The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2016

The 2030 agenda is a road map for people and the planet that will build on the success of the Millennium Development Goals and ensure sustainable social and economic progress world-wide. It seeks not only to eradicate extreme poverty, but also to integrate and balance the three dimensions of sustainable development—economic, social and environmental—in a comprehensive global vision.

The aim of this report is to start implementation with a sense of opportunity and purpose based on an accurate evaluation of where the world stands now. It presents an overview of the 17 Goals using data currently available to highlight the most significant gaps and challenges. The latest data show that about one in eight people still lived in extreme poverty, nearly 800 million people suffered from hunger, the births of nearly a quarter of children under 5 had not been recorded, 1.1 billion people were living without electricity, and water scarcity affected more than 2 billion people. These statistics show how important coordinated global data-generation efforts will be in supplying reliable and timely data for systematic follow-up and progress reviews.

This first report is a starting point. With collective global action, the opportunities before us can be seized and, together, the pledge of the 2030 Agenda to leave no one behind can be achieved.