WHAT ARE THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS?

An end to poverty, a better environment, gender equality – could we achieve all these things in just 13 years?

Sustainable Development Goals is ‘a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity’.

In other words, it’s what we need to get done to make the world a liveable place for everyone.

There are 17 overall goals, with smaller targets within them – and they cover everything from gender equality to climate change and clean sanitation.

But if some of these sound familiar, it’s not just you. One of the main aims of the SDG is to complete what the Millennium Development Goals – set out in 2000 with a deadline of 2015 – did not manage.

1: NO POVERTY

One of the UN’s main aims is to completely eradicate ‘extreme poverty’ by 2030 – which is currently defined as living on less than $1.25 (£1) a day. As of September 2013, around 1.3billion people were still living in extreme poverty – with almost half of those living in India and China. More than 85% of those living in extreme poverty were in just 20 countries.

They also want to reduce all poverty, in all dimensions, by at least half. Poverty, in this case, depends on how each country defines it.

And, crucially, they want to help build better protections for the poor and vulnerable against climate-related extreme events and natural disasters.

2: ZERO HUNGER

Another of the UN’s key goals is to end hunger, and ensure everyone has access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all through the year.

It may seem like a big task, but this is a luxury most of us already enjoy. But 795million people in the world still don’t have enough food to live a healthy, active life.

One way of dealing with hunger is to increase the agricultural productivity, and also the incomes, of small-scale food producers. If the SDG are achieved, this will be at least doubled by 2030.

3: GOOD HEALTH AND WELL-BEING

The SDG sets out some very specific targets to improve health across the world.

In particular, they want to:

            Reduce the global maternity mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030, and end preventable deaths of newborns and children under five years

            End the epidemics of AIDs, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases, combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases, and other communicable diseases

            Strengthen the prevention and treatment of substance abuse – including the harmful use of alcohol, and narcotic drug abuse

            Halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents by 2020

            Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive healthcare services – including for family planning – by 2030

            Achieve universal health coverage, including access to services, medicines and vaccines for all

4: QUALITY EDUCATION

Millions of children all over the world are still being denied an education. This is particularly bad for girls – with around 70million young girls still out of school.

Because of this, the SDG wants to ensure that all children – both boys and girls – complete a free, equal and good quality primary and secondary school education.

After this, it’s hoped that by 2030 all women and men will have equal access to affordable technical, vocational and tertiary education – which includes university. As a result, this will significantly increase the number of young people and adults who are able to gain decent employment.

Another aim is to make sure that all youth, and a substantial proportion of adults, achieve literacy and numeracy.

5: GENDER EQUALITY

Gender inequality is still a major problem all over the world – from girls being denied primary education, to women in the workplace being paid less than their male counterparts.

So, the SDG’s main aim here is: ‘End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere.’

In particular this will involve eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls in both private and public; eradicating child marriages, forced marriages, and FGM; and ensuring women participate and are fully represented at all levels of decision making, in politics and public life.

6: CLEAN WATER AND SANITATION

According to Water Aid, 2.4billion people don’t have access to adequate sanitation. That’s one-third of the world’s population. At the same time, 663million people have to live without safe water.

But by 2030 the UN wants to ensure that everyone in the world has access to safe and affordable drinking water.

They also want to improve water quality by reducing pollution, and minimising the release of hazardous chemicals.

7: AFFORDABLE AND CLEAN ENERGY

While we argue about whether or not to get the latest iPhone, some 1.2billion people don’t even have access to electricity. Another 2.7billion people don’t have clean cooking facilities.

By 2030, the UN wants to make sure everyone has access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services – and to increase the usage of renewable energy sources.

8: DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

The UN hopes that by 2030 the world’s least developed countries will all achieve a GDP growth rate of at least 7% per year, with higher levels of economic productivity and decent job creation.

Along with this, they want to secure and protect labour rights for all workers – including migrant workers and those in precarious employment – and to substantially reduce the number of young NEET (not in education, employment or training) people.

