Overview

End poverty in all its forms everywhere

COVID-19 has led to the The

first rise in extreme poverty global poverty rate

is projected to be
in a generation
7% in 2030
An additional 119–124 million people were
pushed back into extreme poverty in 2020

missing the target

of eradicating poverty

As of April 2021,
118 countries reported
national and/or local
disaster risk
reduction strategies,
up from 45 in 2015

Governments worldwide have put in place

1,600 short-term social protection measures
in response to COVID-19
but 4 billion people are still not covered by social protection

The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2021 8

 End hunger, achieve food security and improved
nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

The global pandemic Pandemic will worsen

child malnutrition
is exacerbating
22% (149.2 million)
world hunger of children under 5
are stunted

6.7% (45.4 million)

Worldwide, an additional of children under 5
70–161 million people suffer from wasting
are likely to have
experienced hunger 5.7% (38.9 million)
of children under 5
as a result of the are overweight (2020*)
pandemic in 2020 *THESE 2020 ESTIMATES DO NOT REFLECT IMPACT OF PANDEMIC

Number of undernourished people in the world Almost

one third of women
of reproductive age
607 650 720–811
million million million globally suffer from
anaemia, in part due to
2014 2019 2020 nutrition deficiencies

2.37 billion people are without food

or unable to eat a healthy balanced diet
on a regular basis (2020)

9 Overview
 Ensure healthy lives and promote
well-being for all at all ages

The pandemic A decade of progress

has halted or reversed progress in
in health and shortened life expectancy

reproductive maternal child

health health health

90% of countries are still reporting one or more could be stalled or reversed
disruptions to essential health services by COVID-19

A lack of data Health workers

hinders understanding of the true impact of COVID-19
— in short supply in many regions —
have been stretched to their limits
by the pandemic

Countries with Death Registration System

at least 75% Complete
62% world <20% Sub-Saharan Africa
(2015–2019) Nurses and Midwives

investment in
Scaling up
150 10
per 10,000 people per 10,000 people
UHC universal health coverage Northern sub-Saharan
America Africa
is essential (2013–2019)

The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2021 10

 Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and
promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

COVID-19
has wiped out 20 years
of education gains Participation in
organized pre-primary learning
an additional 101 million or 9% of children increased from
in grades 1 through 8 fell below 65% in 2010 to 73% in 2019
minimum reading proficiency levels in 2020
now, Many young children
are entirely reliant on caregivers at home
proficient

45% Slow progress in school completion

is likely to get worse

9% School completion rate

not proficient

primary secondary

46%
2010 2019 2010 2019
82% 85% 46% 53%
world

Basic school infrastructure to build back better is lacking in many countries

Proportion of schools in ldcs with basic infrastructure
(2016–2019)

drinking handwashing
56% water 33% electricity 40% facilities

11 Overview
 Achieve gender equality and
empower all women and girls

Women's equal participation Violence against women

in decision-making is crucial for persists at unacceptably high levels and
is intensified by the pandemic
COVID-19 response and recovery,
but gender parity remains far off

1 in 3 women (736 million)

Women represent have been subjected to physical and/or sexual violence
at least once in their lifetime since the age of 15
(2000–2018)

In national
25.6% parliaments
10 million girls
Up to

will be at risk
In local
of child marriage
36.3% Government
over the next decade
as a result of COVID-19

In Managerial
28.2% positions
In addition to the 100 million
who were projected to become
(2021) child brides before the pandemic

Pandemic is adding to the burden of unpaid domestic and

care work and squeezing women out of the labour force

Women already spend about 2.5 times as many hours as men

on unpaid domestic and care work

The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2021 12

 Ensure availability and sustainable
management of water and sanitation for all

Billions of people still lack

access to safe drinking water,
sanitation and hygiene 2.3 billion people
in 2020 live in
water-stressed
countries (2018)

2 billion people 3.6 billion people 2.3 billion people

26% 46% 29%

lack lack lack
safely managed safely managed basic Between 1970 and 2015,
drinking water sanitation hygiene
natural wetlands
shrank by 35%
ensuring universal access fundamental
is

for COVID-19 recovery 3 x the rate of forest loss

129 countries are not on track to have

sustainably managed water resources by 2030

current rate of progress needs to double

13 Overview
 Ensure access to affordable, reliable,
sustainable and modern energy for all

One third 759 million

people
of the world’s population use
lack access
dangerous and inefficient to electricity
cooking systems (2019)
3 out of 4
of them live in
sub-Saharan Africa
(2019)

