations and also has received funding from the Rockefeller Foundation in the past.

Jeffrey W Paller's research has been funded by the Social Science Research Council, National Science Foundation, and the University of Wisconsin.

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Recently, world leaders gathered in New York to commit to the new sustainable development goals . For the first time, a specifically urban goal is among the 17 goals to be achieved by 2030.

This goal is to “make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”. It reflects growing recognition that human development depends on how well urbanisation is managed. According to Dr Joan Clos, Executive Director of UN-Habitat and former mayor of Barcelona, the global view of “cities as containers of problems” must change. Cities are, in fact, “accelerators of development”.

This is important for Africa, where despite high urbanisation rates the development focus has been primarily rural. Consider Ghana. The country’s urban population has grown from four million in 1984 to more than 14 million today. Fifty one percent of Ghanaians now live in cities. While urbanisation rates vary across Africa, Ghana reflects an overall global trend towards a predominantly urban future.

Ghana demonstrates how cities can be highly productive in Africa. One World Bank report draws an explicit link between urbanisation, productivity, and poverty reduction. Over the same period of its urban growth annual GDP growth has averaged 5.7%. The number of industrial and service jobs has increased by 21% and the capital city, Accra, has registered a 20% reduction in poverty.

Similarly, the Nairobi metropolitan region generates at least 50% of Kenya’s GDP. While it has too many unemployed youth and significant poverty, the more rural counties in Kenya are often the poorest.

The scarcity of affordable housing

As Africa’s cities grow, the challenge will be to provide adequate services and equitable access to its opportunities. Currently, large gaps exist between needed and current services and infrastructure. One result of this gap is an affordable housing crisis . This produces slums, often near expensive gated communities and suburbs.

Transit services are overstretched and spaces that connect people to work and create a more socially inclusive civic culture need to be supported, fostered or created by African architects , artists and planners with citizens and government.

Like many other countries in Africa, Ghana’s urban housing stock is growing. But, like many cities across the globe, much of this housing is for the middle and upper classes, and the housing is not growing fast enough. African real estate is hot. In Nairobi real estate investment gives a high rate of return - more than almost any other sector.

This housing demand is an incredible investment and growth opportunity if managed effectively. Given current housing inequalities the question is: how will this sector develop in an “inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” way?

With Chinese, European Union and African Development Bank involvement, investment is flowing into urban infrastructure , especially road building all over the continent. But are these investments helping to create access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all? Are they doing all of this taking into account the needs of the vulnerable as aspired to by the new sustainable development goal?

More often than not, Africa’s cities are building high carbon, unsafe infrastructure for the minority with cars, not the majority who need or want excellent mass transit and healthy and affordable options like cycling and walking.

The biggest challenge is politics

Often the mantra about African cities is that poor planning is an obstacle to unlocking the promise of urbanisation. Much of the problem dates back to the colonial period. Planning does need to be reinvented to address the specific needs of African citizens. More often than not these citizens were and are victims of planning instead of beneficiaries.

Ghana has had a series of plans for its cities since the colonial period. The 1958 Town Plan for Accra pointed to the small and insecure land market as a problem for the provision of housing, and formed state bodies to address the issue.

The Strategic Plan of 1991 sought greater collaboration between agencies, as well as coordination with international funders - the perennial problem that is not entirely the fault of African cities. The World Bank report highlights some of the same problems, without outlining a political solution.

Like cities in Ghana and elsewhere, Nairobi has had a series of “master plans”. From the 1948 “Plan for a colonial capital” to an excellent 1973 Metropolitan Growth Strategy , which was never properly adopted or implemented. The more recent Nairobi Metro 2030 and Nairobi Master Plan reflect the heavy use of foreign consultants in planning.

These “plans” have not passed through any elected body and often reflect a high modernist vision that justifies large infrastructure projects and excludes attention to citizen priorities.

The central problem to unlocking equitable opportunities in African cities remains politics. In today’s competitive multi-party environment, leaders make political calculations that privilege short-term horizons to win votes over long-term solutions to urban problems. Most critical, many urban planning problems are the result of power struggles and, in particular, the capture of “public goods” such as land or transit routes for certain interests.

Communities must be involved

Many politicians have an interest in maintaining insecure rights around these critical public goods needed for making a city function, because they are part of networks that benefit from the status quo. In Ghana, some traditional authorities benefit from selling land multiple times.

This contributes to numerous land disputes that get stuck in an underdeveloped legal system. In Kenya, “land grabbing” wreaks havoc on land-use and transport planning. The outcome is the escalation of the cost of urban improvements and it encourages environmental disaster.

Community leaders and their followers often internalise societal norms to win elections . For example, politicians strive to be parents, employers and friends to their constituents, often using state goods and resources as patronage for their political supporters.

This undermines the achievement of sustainable and inclusive cities. Of course, some neighbourhoods can and do sustain civic cultures and public service, and it is these communities that deserve more attention.

For projects and policies to have the desired results of improved urban space, better transit or more affordable housing, incentives need to be reshaped to make it beneficial to follow sound policy prescriptions and play by the official rules.

Registering land and businesses should be profitable and not invite predation. Relocation to and development of new neighbourhoods should consider local architectural, social, and economic preferences but also equity. And providing public goods and services to all citizens including newcomers should contribute to electoral advantages.

The mayors from Johannesburg and Maputo came to New York to explicitly signal their support for the sustainable development goals, and especially Goal 11, which promotes inclusive, safe and sustainable cities and settlements. Whether progress will be made on these laudable goals will depend on politicians working in collaboration with citizens.

As people continue to move to urban areas in Africa in search of opportunity, let’s hope that they can help fashion an urban politics that gives birth to the kinds of cities that are better for all.

Urbanisation
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Achieving Sustainable Development in Africa

Marianne jahre.

Developing countries need higher education that supports sustainable business development. More competence in Entrepreneurship and Supply Chain Management is required, writes Marianne Jahre.

KNOWLEDGE @ BI: Sustainability

We globally produce food for over 10 billion people, but more than 10% of the world population is still hungry. This paradox illustrates how crucial supply chain management is, i.e. setting up and running efficient material-, money- and information flows for goods and services between suppliers and end-consumers.

Tanzania and Ethiopia are among the fastest growing economies in the world. They have similar challenges: A young population needing education, lack of sustainable food, health, energy, transport, and waste management infrastructures. Similarly, they have to cope with weak governance, corruption, unemployment, population growth, insecurity, droughts and famine.

Responding to the challenges, they invest heavily in infrastructure and industrialisation, building roads, railways, electricity, hospitals and schools. In turn, good use of the new infrastructure and more jobs require improvements in systems and processes and a forward-looking private sector: ‘Governments need to come to an understanding with business…which need to clearly understand and deliver on its wider social responsibilities in and open and transparent fashion…’.

Call for action

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) are a universal call for action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. The 17 Goals build on the Millennium Development Goals, while including new areas such as climate change, economic inequality, innovation and sustainable consumption.

The goals are interconnected and form the basis for sustainable development in any country, whether developing or developed.

Supply Chains are essential components in sustainable development, albeit country and sector specific. Accordingly, one must learn from one another. Local business education as well as exchange programs are needed.

Answering to this call, BI Norwegian Business School has together with Mzumbe University in Tanzania and Jimma University in Ethiopia, applied for funding to improve quality and relevance of education and research in the three countries within Supply Chain Management and Sustainable Business Development. Through exchange of master students and faculty, we want to conduct joint course revisions and development, teaching and supervision, stakeholder involvement, workshops and seminars.

Investments in higher education

From 1990 to 2012, primary school enrolment in African countries more than doubled to nearly 150 million. Traditionally, development has focused primary schooling.