And – crucially – they will take immediate and effective action to eradicate forced labour, modern slavery, human trafficking, and child labour – in particular, the recruitment of child soldiers.

9: INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE

The UN wants to promote ‘inclusive and sustainable’ industrialisation, and to make sure more small-scall enterprises can access financial services – including affordable credit.

As well as this, a major aim of the SDG is to foster innovation – particularly in developing countries – which requires greater scientific research and access to technological upgrades.

10: REDUCED INEQUALITIES

‘We have reached a tipping point,’ according to the OECD’s Secretary General. ‘Inequality can no longer be treated as an afterthought.’

According to the latest statistics, the average income of the richest 10% of the world’s population is about nine times that of the poorest 10%. While economic growth in countries such as China and India have lifted millions out of absolute poverty, the benefits have not been evenly distributed. The gap between rich and poor is increasing.

To go some way towards fixing this by 2030, the UN wants to achieve and sustain income growth of the bottom 40% of the population at a higher rate than the national average.

One clear way of doing this is to make sure people have equal access to opportunities, and discriminatory laws, policies and practices are eradicated

11: SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES

This means people should have access to safe, affordable housing (genuinely affordable – not ‘£20,000 a year affordable’), and slums in developing cities should be upgraded by 2030.

Cities should also have accessible, effective, safe and affordable transport systems for everyone to use, safer roads, and should have cultural landmarks safeguarded.

And, in something that’s particularly pertinent for Londoners, pollution in cities should be reduced in order to improve air quality.

12: RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION

Another big goal – which will also go a long way to eradicating hunger – is the elimination of unnecessary food waste.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme, around a third of the food produced in the world for human consumption gets wasted or lost every year. That’s around 1.3billion tonnes. Every year, people in wealthy countries waste as much food as is produced in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa.

So by 2030, the UN wants to halve global food waste at the retail and consumer levels, and to reduce food losses at the production and supply stages.

13: CLIMATE ACTION

Although climate change denial is creeping into the White House, the UN hopes that over the next 15 years effective climate change measures will be integrated into national policies.

Included in this is the need to educate people about the very real dangers of climate change.

But it also requires strengthening people’s resilience to climate-related hazards and natural disasters – not just in developing countries, but all over the world.

14: LIFE BELOW WATER

With land-based sources such as untreated sewage, including plastics, accounting for 80% of the world’s marine pollution, it’s clear – our oceans are under attack.

By 2025 the UN wants to both prevent and reduce marine pollution of all kinds, and to protect marine and coastal ecosystems.

They also want to prohibit certain forms of fishing subsidies which contribute to overfishing, and eliminate others that support illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, by 2020.

15: LIFE ON LAND

While our oceans are being attacked, so is our land. One of the SDGs is to protect, restore, and promote sustainable use of ecosystems on land – forests in particular.

One of the main threats to our land is desertification – where fertile land is effectively turned into desert by mining, overgrazing by farm animals, unsustainable farming, and climate change.

Over the next five to 15 years, the UN hopes to restore degraded land, soil and forests, stop deforestation, and substantially increase reforestation.

16: PEACE, JUSTICE AND STRONG INSTITUTIONS

The UN wants to promote peaceful and inclusive societies, provide universal access to justice, and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

There is a lot of work to be done in this area.

This is because doing so will entail reducing all forms of violence and killings everywhere; ending abuse, trafficking, exploitation, and all forms of torture of children; ensuring everyone has equal access to legal justice; and, by 2030, to reduce illicit financial and arms flows, and combat all forms of organised crime.

17: PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE GOALS

Naturally, all of this can’t really happen if countries don’t collaborate and cooperate properly.

So, one of the most important goals is to get all nations working together on the other 16 goals.

Because it’s so important, this particular goal has been separated into sub-sections: finance, technology, capacity-building, trade, and systemic issues.

Credit: Ashitha Nagesh, Metro news, UK