Energy efficiency
improvement rate
needs acceleration
Annual efficiency improvement rate

2% 3%
needed
2.6 billion people (2010-2018) (2018-2030)

Accelerated action on modern renewable energy is needed —

especially in heating and transport sectors
Modern renewable share of total final energy consumption (2018)
Electricity Heat transport
sector sector sector
25.4% 9.2% 3.4%

The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2021 14

 Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth,
full and productive employment and decent work for all

the pandemic Economic recovery

has led to the loss of the equivalent of is under way
255 million full-time jobs Global real GDP per capita
(2017–2022)

2.2 3.1

-4.6

2017 2020 2021 2022

But for many countries, economic

growth is expected to return to pre-
pandemic levels only in 2022 or 2023

about 4x the number lost during

the global financial crisis (2007-2009) International
tourist arrivals
fell from 1.5 billion in 2019
to 381 million in 2020 –
1.6 billion who lack a social safety net,
informal were significantly affected International tourism
economy by the pandemic is not expected to
workers return to 2019 levels
for up to 4 years

Pandemic will lead to an increase in youth

Not employed, in school or in training
Young women Young men

rate of youth not in education,

31.1% employment or training (2019) 14.0%

15 Overview
 Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and
sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

Global manufacturing Manufacture of

medium- and
production plummeted high-tech products
fuelled economic
recovery
in late 2020
as a result of the COVID-19 crisis
4% growth compared to same period in 2019
(4th quarter 2020)

falling 6.8% Enhancing

in 2020 rural road connectivity
2014 2016 2018 2020 helps reduce poverty

2020 was catastrophic

for air travel demand
Almost 300 million
out of 520 million rural dwellers

lack good access to roads

in 25 countries (2018–2019)
Air passengers dropped from 4.5 billion in 2019 to 1.8 billion in 2020,
a 60% decline

Increased investment in R&D is essential

to finding solutions for crises such as COVID-19
$2.2 trillion 1,235 researchers
global investments per million
in R&D (2018) inhabitants (2018)

The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2021 16

 Reduce inequality within and
among countries

The pandemic
is likely to reverse progress
made in reducing income inequality
since the financial crisis
The proportion of the global
population who are refugees
has more than doubled since 2010

FOR EVERY 100,000 PERSONS,

311 ARE REFUGEES (2020)

COVID-19
estimated to increase the average Gini Remittance costs
for emerging market and developing countries are at an all-time low at 6.5% (2020)
by 6%

The Gini index measures income inequality and ranges from 0 to 100,
where 0 indicates that income is shared equally among all people, and further progress is needed
100 indicates that one person accounts for all income.
to reach the 3% target

In 2020, 4,186 deaths and disappearances

were recorded on migratory routes worldwide

17 Overview
 Make cities and human settlements inclusive,
safe, resilient and sustainable

The pandemic
16%
has worsened the plight of
slum dwellers the average global share
of urban area
allocated to streets and
open public spaces (2020)

short of the target

The majority of the more than of 30% streets and 10–15% open public spaces

1 billion slum dwellers

reside in three regions (2018)
156 countries have developed
national urban policies

Eastern and sub- Central

South-Eastern Saharan and Southern
Asia Africa Asia
only half are in
but

370 million 238 million 226 million the implementation stage

of the world’s urban population have

Only half

convenient access to public transport (2019)

500 METRES 1,000 METRES
Convenient access means residing within
500 m walking distance of a bus stop/low-capacity transport system
and 1000 m of a railway or ferry terminal

The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2021 18

 Ensure sustainable consumption
and production patterns

The global “material footprint” Electronic waste

increased by 70% continues to proliferate
and is not disposed of responsibly
between 2000 and 2017
Each person
generated about
7.3 kilograms but only
of e-waste
1.7 kilograms
2000 2017 was recycled

(2019)

1 million 5 trillion
plastic drinking bottles single-use plastic bags
are purchased are thrown away Despite progress,
every minute each year fossil fuel subsidies continue
to threaten the achievement of
Developing countries the Paris Agreement and
still have vast untapped potential 2030 Agenda
for renewable energy
New renewable electricity capacity
$432 billion in 2019

a decline of 21% from 2018

880 watts per capita 219 watts per capita
developed countries - 4X - developing countries