The launch of the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, accentuated the importance of higher education. Progress and improvement in basic and secondary education comes through the training and formation of teachers in higher education. Higher education improves job creation, socioeconomic and political governance, research and innovation.

Higher education is high on the agenda in Ethiopia and Tanzania. However, companies investing in Tanzania face challenges in recruiting local workers and instead employ expatriates. ‘

Youths in Tanzania represent more than half of the country’s total labor force. Yet, ..more than 25% of them are neither in employment, education nor in training (NEET). The challenge of obtaining experts relates to a mismatch between the skills required and the training conducted. Further, the education system has extensively failed to prepare the graduates for self-employment, which turn them to be job seekers. (Emmanuel Chao, Head of Resource and Incubation Centre, Mzumbe University, Tanzania).

A key priority in Ethiopia is ensuring quality and relevance in higher education (GTP 2016-2020) and transforming the economy from agriculture to industry. ‘

Ethiopia has a young population in need of education, and has established 35 new universities the last 15 years. Senior universities serve as mentors and initially also as administrators for the new universities. Support for Jimma means indirect support for the whole country. there are still many young staff who need support and cooperation in revising and further develop course curriculum and educational methods.’ (Kenenisa Lemie Debela, Dean College of Business and Economics, Jimma University, Ethiopia).

Supply Chain Management and Entrepreneurship is critical

Similar to other countries, the private sectors of Tanzania and Ethiopia must diversify and integrate in the global economy.

However, according to the World Bank low infrastructure quality can reduce business productivity by up to 40%. Heavy bureaucracy puts barriers on trade. Trucks to and from Ethiopia spend 1/3 of their time at the border for customs handling.

Mombasa, the primary port in East Africa, processes the same amount of cargo in one year that the world’s most active ports handle in a week. Improving logistics is critical in both food production and non-food agricultural exports. To access regional and international markets, farmers need more cost and time-efficient transport: ‘The cut-flower business is as much a logistics as a land business.’

While farming is still the main industry in Ethiopia and Tanzania, accounting for 80% of employment, it is necessary to increase the value obtained through further processing and export. A key challenge with food production is durability.

The Entrepreneur incubation programmes in Tanzania have tried to resolve part of this challenge by empowering start-ups with skills for adding value in farming products. Among these incubators are Small industries Development Organization (SIDO), Zanzibar Technology and Business Incubator (ZTBI), Sokoine University Graduates Cooperative, Mzumbe University Incubator and several others. Mzumbe University organize annual entrepreneurship camps for launching new products. The Tanzanian Government has special programs for assisting these enterprises to secure the certification under SIDO.

This transformation involves more than technical skills. Business competencies required in addition to supply chain management, include entrepreneurship, market building, procurement, development of distribution and quality control systems, securing intellectual property rights, anti-corruption, etc. Sustainable development requires knowledge and awareness of corporate responsibility from a social and environmental perspective, suggesting integration of key Sustainable Development Goals in business education and training.

Country and sector specific competencies are required

Supporting private sector development is an important component of Norwegian aid. So is education. Norwegian companies investing in Africa require understanding of African culture and business development. Many Norwegian business graduates will work in or with this region in the future.

The official Norwegian business delegations to Tanzania (2015) and Ethiopia (2017) as well as growth in Norwegian companies’ business in the countries, illustrate the need for increased collaboration from a business educational point of view.

‘The fact that Norway explicitly claims that the focus is to shift from Asia to Africa, is positive for the Norwegian aid program’ (Caroline Dale Ditlev-Simonsen, Professor, BI Norwegian Business School). According to the Minister of Trade and industry, priority will be on trade agreements and investments .

References:

Mills, G., Obasanjo, O., Herbst, J. and Davis, D. (2017) Making Africa Work: A Handbook, 1st Edition, Hurst Publishers.
UNESCO (2015) Education for all: Regional Overview Sub-Saharan Africa, Global Monitoring Report, 2015.
Ervjola Selenica (2018) Universities between the state & the market, Development policy, commercialization & liberalization of higher education, SAIH, www.saih.no.
Ervjola Selenica (2018) Universities between the state & the market, Development policy, commercialization & liberalization of higher education, SAIH, www.saih.no
Tanzania national employment policy (2017) National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) [Tanzania] 2006. Tanzania Integrated Labour Force Survey 2014, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: NBS.
Emmanuel Chao (2018), Role of Incubators in achieving Youth Employment, Conference on Achieving youth Sustainable development Goals (25-27), Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Youth Development, Tamil-Nadu, India

The article is a slightly edited version of an article published on the webpages of Norwegian Students- and Academics’ International Assistans Fund (SAIH) on 1 Octiber 2018. Link: https://saih.no/artikkel/2018/10/supply-chain-management-on-the-agenda-1

Text: Marianne Jahre, Professor, BI Norwegian Business School and Lund University. Visiting Scholar at INSEAD, Humanitarian Group in Hoffmann Global Institute for Business and Society.

Published 3. October 2018

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Essay on Sustainable Development: Samples in 250, 300 and 500 Words

Updated on
Nov 18, 2023

On 3rd August 2023, the Indian Government released its Net zero emissions target policy to reduce its carbon footprints. To achieve the sustainable development goals (SDG) , as specified by the UN, India is determined for its long-term low-carbon development strategy. Selfishly pursuing modernization, humans have frequently compromised with the requirements of a more sustainable environment.

As a result, the increased environmental depletion is evident with the prevalence of deforestation, pollution, greenhouse gases, climate change etc. To combat these challenges, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change launched the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) in 2019. The objective was to improve air quality in 131 cities in 24 States/UTs by engaging multiple stakeholders.

‘Development is not real until and unless it is sustainable development.’ – Ban Ki-Moon

The concept of Sustainable Development in India has even greater relevance due to the controversy surrounding the big dams and mega projects and related long-term growth. Since it is quite a frequently asked topic in school tests as well as competitive exams , we are here to help you understand what this concept means as well as the mantras to drafting a well-written essay on Sustainable Development with format and examples.

This Blog Includes:

What is sustainable development, 250-300 words essay on sustainable development, 300 words essay on sustainable development, 500 words essay on sustainable development, introduction, conclusion of sustainable development essay, importance of sustainable development, examples of sustainable development.

As the term simply explains, Sustainable Development aims to bring a balance between meeting the requirements of what the present demands while not overlooking the needs of future generations. It acknowledges nature’s requirements along with the human’s aim to work towards the development of different aspects of the world. It aims to efficiently utilise resources while also meticulously planning the accomplishment of immediate as well as long-term goals for human beings, the planet as well and future generations. In the present time, the need for Sustainable Development is not only for the survival of mankind but also for its future protection.

Looking for ideas to incorporate in your Essay on Sustainable Development? Read our blog on Energy Management – Find Your Sustainable Career Path and find out!

To give you an idea of the way to deliver a well-written essay, we have curated a sample on sustainable development below, with 250-300 words:

To give you an idea of the way to deliver a well-written essay, we have curated a sample on sustainable development below, with 300 + words:

Must Read: Article Writing

To give you an idea of the way to deliver a well-written essay, we have curated a sample on sustainable development below, with 500 + words:

Essay Format

Before drafting an essay on Sustainable Development, students need to get familiarised with the format of essay writing, to know how to structure the essay on a given topic. Take a look at the following pointers which elaborate upon the format of a 300-350 word essay.

Introduction (50-60 words) In the introduction, students must introduce or provide an overview of the given topic, i.e. highlighting and adding recent instances and questions related to sustainable development. Body of Content (100-150 words) The area of the content after the introduction can be explained in detail about why sustainable development is important, its objectives and highlighting the efforts made by the government and various institutions towards it. Conclusion (30-40 words) In the essay on Sustainable Development, you must add a conclusion wrapping up the content in about 2-3 lines, either with an optimistic touch to it or just summarizing what has been talked about above.

