Sustainable Development Report 2020

The Sustainable Development Report (SDR) 2020 presents an annual review of countries’ performance on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and includes the SDG Index and Dashboards for all UN member states and frames the implementation of the SDGs in terms of six broad transformations.It was prepared by teams of independent experts at the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the Bertelsmann Stiftung.

SDR 2020 also presents and aggregates data on country performance towards the SDGs. Note however that it is not an official SDG monitoring tool, but instead complements efforts of national statistical offices and international organizations to collect data on and standardize SDG indicators. To this end, the report presents the most up-to-date data from official sources (the United Nations, the World Bank, and others) as well as from non-official sources (research institutions and non-governmental organizations)

Some of the key findings of the report include the following:

1. 1. COVID‑19 will have severe negative impacts on most SDGs.
   2. All countries need to strengthen the resilience of their health systems and prevention programs.
   3. The SDGs and the Six SDG Transformations can inform the recovery from COVID‑19
   4. Asian countries have made the most progress towards the SDGs since the adoption of the goals in 2015. Asian countries have also responded most effectively to the COVID-19 outbreak.
   5. Solidarity and partnerships are critical to address and prevent health, economic, and humanitarian crises.
   6. Data gaps and time lags in official statistics require urgent investments in statistical capacity and increased coordination between governments and the private sector.

The SDR 2020 also includes the SDG Index and SDG Dashboard. The SDG Index tracks country performance on the 17 SDGs, as agreed by the international community in 2015 with equal weight to all 17 goals. The score signifies a country’s position between the worst (0) and the best or target (100) outcomes. To ensure transparency and encourage further analyses, all underlying data is made available publicly through this website: https://sdgindex.org.

Meanwhile, the SDG Dashboard highlights the strengths and weaknesses of each country in relation to each of the 17 SDGs. The interactive SDR 2020 Dashboards provide a visual representation of countries’ performance by SDGs to identify priorities for action. The dashboards are accessible through this website: https://dashboards.sdgindex.org.

A copy of the report may be accessed through this link: CLICK HERE

Sources:

Cambridge University Press, 2020. Sustainable Development Report 2020.. The Sustainable Development Goals and COVID-19. [online] Available at: <https://s3.amazonaws.com/sustainabledevelopment.report/2020/2020_sustainable_development_report.pdf> [Accessed 7 July 2020].

Sdgindex.org. 2020. Sustainable Development Report 2020. [online] Available at: <https://sdgindex.org/reports/sustainable-development-report-2020/> [Accessed 7 July 2020].