By 2020,
a total of 700 policies the 10-Year Framework of Programmes
under

and implementation activities on Sustainable Consumption and Production

were reported (from 83 countries and the European Union)

19 Overview
 Take urgent action to combat
climate change and its impacts

The climate crisis Rising

greenhouse gas emissions
continues, require shifting economies
towards carbon neutrality
largely unabated
current greenhouse
gas emissions

1.5°C scenario

2000 2019 2050

Climate finance
increased

2020 global averagE temperature at

1.2°C above pre-industrial baseline 10%
by
from 2015–2016
to 2017–2018,

reaching an
woefully off track to stay at or below annual average of
1.5°C as called for in the Paris Agreement $48.7 billion

Highest priority areas include

125 of 154 developing countries
are formulating and implementing
Food Terrestrial Freshwater Human Key economic
national climate adaptation plans security and
production
and wetland
ecosystems
resources health sectors and
services

The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2021 20

 Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, sea and
marine resources for sustainable development

The sustainability dead zones

are rising at an alarming rate,
of our oceans is from 400 in 2008 to 700 in 2019
under severe threat
Plastic/marine pollution

“Dead zones” are areas of water that lack

sufficient oxygen to support marine life

Fishery Ocean
collapse warming Over half of
marine key biodiversity areas
are not protected

Acidification Eutrophication

Over 3 billion people

rely on oceans for their livelihoods

About half of countries worldwide on average, Only 1.2%

have adopted specific initiatives of national research budgets are
to support small-scale fishers allocated for ocean science

21 Overview
 Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial
ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification,
and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

More than a quarter of species Progress to safeguard

key biodiversity areas has
assessed by the IUCN Red list are stalled over the last 5 years
threatened with extinction
Global mean percentage
of each key biodiversity area
Proportion of species threatened with extinction covered by protected areas (2021)

43% terrestrial

42% Freshwater

41% 34% 33% 26% 14% 41% mountain

Amphibians conifers reef-building Mammals birds

corals
Almost all countries have adopted

IUCN Red List

legislation for preventing
or
tracks data on more than 134,400 species of mammals,
birds, amphibians, reef-building corals and conifers. controlling invasive alien species
More than 37,400 species are threatened with extinction.

Progress has been made towards

sustainable forest management

but the world has lost

100 million hectares of forest
in two decades
(2000-2020) Invasive alien species negatively affect native biodiversity
and cost the global economy billions of dollars annually.

The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2021 22

 Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable
development, provide access to justice for all and build effective,
accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels

THE PANDEMIC
IS INTENSIFYING CHILDREN’S
RISK OF EXPLOITATION IN 2020,
INCLUDING
THE KILLINGS OF
331 HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS
TRAFFICKING AND CHILD LABOUR WERE REPORTED IN
32 COUNTRIES

AN 18% INCREASE
FROM 2019
1 IN 3
TRAFFICKING VICTIMS
WERE CHILDREN (2018) ONLY 82 COUNTRIES HAD
INDEPENDENT NATIONAL
HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTIONS
IN COMPLIANCE WITH
INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS
CHILD LABOUR ROSE TO (2020)
160 MILLION (2020)

FIRST INCREASE IN TWO DECADES

BRIBERY IS AT LEAST FIVE TIMES MORE LIKELY

IN
LOW-INCOME THAN HIGH-INCOME
COUNTRIES IN COUNTRIES
37.6% VS 7.2%

23 Overview
 Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize
the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development

DEFYING PREDICTIONS,
net ODA but still REMITTANCE FLOWS
reached representing short of
a record the target of TO LOW- AND MIDDLE-INCOME
high of
0.32% COUNTRIES REACHED
of donors’
$161 GNI $540 BILLION IN 2020
billion 0.7%
in 2020 of GNI ONLY
1.6% BELOW
2019 LEVEL

NEARLY HALF OFTHE GLOBAL POPULATION

– 3.7 BILLION PEOPLE –
FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT ARE STILL NOT ONLINE

DROPPED BY UP TO 40%
BELOW
$1.5 $1 DESPITE
THE IMMENSE NEED FOR CONNECTIVITY
TRILLION TRILLION
DURING THE PANDEMIC
(2019) (2020)

63% OF LOW-INCOME AND LOWER-MIDDLE-INCOME COUNTRIES

ARE IN NEED OF ADDITIONAL FINANCING FOR DATA AND STATISTICS
TO FACE THE CHALLENGES POSED BY THE PANDEMIC

The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2021 24