How to write the introduction of a sustainable development essay? To begin with your essay on sustainable development, you must mention the following points:

What is sustainable development?
What does sustainable development focus on?
Why is it useful for the environment?

How to write the conclusion of a sustainable development essay? To conclude your essay on sustainable development, mention why it has become the need of the hour. Wrap up all the key points you have mentioned in your essay and provide some important suggestions to implement sustainable development.

The importance of sustainable development is that it meets the needs of the present generations without compromising on the needs of the coming future generations. Sustainable development teaches us to use our resources in the correct manner. Listed below are some points which tell us the importance of sustainable development.

Focuses on Sustainable Agricultural Methods – Sustainable development is important because it takes care of the needs of future generations and makes sure that the increasing population does not put a burden on Mother Earth. It promotes agricultural techniques such as crop rotation and effective seeding techniques.
Manages Stabilizing the Climate – We are facing the problem of climate change due to the excessive use of fossil fuels and the killing of the natural habitat of animals. Sustainable development plays a major role in preventing climate change by developing practices that are sustainable. It promotes reducing the use of fossil fuels which release greenhouse gases that destroy the atmosphere.
Provides Important Human Needs – Sustainable development promotes the idea of saving for future generations and making sure that resources are allocated to everybody. It is based on the principle of developing an infrastructure that is can be sustained for a long period of time.
Sustain Biodiversity – If the process of sustainable development is followed, the home and habitat of all other living animals will not be depleted. As sustainable development focuses on preserving the ecosystem it automatically helps in sustaining and preserving biodiversity.
Financial Stability – As sustainable development promises steady development the economies of countries can become stronger by using renewable sources of energy as compared to using fossil fuels, of which there is only a particular amount on our planet.

Mentioned below are some important examples of sustainable development. Have a look:

Wind Energy – Wind energy is an easily available resource. It is also a free resource. It is a renewable source of energy and the energy which can be produced by harnessing the power of wind will be beneficial for everyone. Windmills can produce energy which can be used to our benefit. It can be a helpful source of reducing the cost of grid power and is a fine example of sustainable development.
Solar Energy – Solar energy is also a source of energy which is readily available and there is no limit to it. Solar energy is being used to replace and do many things which were first being done by using non-renewable sources of energy. Solar water heaters are a good example. It is cost-effective and sustainable at the same time.
Crop Rotation – To increase the potential of growth of gardening land, crop rotation is an ideal and sustainable way. It is rid of any chemicals and reduces the chances of disease in the soil. This form of sustainable development is beneficial to both commercial farmers and home gardeners.
Efficient Water Fixtures – The installation of hand and head showers in our toilets which are efficient and do not waste or leak water is a method of conserving water. Water is essential for us and conserving every drop is important. Spending less time under the shower is also a way of sustainable development and conserving water.
Sustainable Forestry – This is an amazing way of sustainable development where the timber trees that are cut by factories are replaced by another tree. A new tree is planted in place of the one which was cut down. This way, soil erosion is prevented and we have hope of having a better, greener future.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of 17 global goals established by the United Nations in 2015. These include: No Poverty Zero Hunger Good Health and Well-being Quality Education Gender Equality Clean Water and Sanitation Affordable and Clean Energy Decent Work and Economic Growth Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure Reduced Inequality Sustainable Cities and Communities Responsible Consumption and Production Climate Action Life Below Water Life on Land Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions Partnerships for the Goals

The SDGs are designed to address a wide range of global challenges, such as eradicating extreme poverty globally, achieving food security, focusing on promoting good health and well-being, inclusive and equitable quality education, etc.

India is ranked #111 in the Sustainable Development Goal Index 2023 with a score of 63.45.

Hence, we hope that this blog helped you understand the key features of an essay on sustainable development. If you are interested in Environmental studies and planning to pursue sustainable tourism courses , take the assistance of Leverage Edu ’s AI-based tool to browse through a plethora of programs available in this specialised field across the globe and find the best course and university combination that fits your interests, preferences and aspirations. Call us immediately at 1800 57 2000 for a free 30-minute counselling session

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

This article is part of the research topic.

Activating Academia for an Era of Colliding Crises

Seven Years of Embracing the Sustainable Development Goals: Perspectives from University of South Africa's Academic Staff Provisionally Accepted

1 University of South Africa, South Africa

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

As this paper was being finalised, the world was left with less than seven of the 15 years of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) implementation to 2030. There were still huge gaps in the attainment of the SDGs in institutions of higher learning globally, especially that COVID-19 brought a barrier leading to a known pushback. However, the pandemic did not imply there was no work done prior, during and after COVID-19. This paper investigates the extent to which the University of South Africa's academic staff activated and mainstreamed the SDGs in their core mandates between 2016 and 2022. Data was generated through a survey (n=121), participatory action research, and document analysis. It emerged there is a greater degree of awareness of the SDGs, with 78% of academic respondents confirming this. However, the percentages drop across the four core mandate areas when it comes to SDGs implementation. About 52.6% of academics indicated they were promoting SDGs in their teaching, research (63.3%), community engagement (55.5%) and academic citizenship (54.5%). Findings further reveal key enabling institutional policies like the SDGS Localisation Declaration, and the Africa-Nuanced SDGs Research Support Programme. Large gaps remain on the publication front, where over 60% of the responding academics had not published an article explicitly on SDGs. There is also bias in publications towards certain SDGs. The work recommends that UNISA management continue raising awareness on the SDGs and systematically address barriers identified in the main paper to enhance the mainstreaming of the SDGs across all core mandate areas.

Keywords: Quality education, SDGs Stakeholders, sustainability, higher education, Academic Staff

Received: 13 Dec 2023; Accepted: 11 Apr 2024.

Copyright: © 2024 Nhamo and Chapungu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Prof. Godwell Nhamo, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa

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THE SDGS IN ACTION.

What are the sustainable development goals.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

The 17 SDGs are integrated—they recognize that action in one area will affect outcomes in others, and that development must balance social, economic and environmental sustainability.

Countries have committed to prioritize progress for those who're furthest behind. The SDGs are designed to end poverty, hunger, AIDS, and discrimination against women and girls.

The creativity, knowhow, technology and financial resources from all of society is necessary to achieve the SDGs in every context.

Eradicating poverty in all its forms remains one of the greatest challenges facing humanity. While the number of people living in extreme poverty dropped by more than half between 1990 and 2015, too many are still struggling for the most basic human needs.

As of 2015, about 736 million people still lived on less than US$1.90 a day; many lack food, clean drinking water and sanitation. Rapid growth in countries such as China and India has lifted millions out of poverty, but progress has been uneven. Women are more likely to be poor than men because they have less paid work, education, and own less property.

Progress has also been limited in other regions, such as South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, which account for 80 percent of those living in extreme poverty. New threats brought on by climate change, conflict and food insecurity, mean even more work is needed to bring people out of poverty.

The SDGs are a bold commitment to finish what we started, and end poverty in all forms and dimensions by 2030. This involves targeting the most vulnerable, increasing basic resources and services, and supporting communities affected by conflict and climate-related disasters.

736 million people still live in extreme poverty.

10 percent of the world’s population live in extreme poverty, down from 36 percent in 1990.

Some 1.3 billion people live in multidimensional poverty.

Half of all people living in poverty are under 18.

One person in every 10 is extremely poor.

Goal targets

By 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions
Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable
By 2030, ensure that all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial services, including microfinance
By 2030, build the resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations and reduce their exposure and vulnerability to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters
Ensure significant mobilization of resources from a variety of sources, including through enhanced development cooperation, in order to provide adequate and predictable means for developing countries, in particular least developed countries, to implement programmes and policies to end poverty in all its dimensions
Create sound policy frameworks at the national, regional and international levels, based on pro-poor and gender-sensitive development strategies, to support accelerated investment in poverty eradication actions

SDGs in Action

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Publications.

