Article Preview
TopIntroduction
The United Nations (UN) Millennium Declaration, signed in September 2000, specified 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to be achieved by 2015 (WHO, 2000). These goals asked the world leaders to combat emerging issues such as poverty, hunger, illiteracy, and environmental degradation in collaboration with global partners. All of these goals were interdependent, and there was a great debate whether the global achievements were sufficient or not in achieving the indicators suggested by MDGs (Gómez-Olivé & Thorogood, 2018; L. Liu et al., 2016). The mixed evidence of success in achieving MDGs motivated the UN to initiate a more comprehensive policy towards evidence-based quantitative goals. These goals should be measured by the researchers and policymakers alike (Brende & Høie, 2015). In September 2015, the heads of states and high intergovernmental representatives had a meeting at the UN headquarters in New York City, where a new agreement is declared.
The UN (United Nations Declaration, 2018) declared the foundations for a new set of goals known as the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These goals offer nations a guideline for achieving sustainable and inclusive growth in terms of health, social welfare, efficiency, and protection of natural resources. As per the declaration, these 17 SDGs are listed as no poverty (1), zero hunger (2), good health and wellbeing (3), quality education (4), gender equality (5), clean water and sanitation (6), affordable and green energy (7), decent work and economic growth (8), Industry, innovation, and infrastructure (9), reducing inequality (10), sustainable cities and communities (11), responsible consumption and production (12), climate action (13), life below water (14), life on land (15), peace, justice, and strong institution (16), partnerships for the goals (17).
These goals were also more detailed than the MDGs, and the achievement towards each goal was to be measured by several sub-goals (targets) and indicators. The UN declaration suggested a total of 169 targets, which can be measured by 232 unique indicators. Having measurable indicators are essential as indicator-based assessments are among the key motivating factors to achieve sustainability (Allen et al., 2017). The achievements towards SDG targets are expected to be supported by the business, civil, and government authorities (Scheyvens et al., 2016). Sustainability is one of the most critical challenges faced by modern society (Liew et al., 2014). As such, there was a significant emphasis on sustainability in the new agenda. As stated by the UN resolution 700/1, these SDGs were aimed at achieving a better and sustainable future for both current and future generations. While many of these goals were expected to be achieved by 2030, some of the targets were set to be achieved by as early as 2020.
These goals are not only broad on their own, but they are also interdependent. There are significant synergies between these targets (Allen et al., 2018). For instance, by reducing inequality within society, it will also be possible to reduce poverty and alleviate gender inequality. However, not all nations are expected to align their national goals towards achieving these SDGs. Some nations are likely to face more challenges due to their climate or the way climate change affects them. Economic conditions are also among the factors affecting the nations’ sustainability initiatives (Amin-Salem et al., 2018). For example, per capita income is correlated with achievements towards these goals. Still, the indicators are somewhat supposedly designed to be easily accessible for the general public and can be measured for cross-country comparisons. Many research has been done to rank the UN member states’ achievements toward SDGs (Campagnolo & Davide, 2019; Novillo-Ortiz et al., 2018; Requejo-Castro et al., 2020; Roy & Pramanick, 2019).