UN says development goals progress 'insufficient' 10 years on

Ten years after the United Nations adopted its Sustainable Development Goals, it said Monday that more people now have access to the internet, but major issues like hunger have worsened.

UN member states committed in 2015 to pursuing 17 goals that range from ending extreme poverty and hunger to pursuing gender equality and clean energy by 2030.

In a report published Monday, the United Nations said that 35 percent of the objectives were advancing, while around half had stagnated and the rest were heading backwards.

This scorecard, it said, showed that the progress was "insufficient."

Among the most successful was improving access to electricity, with 92 percent of the world connected by 2023. Internet usage has also risen from 40 percent to 68 percent worldwide in the last decade.

Some 110 million more children and young people have entered school since 2015, the report said, while maternal mortality has fallen from 228 deaths per 100,000 births in 2015 to 197 in 2023.

But some goals have receded despite this progress.

In 2023, 757 million people (9.1 percent of the world's population) were suffering from hunger, compared with 713 million (7.5 percent) in 2019, the report said.

Meanwhile, more than 800 million people – around one in 10 people worldwide – are still living in extreme poverty.

"Eradicating extreme poverty by 2030 appears highly unlikely due to slow recovery from Covid-19 impacts, economic instability, climate shocks, and sluggish growth in sub-Saharan Africa," the report said.

UN chief Antonio Guterres warned at a news conference that the world was facing a global development emergency.

It was, he added, "an emergency measured in the over 800 million people still living in extreme poverty. In intensifying climate impacts. And in relentless debt service, draining the resources that countries need to invest in their people."

However, Guterres struck a positive tone on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, saying that if they didn't exist, "many of these achievements would never have been reached."

Last month, the UN Sustainable Development Report showed Malta had risen in the rankings – despite rising air and sea pollution. 

This year, Malta ranked 24th out of 167 countries in the UN Sustainable Development Report – an improvement of 12 places when compared to last year, when the country ranked 36.

Malta achieved a score of 79.3, a two-percentage points improvement over last year and seven points above the regional average.

While Malta saw its overall score rise, its objectives in ‘quality education’ reached and those covering ‘clean water and sanitation’ improve from "major" to "significant" challenges, problems persisted.

The most recently available UN data revealed “major challenges” in ocean health, with Malta's ‘clean waters score’ falling by eight points to 48.9 out of 100. The score measures contamination of national waters by “chemicals, excessive nutrients, human pathogens, and trash”, according to the SDSN.