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Zero hunger.

Zero Hunger

The number of undernourished people has dropped by almost half in the past two decades because of rapid economic growth and increased agricultural productivity. Many developing countries that used to suffer from famine and hunger can now meet their nutritional needs. Central and East Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean have all made huge progress in eradicating extreme hunger.

Unfortunately, extreme hunger and malnutrition remain a huge barrier to development in many countries. There are 821 million people estimated to be chronically undernourished as of 2017, often as a direct consequence of environmental degradation, drought and biodiversity loss. Over 90 million children under five are dangerously underweight. Undernourishment and severe food insecurity appear to be increasing in almost all regions of Africa, as well as in South America.

The SDGs aim to end all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030, making sure all people–especially children–have sufficient and nutritious food all year. This involves promoting sustainable agricultural, supporting small-scale farmers and equal access to land, technology and markets. It also requires international cooperation to ensure investment in infrastructure and technology to improve agricultural productivity.

The number of undernourished people reached 821 million in 2017.

In 2017 Asia accounted for nearly two thirds, 63 percent, of the world’s hungry.

Nearly 151 million children under five, 22 percent, were still stunted in 2017.

More than 1 in 8 adults is obese.

1 in 3 women of reproductive age is anemic.

26 percent of workers are employed in agriculture.

By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons
By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment
By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality
By 2020, maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, and promote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed
Increase investment, including through enhanced international cooperation, in rural infrastructure, agricultural research and extension services, technology development and plant and livestock gene banks in order to enhance agricultural productive capacity in developing countries, in particular least developed countries
Correct and prevent trade restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets, including through the parallel elimination of all forms of agricultural export subsidies and all export measures with equivalent effect, in accordance with the mandate of the Doha Development Round
Adopt measures to ensure the proper functioning of food commodity markets and their derivatives and facilitate timely access to market information, including on food reserves, in order to help limit extreme food price volatility.

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Good health and well-being.

We have made great progress against several leading causes of death and disease. Life expectancy has increased dramatically; infant and maternal mortality rates have declined, we’ve turned the tide on HIV and malaria deaths have halved.

Good health is essential to sustainable development and the 2030 Agenda reflects the complexity and interconnectedness of the two. It takes into account widening economic and social inequalities, rapid urbanization, threats to the climate and the environment, the continuing burden of HIV and other infectious diseases, and emerging challenges such as noncommunicable diseases. Universal health coverage will be integral to achieving SDG 3, ending poverty and reducing inequalities. Emerging global health priorities not explicitly included in the SDGs, including antimicrobial resistance, also demand action.

But the world is off-track to achieve the health-related SDGs. Progress has been uneven, both between and within countries. There’s a 31-year gap between the countries with the shortest and longest life expectancies. And while some countries have made impressive gains, national averages hide that many are being left behind. Multisectoral, rights-based and gender-sensitive approaches are essential to address inequalities and to build good health for all.

At least 400 million people have no basic healthcare, and 40 percent lack social protection.

More than 1.6 billion people live in fragile settings where protracted crises, combined with weak national capacity to deliver basic health services, present a significant challenge to global health.

By the end of 2017, 21.7 million people living with HIV were receiving antiretroviral therapy. Yet more than 15 million people are still waiting for treatment.

Every 2 seconds someone aged 30 to 70 years dies prematurely from noncommunicable diseases - cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease, diabetes or cancer.

7 million people die every year from exposure to fine particles in polluted air.

More than one of every three women have experienced either physical or sexual violence at some point in their life resulting in both short- and long-term consequences for their physical, mental, and sexual and reproductive health.

By 2030, reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births
By 2030, end preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age, with all countries aiming to reduce neonatal mortality to at least as low as 12 per 1,000 live births and under-5 mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1,000 live births
By 2030, end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases
By 2030, reduce by one third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being
Strengthen the prevention and treatment of substance abuse, including narcotic drug abuse and harmful use of alcohol
By 2020, halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents
By 2030, ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, including for family planning, information and education, and the integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programmes
Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all
By 2030, substantially reduce the number of deaths and illnesses from hazardous chemicals and air, water and soil pollution and contamination
Strengthen the implementation of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in all countries, as appropriate
Support the research and development of vaccines and medicines for the communicable and noncommunicable diseases that primarily affect developing countries, provide access to affordable essential medicines and vaccines, in accordance with the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, which affirms the right of developing countries to use to the full the provisions in the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights regarding flexibilities to protect public health, and, in particular, provide access to medicines for all
Substantially increase health financing and the recruitment, development, training and retention of the health workforce in developing countries, especially in least developed countries and small island developing States
Strengthen the capacity of all countries, in particular developing countries, for early warning, risk reduction and management of national and global health risks

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Quality education.

Since 2000, there has been enormous progress in achieving the target of universal primary education. The total enrollment rate in developing regions reached 91 percent in 2015, and the worldwide number of children out of school has dropped by almost half. There has also been a dramatic increase in literacy rates, and many more girls are in school than ever before. These are all remarkable successes.

Progress has also been tough in some developing regions due to high levels of poverty, armed conflicts and other emergencies. In Western Asia and North Africa, ongoing armed conflict has seen an increase in the number of children out of school. This is a worrying trend. While Sub-Saharan Africa made the greatest progress in primary school enrollment among all developing regions – from 52 percent in 1990, up to 78 percent in 2012 – large disparities still remain. Children from the poorest households are up to four times more likely to be out of school than those of the richest households. Disparities between rural and urban areas also remain high.

Achieving inclusive and quality education for all reaffirms the belief that education is one of the most powerful and proven vehicles for sustainable development. This goal ensures that all girls and boys complete free primary and secondary schooling by 2030. It also aims to provide equal access to affordable vocational training, to eliminate gender and wealth disparities, and achieve universal access to a quality higher education.

Enrollment in primary education in developing countries has reached 91 percent.

Still, 57 million primary-aged children remain out of school, more than half of them in sub-Saharan Africa.

In developing countries, one in four girls is not in school.

About half of all out-of-school children of primary school age live in conflict-affected areas.

103 million youth worldwide lack basic literacy skills, and more than 60 percent of them are women.

6 out of 10 children and adolescents are not achieving a minimum level of proficiency in reading and math.

By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and Goal-4 effective learning outcomes
By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and preprimary education so that they are ready for primary education
By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university
By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship
By 2030, eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations
By 2030, ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy
By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development
Build and upgrade education facilities that are child, disability and gender sensitive and provide safe, nonviolent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all
By 2020, substantially expand globally the number of scholarships available to developing countries, in particular least developed countries, small island developing States and African countries, for enrolment in higher education, including vocational training and information and communications technology, technical, engineering and scientific programmes, in developed countries and other developing countries
By 2030, substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers, including through international cooperation for teacher training in developing countries, especially least developed countries and small island developing states

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Gender equality.

Gender Equality

Ending all discrimination against women and girls is not only a basic human right, it’s crucial for sustainable future; it’s proven that empowering women and girls helps economic growth and development.

UNDP has made gender equality central to its work and we’ve seen remarkable progress in the past 20 years. There are more girls in school now compared to 15 years ago, and most regions have reached gender parity in primary education.

But although there are more women than ever in the labour market, there are still large inequalities in some regions, with women systematically denied the same work rights as men. Sexual violence and exploitation, the unequal division of unpaid care and domestic work, and discrimination in public office all remain huge barriers. Climate change and disasters continue to have a disproportionate effect on women and children, as do conflict and migration.

It is vital to give women equal rights land and property, sexual and reproductive health, and to technology and the internet. Today there are more women in public office than ever before, but encouraging more women leaders will help achieve greater gender equality.

Women earn only 77 cents for every dollar that men get for the same work.

35 percent of women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence.

Women represent just 13 percent of agricultural landholders.

Almost 750 million women and girls alive today were married before their 18th birthday.

Two thirds of developing countries have achieved gender parity in primary education.

Only 24 percent of national parliamentarians were women as of November 2018, a small increase from 11.3 percent in 1995.

End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere
Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation
Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation
Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate
Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decisionmaking in political, economic and public life
Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences
Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws
Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women
Adopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels

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Clean water and sanitation.

Water scarcity affects more than 40 percent of people, an alarming figure that is projected to rise as temperatures do. Although 2.1 billion people have improved water sanitation since 1990, dwindling drinking water supplies are affecting every continent.

More and more countries are experiencing water stress, and increasing drought and desertification is already worsening these trends. By 2050, it is projected that at least one in four people will suffer recurring water shortages.

Safe and affordable drinking water for all by 2030 requires we invest in adequate infrastructure, provide sanitation facilities, and encourage hygiene. Protecting and restoring water-related ecosystems is essential.

Ensuring universal safe and affordable drinking water involves reaching over 800 million people who lack basic services and improving accessibility and safety of services for over two billion.

In 2015, 4.5 billion people lacked safely managed sanitation services (with adequately disposed or treated excreta) and 2.3 billion lacked even basic sanitation.

71 percent of the global population, 5.2 billion people, had safely-managed drinking water in 2015, but 844 million people still lacked even basic drinking water.

39 percent of the global population, 2.9 billion people, had safe sanitation in 2015, but 2.3 billion people still lacked basic sanitation. 892 million people practiced open defecation.

80 percent of wastewater goes into waterways without adequate treatment.

Water stress affects more than 2 billion people, with this figure projected to increase.

80 percent of countries have laid the foundations for integrated water resources management.

The world has lost 70 percent of its natural wetlands over the last century.

By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all
By 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations
By 2030, improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally
By 2030, substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity and substantially reduce the number of people suffering from water scarcity
By 2030, implement integrated water resources management at all levels, including through transboundary cooperation as appropriate
By 2020, protect and restore water-related ecosystems, including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes
By 2030, expand international cooperation and capacity-building support to developing countries in water- and sanitation-related activities and programmes, including water harvesting, desalination, water efficiency, wastewater treatment, recycling and reuse technologies
Support and strengthen the participation of local communities in improving water and sanitation management

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Affordable and clean energy.

Between 2000 and 2018, the number of people with electricity increased from 78 to 90 percent, and the numbers without electricity dipped to 789 million.

Yet as the population continues to grow, so will the demand for cheap energy, and an economy reliant on fossil fuels is creating drastic changes to our climate.

Investing in solar, wind and thermal power, improving energy productivity, and ensuring energy for all is vital if we are to achieve SDG 7 by 2030.

Expanding infrastructure and upgrading technology to provide clean and more efficient energy in all countries will encourage growth and help the environment.

One out of 10 people still lacks electricity, and most live in rural areas of the developing world. More than half are in sub-Saharan Africa.

Energy is by far the main contributor to climate change. It accounts for 73 percent of human-caused greenhouse gases.

Energy efficiency is key; the right efficiency policies could enable the world to achieve more than 40 percent of the emissions cuts needed to reach its climate goals without new technology.

Almost a third of the world’s population—2.8 billion—rely on polluting and unhealthy fuels for cooking.

As of 2017, 17.5 percent of power was generated through renewable sources.

The renewable energy sector employed a record 11.5 million people in 2019. The changes needed in energy production and uses to achieve the Paris Agreement target of limiting the rise in temperature to below 2C can create 18 million jobs.

By 2030, ensure universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services
By 2030, increase substantially the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix
By 2030, double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency
By 2030, enhance international cooperation to facilitate access to clean energy research and technology, including renewable energy, energy efficiency and advanced and cleaner fossil-fuel technology, and promote investment in energy infrastructure and clean energy technology
By 2030, expand infrastructure and upgrade technology for supplying modern and sustainable energy services for all in developing countries, in particular least developed countries, small island developing States, and land-locked developing coun

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Decent work and economic growth.

Over the past 25 years the number of workers living in extreme poverty has declined dramatically, despite the lasting impact of the 2008 economic crisis and global recession. In developing countries, the middle class now makes up more than 34 percent of total employment – a number that has almost tripled between 1991 and 2015.

However, as the global economy continues to recover we are seeing slower growth, widening inequalities, and not enough jobs to keep up with a growing labour force. According to the International Labour Organization, more than 204 million people were unemployed in 2015.

The SDGs promote sustained economic growth, higher levels of productivity and technological innovation. Encouraging entrepreneurship and job creation are key to this, as are effective measures to eradicate forced labour, slavery and human trafficking. With these targets in mind, the goal is to achieve full and productive employment, and decent work, for all women and men by 2030.

An estimated 172 million people worldwide were without work in 2018 - an unemployment rate of 5 percent.

As a result of an expanding labour force, the number of unemployed is projected to increase by 1 million every year and reach 174 million by 2020.

Some 700 million workers lived in extreme or moderate poverty in 2018, with less than US$3.20 per day.

Women’s participation in the labour force stood at 48 per cent in 2018, compared with 75 percent for men. Around 3 in 5 of the 3.5 billion people in the labour force in 2018 were men.

Overall, 2 billion workers were in informal employment in 2016, accounting for 61 per cent of the world’s workforce.

Many more women than men are underutilized in the labour force—85 million compared to 55 million.

Sustain per capita economic growth in accordance with national circumstances and, in particular, at least 7 per cent gross domestic product growth per annum in the least developed countries
Achieve higher levels of economic productivity through diversification, technological upgrading and innovation, including through a focus on high-value added and labour-intensive sectors
Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services
Improve progressively, through 2030, global resource efficiency in consumption and production and endeavour to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation, in accordance with the 10-year framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production, with developed countries taking the lead
By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value
By 2020, substantially reduce the proportion of youth not in employment, education or training
Take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms
Protect labour rights and promote safe and secure working environments for all workers, including migrant workers, in particular women migrants, and those in precarious employment
By 2030, devise and implement policies to promote sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products
Strengthen the capacity of domestic financial institutions to encourage and expand access to banking, insurance and financial services for all
Increase Aid for Trade support for developing countries, in particular least developed countries, including through the Enhanced Integrated Framework for Trade-Related Technical Assistance to Least Developed Countries
By 2020, develop and operationalize a global strategy for youth employment and implement the Global Jobs Pact of the International Labour Organization

Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Investment in infrastructure and innovation are crucial drivers of economic growth and development. With over half the world population now living in cities, mass transport and renewable energy are becoming ever more important, as are the growth of new industries and information and communication technologies.

Technological progress is also key to finding lasting solutions to both economic and environmental challenges, such as providing new jobs and promoting energy efficiency. Promoting sustainable industries, and investing in scientific research and innovation, are all important ways to facilitate sustainable development.

More than 4 billion people still do not have access to the Internet, and 90 percent are from the developing world. Bridging this digital divide is crucial to ensure equal access to information and knowledge, as well as foster innovation and entrepreneurship.

Worldwide, 2.3 billion people lack access to basic sanitation.

In some low-income African countries, infrastructure constraints cut businesses’ productivity by around 40 percent.

2.6 billion people in developing countries do not have access to constant electricity.

More than 4 billion people still do not have access to the Internet; 90 percent of them are in the developing world.

The renewable energy sectors currently employ more than 2.3 million people; the number could reach 20 million by 2030.

In developing countries, barely 30 percent of agricultural products undergo industrial processing, compared to 98 percent high-income countries.

Develop quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure, including regional and transborder infrastructure, to support economic development and human well-being, with a focus on affordable and equitable access for all
Promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and, by 2030, significantly raise industry’s share of employment and gross domestic product, in line with national circumstances, and double its share in least developed countries
Increase the access of small-scale industrial and other enterprises, in particular in developing countries, to financial services, including affordable credit, and their integration into value chains and markets
By 2030, upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies and industrial processes, with all countries taking action in accordance with their respective capabilities
Enhance scientific research, upgrade the technological capabilities of industrial sectors in all countries, in particular developing countries, including, by 2030, encouraging innovation and substantially increasing the number of research and development workers per 1 million people and public and private research and development spending
Facilitate sustainable and resilient infrastructure development in developing countries through enhanced financial, technological and technical support to African countries, least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States 18
Support domestic technology development, research and innovation in developing countries, including by ensuring a conducive policy environment for, inter alia, industrial diversification and value addition to commodities
Significantly increase access to information and communications technology and strive to provide universal and affordable access to the Internet in least developed countries by 2020

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Reduced inequalities.

Income inequality is on the rise—the richest 10 percent have up to 40 percent of global income whereas the poorest 10 percent earn only between 2 to 7 percent. If we take into account population growth inequality in developing countries, inequality has increased by 11 percent.

Income inequality has increased in nearly everywhere in recent decades, but at different speeds. It’s lowest in Europe and highest in the Middle East.

These widening disparities require sound policies to empower lower income earners, and promote economic inclusion of all regardless of sex, race or ethnicity.

Income inequality requires global solutions. This involves improving the regulation and monitoring of financial markets and institutions, encouraging development assistance and foreign direct investment to regions where the need is greatest. Facilitating the safe migration and mobility of people is also key to bridging the widening divide.

In 2016, 22 percent of global income was received by the top 1 percent compared with 10 percent of income for the bottom 50 percent.

In 1980, the top one percent had 16 percent of global income. The bottom 50 percent had 8 percent of income.

Economic inequality is largely driven by the unequal ownership of capital. Since 1980, very large transfers of public to private wealth occurred in nearly all countries. The global wealth share of the top 1 percent was 33 percent in 2016.

Under "business as usual", the top 1 percent global wealth will reach 39 percent by 2050.

Women spend, on average, twice as much time on unpaid housework as men.

Women have as much access to financial services as men in just 60 percent of the countries assessed and to land ownership in just 42 percent of the countries assessed.

By 2030, progressively achieve and sustain income growth of the bottom 40 per cent of the population at a rate higher than the national average
By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status
Ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of outcome, including by eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices and promoting appropriate legislation, policies and action in this regard
Adopt policies, especially fiscal, wage and social protection policies, and progressively achieve greater equality
Improve the regulation and monitoring of global financial markets and institutions and strengthen the implementation of such regulations
Ensure enhanced representation and voice for developing countries in decision-making in global international economic and financial institutions in order to deliver more effective, credible, accountable and legitimate institutions
Facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people, including through the implementation of planned and well-managed migration policies
Implement the principle of special and differential treatment for developing countries, in particular least developed countries, in accordance with World Trade Organization agreements
Encourage official development assistance and financial flows, including foreign direct investment, to States where the need is greatest, in particular least developed countries, African countries, small island developing States and landlocked developing countries, in accordance with their national plans and programmes
By 2030, reduce to less than 3 per cent the transaction costs of migrant remittances and eliminate remittance corridors with costs higher than 5 per cent

Sustainable cities and communities

More than half of us live in cities. By 2050, two-thirds of all humanity—6.5 billion people—will be urban. Sustainable development cannot be achieved without significantly transforming the way we build and manage our urban spaces.

The rapid growth of cities—a result of rising populations and increasing migration—has led to a boom in mega-cities, especially in the developing world, and slums are becoming a more significant feature of urban life.

Making cities sustainable means creating career and business opportunities, safe and affordable housing, and building resilient societies and economies. It involves investment in public transport, creating green public spaces, and improving urban planning and management in participatory and inclusive ways.

In 2018, 4.2 billion people, 55 percent of the world’s population, lived in cities. By 2050, the urban population is expected to reach 6.5 billion.

Cities occupy just 3 percent of the Earth’s land but account for 60 to 80 percent of energy consumption and at least 70 percent of carbon emissions.

828 million people are estimated to live in slums, and the number is rising.

In 1990, there were 10 cities with 10 million people or more; by 2014, the number of mega-cities rose to 28, and was expected to reach 33 by 2018. In the future, 9 out of 10 mega-cities will be in the developing world.

In the coming decades, 90 percent of urban expansion will be in the developing world.

The economic role of cities is significant. They generate about 80 percent of the global GDP.

By 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums
By 2030, provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all, improving road safety, notably by expanding public transport, with special attention to the needs of those in vulnerable situations, women, children, persons with disabilities and older persons
By 2030, enhance inclusive and sustainable urbanization and capacity for participatory, integrated and sustainable human settlement planning and management in all countries
Strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage
By 2030, significantly reduce the number of deaths and the number of people affected and substantially decrease the direct economic losses relative to global gross domestic product caused by disasters, including water-related disasters, with a focus on protecting the poor and people in vulnerable situations
By 2030, reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management
By 2030, provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces, in particular for women and children, older persons and persons with disabilities
Support positive economic, social and environmental links between urban, peri-urban and rural areas by strengthening national and regional development planning
By 2020, substantially increase the number of cities and human settlements adopting and implementing integrated policies and plans towards inclusion, resource efficiency, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, resilience to disasters, and develop and implement, in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, holistic disaster risk management at all levels
Support least developed countries, including through financial and technical assistance, in building sustainable and resilient buildings utilizing local materials

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Responsible consumption and production.

Achieving economic growth and sustainable development requires that we urgently reduce our ecological footprint by changing the way we produce and consume goods and resources. Agriculture is the biggest user of water worldwide, and irrigation now claims close to 70 percent of all freshwater for human use.

The efficient management of our shared natural resources, and the way we dispose of toxic waste and pollutants, are important targets to achieve this goal. Encouraging industries, businesses and consumers to recycle and reduce waste is equally important, as is supporting developing countries to move towards more sustainable patterns of consumption by 2030.

A large share of the world population is still consuming far too little to meet even their basic needs. Halving the per capita of global food waste at the retailer and consumer levels is also important for creating more efficient production and supply chains. This can help with food security, and shift us towards a more resource efficient economy.

1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted every year, while almost 2 billion people go hungry or undernourished.

The food sector accounts for around 22 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions, largely from the conversion of forests into farmland.

Globally, 2 billion people are overweight or obese.

Only 3 percent of the world’s water is fresh (drinkable), and humans are using it faster than nature can replenish it.

If people everywhere switched to energy efficient lightbulbs, the world would save US$120 billion annually.

One-fifth of the world’s final energy consumption in 2013 was from renewable sources.

Implement the 10-year framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production, all countries taking action, with developed countries taking the lead, taking into account the development and capabilities of developing countries
By 2030, achieve the sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources
By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses
By 2020, achieve the environmentally sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their life cycle, in accordance with agreed international frameworks, and significantly reduce their release to air, water and soil in order to minimize their adverse impacts on human health and the environment
By 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse
Encourage companies, especially large and transnational companies, to adopt sustainable practices and to integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle
Promote public procurement practices that are sustainable, in accordance with national policies and priorities
By 2030, ensure that people everywhere have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature
Support developing countries to strengthen their scientific and technological capacity to move towards more sustainable patterns of consumption and production
Develop and implement tools to monitor sustainable development impacts for sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products
Rationalize inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption by removing market distortions, in accordance with national circumstances, including by restructuring taxation and phasing out those harmful subsidies, where they exist, to reflect their environmental impacts, taking fully into account the specific needs and conditions of developing countries and minimizing the possible adverse impacts on their development in a manner that protects the poor and the affected communities

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Climate action.

There is no country that is not experiencing the drastic effects of climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions are more than 50 percent higher than in 1990. Global warming is causing long-lasting changes to our climate system, which threatens irreversible consequences if we do not act.

The annual average economic losses from climate-related disasters are in the hundreds of billions of dollars. This is not to mention the human impact of geo-physical disasters, which are 91 percent climate-related, and which between 1998 and 2017 killed 1.3 million people, and left 4.4 billion injured. The goal aims to mobilize US$100 billion annually by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries to both adapt to climate change and invest in low-carbon development.

Supporting vulnerable regions will directly contribute not only to Goal 13 but also to the other SDGs. These actions must also go hand in hand with efforts to integrate disaster risk measures, sustainable natural resource management, and human security into national development strategies. It is still possible, with strong political will, increased investment, and using existing technology, to limit the increase in global mean temperature to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, aiming at 1.5 ° C, but this requires urgent and ambitious collective action.

As of 2017 humans are estimated to have caused approximately 1.0°C of global warming above pre-industrial levels.

Sea levels have risen by about 20 cm (8 inches) since 1880 and are projected to rise another 30–122 cm (1 to 4 feet) by 2100.

To limit warming to 1.5C, global net CO2 emissions must drop by 45% between 2010 and 2030, and reach net zero around 2050.

Climate pledges under The Paris Agreement cover only one third of the emissions reductions needed to keep the world below 2°C.

Bold climate action could trigger at least US$26 trillion in economic benefits by 2030.

The energy sector alone will create around 18 million more jobs by 2030, focused specifically on sustainable energy.

Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries
Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning
Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning
Implement the commitment undertaken by developed-country parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to a goal of mobilizing jointly $100 billion annually by 2020 from all sources to address the needs of developing countries in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation and fully operationalize the Green Climate Fund through its capitalization as soon as possible
Promote mechanisms for raising capacity for effective climate change-related planning and management in least developed countries and small island developing States, including focusing on women, youth and local and marginalized communities

Life Below Water

The world’s oceans – their temperature, chemistry, currents and life – drive global systems that make the Earth habitable for humankind. How we manage this vital resource is essential for humanity as a whole, and to counterbalance the effects of climate change.

Over three billion people depend on marine and coastal biodiversity for their livelihoods. However, today we are seeing 30 percent of the world’s fish stocks overexploited, reaching below the level at which they can produce sustainable yields.

Oceans also absorb about 30 percent of the carbon dioxide produced by humans, and we are seeing a 26 percent rise in ocean acidification since the beginning of the industrial revolution. Marine pollution, an overwhelming majority of which comes from land-based sources, is reaching alarming levels, with an average of 13,000 pieces of plastic litter to be found on every square kilometre of ocean.

The SDGs aim to sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems from pollution, as well as address the impacts of ocean acidification. Enhancing conservation and the sustainable use of ocean-based resources through international law will also help mitigate some of the challenges facing our oceans.

The ocean covers three quarters of the Earth’s surface and represents 99 percent of the living space on the planet by volume.

The ocean contains nearly 200,000 identified species, but actual numbers may lie in the millions.

As much as 40 percent of the ocean is heavily affected by pollution, depleted fisheries, loss of coastal habitats and other human activities.

The ocean absorbs about 30 percent of carbon dioxide produced by humans, buffering the impacts of global warming.

More than 3 billion people depend on marine and coastal biodiversity for their livelihoods.

The market value of marine and coastal resources and industries is estimated at US$3 trillion per year, about 5 percent of global GDP.

By 2025, prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution
By 2020, sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems to avoid significant adverse impacts, including by strengthening their resilience, and take action for their restoration in order to achieve healthy and productive oceans
Minimize and address the impacts of ocean acidification, including through enhanced scientific cooperation at all levels
By 2020, effectively regulate harvesting and end overfishing, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and destructive fishing practices and implement science-based management plans, in order to restore fish stocks in the shortest time feasible, at least to levels that can produce maximum sustainable yield as determined by their biological characteristics
By 2020, conserve at least 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas, consistent with national and international law and based on the best available scientific information
By 2020, prohibit certain forms of fisheries subsidies which contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, eliminate subsidies that contribute to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and refrain from introducing new such subsidies, recognizing that appropriate and effective special and differential treatment for developing and least developed countries should be an integral part of the World Trade Organization fisheries subsidies negotiation
By 2030, increase the economic benefits to Small Island developing States and least developed countries from the sustainable use of marine resources, including through sustainable management of fisheries, aquaculture and tourism
Increase scientific knowledge, develop research capacity and transfer marine technology, taking into account the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Criteria and Guidelines on the Transfer of Marine Technology, in order to improve ocean health and to enhance the contribution of marine biodiversity to the development of developing countries, in particular small island developing States and least developed countries
Provide access for small-scale artisanal fishers to marine resources and markets
Enhance the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and their resources by implementing international law as reflected in UNCLOS, which provides the legal framework for the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and their resources, as recalled in paragraph 158 of The Future We Want

Investing in SIDS and LLDCs is...

Small island developing states and pathways t..., life on land.

Human life depends on the earth as much as the ocean for our sustenance and livelihoods. Plant life provides 80 percent of the human diet, and we rely on agriculture as an important economic resources. Forests cover 30 percent of the Earth’s surface, provide vital habitats for millions of species, and important sources for clean air and water, as well as being crucial for combating climate change.

Every year, 13 million hectares of forests are lost, while the persistent degradation of drylands has led to the desertification of 3.6 billion hectares, disproportionately affecting poor communities.

While 15 percent of land is protected, biodiversity is still at risk. Nearly 7,000 species of animals and plants have been illegally traded. Wildlife trafficking not only erodes biodiversity, but creates insecurity, fuels conflict, and feeds corruption.

Urgent action must be taken to reduce the loss of natural habitats and biodiversity which are part of our common heritage and support global food and water security, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and peace and security.

Around 1.6 billion people depend on forests for their livelihoods.

Forests are home to more than 80 percent of all terrestrial species of animals, plants and insects.

2.6 billion people depend directly on agriculture for a living.

Nature-based climate solutions can contribute about a third of CO2 reductions by 2030.

The value of ecosystems to human livelihoods and well-being is $US125 trillion per year.v

Mountain regions provide 60-80 percent of the Earth's fresh water.

By 2020, ensure the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and their services, in particular forests, wetlands, mountains and drylands, in line with obligations under international agreements
By 2020, promote the implementation of sustainable management of all types of forests, halt deforestation, restore degraded forests and substantially increase afforestation and reforestation globally
By 2030, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world
By 2030, ensure the conservation of mountain ecosystems, including their biodiversity, in order to enhance their capacity to provide benefits that are essential for sustainable development
Take urgent and significant action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats, halt the loss of biodiversity and, by 2020, protect and prevent the extinction of threatened species
Promote fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and promote appropriate access to such resources, as internationally agreed
Take urgent action to end poaching and trafficking of protected species of flora and fauna and address both demand and supply of illegal wildlife products
By 2020, introduce measures to prevent the introduction and significantly reduce the impact of invasive alien species on land and water ecosystems and control or eradicate the priority species
By 2020, integrate ecosystem and biodiversity values into national and local planning, development processes, poverty reduction strategies and accounts
Mobilize and significantly increase financial resources from all sources to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity and ecosystems
Mobilize significant resources from all sources and at all levels to finance sustainable forest management and provide adequate incentives to developing countries to advance such management, including for conservation and reforestation
Enhance global support for efforts to combat poaching and trafficking of protected species, including by increasing the capacity of local communities to pursue sustainable livelihood opportunities

Over the hump

Peace, justice and strong institutions.

We cannot hope for sustainable development without peace, stability, human rights and effective governance, based on the rule of law. Yet our world is increasingly divided. Some regions enjoy peace, security and prosperity, while others fall into seemingly endless cycles of conflict and violence. This is not inevitable and must be addressed.

Armed violence and insecurity have a destructive impact on a country’s development, affecting economic growth, and often resulting in grievances that last for generations. Sexual violence, crime, exploitation and torture are also prevalent where there is conflict, or no rule of law, and countries must take measures to protect those who are most at risk

The SDGs aim to significantly reduce all forms of violence, and work with governments and communities to end conflict and insecurity. Promoting the rule of law and human rights are key to this process, as is reducing the flow of illicit arms and strengthening the participation of developing countries in the institutions of global governance.

By the end of 2017, 68.5 million people had been forcibly displaced as a result of persecution, conflict, violence or human rights violations.

There are at least 10 million stateless people who have been denied nationality and its related rights.

Corruption, bribery, theft and tax evasion cost developing countries US$1.26 trillion per year.

49 countries lack laws protecting women from domestic violence.

In 46 countries, women now hold more than 30 percent of seats in at least one chamber of national parliament.

1 billion people are legally ‘invisible’ because they cannot prove who they are. This includes an estimated 625 million children under 14 whose births were never registered.

Significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere
End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children
Promote the rule of law at the national and international levels and ensure equal access to justice for all
By 2030, significantly reduce illicit financial and arms flows, strengthen the recovery and return of stolen assets and combat all forms of organized crime
Substantially reduce corruption and bribery in all their forms
Develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels
Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels
Broaden and strengthen the participation of developing countries in the institutions of global governance
By 2030, provide legal identity for all, including birth registration
Ensure public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms, in accordance with national legislation and international agreements
Strengthen relevant national institutions, including through international cooperation, for building capacity at all levels, in particular in developing countries, to prevent violence and combat terrorism and crime
Promote and enforce non-discriminatory laws and policies for sustainable development

How Likely Are We to Achieve t...

Identifying Key Priorities and...

New Effective Paths for Approa...

Partnerships for the goals.

The SDGs can only be realized with strong global partnerships and cooperation. Official Development Assistance remained steady but below target, at US$147 billion in 2017. While humanitarian crises brought on by conflict or natural disasters continue to demand more financial resources and aid. Many countries also require Official Development Assistance to encourage growth and trade.

The world is more interconnected than ever. Improving access to technology and knowledge is an important way to share ideas and foster innovation. Coordinating policies to help developing countries manage their debt, as well as promoting investment for the least developed, is vital for sustainable growth and development.

The goals aim to enhance North-South and South-South cooperation by supporting national plans to achieve all the targets. Promoting international trade, and helping developing countries increase their exports is all part of achieving a universal rules-based and equitable trading system that is fair and open and benefits all.

The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) says achieving SDGs will require US$5 trillion to $7 trillion in annual investment.

Total official development assistance reached US$147.2 billion in 2017.

In 2017, international remittances totaled US$613 billion; 76 percent of it went to developing countries.

In 2016, 6 countries met the international target to keep official development assistance at or above 0.7 percent of gross national income.

Sustainable and responsible investments represent high-potential sources of capital for SDGs. As of 2016, US$18.2 trillion was invested in this asset class.

The bond market for sustainable business is growing. In 2018 global green bonds reached US$155.5billion, up 78 percent from previous year.

Strengthen domestic resource mobilization, including through international support to developing countries, to improve domestic capacity for tax and other revenue collection
Developed countries to implement fully their official development assistance commitments, including the commitment by many developed countries to achieve the target of 0.7 per cent of ODA/GNI to developing countries and 0.15 to 0.20 per cent of ODA/GNI to least developed countries ODA providers are encouraged to consider setting a target to provide at least 0.20 per cent of ODA/GNI to least developed countries
Mobilize additional financial resources for developing countries from multiple sources
Assist developing countries in attaining long-term debt sustainability through coordinated policies aimed at fostering debt financing, debt relief and debt restructuring, as appropriate, and address the external debt of highly indebted poor countries to reduce debt distress
Adopt and implement investment promotion regimes for least developed countries
Enhance North-South, South-South and triangular regional and international cooperation on and access to science, technology and innovation and enhance knowledge sharing on mutually agreed terms, including through improved coordination among existing mechanisms, in particular at the United Nations level, and through a global technology facilitation mechanism
Promote the development, transfer, dissemination and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies to developing countries on favourable terms, including on concessional and preferential terms, as mutually agreed
Fully operationalize the technology bank and science, technology and innovation capacity-building mechanism for least developed countries by 2017 and enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology

Capacity building

Enhance international support for implementing effective and targeted capacity-building in developing countries to support national plans to implement all the sustainable development goals, including through North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation
Promote a universal, rules-based, open, non-discriminatory and equitable multilateral trading system under the World Trade Organization, including through the conclusion of negotiations under its Doha Development Agenda
Significantly increase the exports of developing countries, in particular with a view to doubling the least developed countries’ share of global exports by 2020
Realize timely implementation of duty-free and quota-free market access on a lasting basis for all least developed countries, consistent with World Trade Organization decisions, including by ensuring that preferential rules of origin applicable to imports from least developed countries are transparent and simple, and contribute to facilitating market access

Systemic issues

Policy and institutional coherence

Enhance global macroeconomic stability, including through policy coordination and policy coherence
Enhance policy coherence for sustainable development
Respect each country’s policy space and leadership to establish and implement policies for poverty eradication and sustainable development

Multi-stakeholder partnerships

Enhance the global partnership for sustainable development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources, to support the achievement of the sustainable development goals in all countries, in particular developing countries
Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships

Data, monitoring and accountability

By 2020, enhance capacity-building support to developing countries, including for least developed countries and small island developing States, to increase significantly the availability of high-quality, timely and reliable data disaggregated by income, gender, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, geographic location and other characteristics relevant in national contexts
By 2030, build on existing initiatives to develop measurements of progress on sustainable development that complement gross domestic product, and support statistical capacity-building in developing countries

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Tackling domestic debt sustainability challenges in Africa

3 April 2024 - Public debt levels are growing in Africa, with many countries already in or at risk of debt distress. Impacts of global shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and spillover effects of high interest rates in many developed countries have further exacerbated debt vulnerability. This is also weighing on delivery of health, education and other public services.

Policy dialogue on debt in Africa has been largely focused on external debt. However, domestic debt has become increasingly important in several countries over the past two decades. Domestic debt offers an alternative source of financing for African countries, particularly for those with relatively limited access to international financial markets. It also minimizes the risks of exchange rate volatility and currency mismatches, thus ensuring predictability on debt stock levels.

However, domestic debt also carries significant risks. For instance, large domestic debt by the public sector could crowd out private investment. In cases where domestic financial institutions are the largest holders of domestic debt, credit available for the private sector is diminished. This in turn curtails the private sector’s growth potential, since reduced private credit undermines investments into the real economy. At the same time, the associated high cost of domestic debt service also limits many African governments’ ability to maneuver an increasingly constrained fiscal space. Given the strong interactions between domestic debt and the financial sector in many countries, a domestic debt default can rapidly ripple through the economy, triggering a broad range of economic, financial, and social challenges.

Debt sustainability needs to consider both international and domestic debt. African countries will need to carefully navigate the challenges associated with domestic debt to strengthen their sustainable development outlook.

Learn more in the April Monthly Briefing of the World Economic Situation and Prospects , available on 1 April 2024.

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