The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the 2030 Agenda, are an intergovernmental platform of 17 goals for every community in the world. They follow on from the Millennium Development Goals, which the UN created in 2000 and which expired in 2015, and they have their origin in the 2012 Rio+20 conference. What are the UN Sustainable Development Goals?
What are the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? The Sustainable Development Goals, also known as the 2030 Agenda, are an intergovernmental platform of
development-related goals for every community in the world. These goals are the continuation of the Millennium Development Goals, targets the UN created in 2000 with a motivation similar to that of the SDGs, which expired at the end of 2015.
The SDGs have their origin in the Rio+20 sustainable development conference of 2012, where a working group was set up to draft sustainable development goals that would be “
action-oriented, concise and easy to communicate, limited in number, aspirational, global in nature and universally applicable to all countries, while taking into account different national realities, capacities and levels of development and respecting national policies and priorities.” When they were adopted in September 2015, these new sustainable development goals were expected to become the framework within which UN member states would shape their agendas and policies over the following 15 years, up to 2030. The intention is for the efforts of governments, NGOs and the various foundations and aid
organizations to be a joint effort focused on the world’s most urgent problems.
During the negotiations before their adoption in September 2015, most governments supported this initiative, although some countries considered the program and its 17 goals too difficult to implement and sell to the public, and would have preferred fewer of them. Insiders said it had been a struggle to reduce the number of goals to 17, so there would have been even greater resistance to cutting them further.
The UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals
1. End poverty
By 2030, no one is expected to be living in extreme poverty, that is, surviving on an income of less than US$1.25 a day, the threshold written into the target in 2015 (in June 2025 the World Bank raised its international poverty line to US$3.00 a day, at 2021 prices). The goal also seeks to at least halve the proportion of people living in poverty (in all its dimensions), according to national definitions.
2. Zero hunger
Looking ahead to 2030, the UN wants to end hunger and all forms of malnutrition. To that end, it seeks to ensure access for everyone, especially the most vulnerable, to healthy, nutritious and sufficient food. Complementing these targets, sustainable agriculture will also be promoted.
3. Health and well-being
The aim is to ensure healthy lives for all. By 2030: reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 births, end epidemics such as AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and strengthen the prevention and treatment of addictive substance use.
4. Quality education
The goal is to ensure inclusive, equitable and quality education while promoting continuous learning for all. By 2030, the aim is to ensure quality, equitable and completely free primary and secondary education, and to eliminate all gender disparities in access to education.
5. Gender equality
Women and girls must be empowered. This requires ending all forms of discrimination, harmful practices and violence against women and girls, as well as ensuring equal opportunities and promoting gender equality.
6. Clean water and sanitation for all
By 2030, the aim is to achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water, as well as adequate and equitable sanitation. It also seeks to improve how water is used: using it more efficiently, protecting it and polluting it less.
7. Clean and affordable energy
By 2030, the aim is to ensure access to electricity for all. The UN also aspires to improve energy efficiency and to increase the share of
renewable energy in global energy production.8. Decent work and economic growth
Sustain per capita economic growth and achieve GDP growth of at least 7% a year in the least developed countries, increase productivity, and promote innovation and job creation. It also seeks to increase efficiency in the consumption and production of
goods and services.9. Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Affordable, high-quality and sustainable infrastructure must be developed. The goal also promotes sustainable industrialization, access to credit, scientific research, innovation and access to communications, among other things.
10. Reduce inequalities
By 2030, the aim is to raise the incomes of the lowest-income population at a faster rate than the average. It also seeks to promote social inclusion, improve the regulation of financial markets, facilitate international migration and adopt fiscal, wage and social protection policies that effectively reduce inequality.
11. Sustainable cities and communities
By 2030, ensure safe housing, as well as a safe, affordable and sustainable transport system, for everyone. The goal also promotes
sustainable urbanization and the protection of the world’s cultural and natural heritage.12. Production and responsible consumption
By 2030, the aim is to achieve sustainable and efficient management of natural resources. This includes halving per capita food waste and reducing waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse.
13. Climate change
The UN wants to reduce the impact of climate change by strengthening countries’ resilience and capacity to adapt to climate-related hazards and natural disasters. It also wants to improve education and awareness on this issue. More:
what causes global warming14. Life below water
Minimize the effects of ocean acidification and, by 2020 (a deadline that has now passed), sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems, effectively regulate fishing and end overfishing. And by 2025, prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds.
15. Terrestrial ecosystems
Sustainably manage forests and ensure their conservation, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soils, halt and reverse land degradation, and end biodiversity loss.
16. Peace, justice and institutions
The goal is to promote just and peaceful societies and to reduce all forms of violence, corruption, bribery, and illicit arms and financial flows. It also aims to end abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against children.
17. Partnerships
The aim is to build partnerships with governments, the private sector and civil society, based on shared principles and values that put people first.
Ending poverty is the most important SDG
It is no coincidence that ending poverty is goal number one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals: it is the greatest challenge facing the world and an essential requirement for achieving sustainable development.
According to Amartya Sen, poverty is a condition that prevents people from reaching a minimum level of fulfillment in life: they are deprived of the basic capabilities, opportunities and rights needed to do so.
In this sense, poverty means being unable to access an adequate quality of life. This is the UN’s approach to poverty, and it is the basis on which the UN sets its goals and measures development around the world.If people can be lifted out of poverty, several of the UN’s other goals for 2030 would also be met. Poor people lack adequate food, housing, education, health care, access to drinking water and so on (elements that make up several of the other SDGs). So when a person escapes poverty, they generally overcome these hardships as well.
Comparing the SDGs with the OECD outlook
The 2012 report OECD Environmental Outlook to 2050 presents projections of how the world’s demographic and economic trends will evolve over the next four decades, along with their implications for the environment. In short, the document warns of major biodiversity losses, rising deaths from air pollution, the damage climate change could cause and a decline in available freshwater, among other things.Although the picture the OECD paints may seem bleak, it also states that there is still time to change these trends through global policies that are a joint effort by the world’s governments.The SDGs are the UN’s response to this outlook, and there are reasons to think they are both achievable and well founded. One example of how the global picture has changed, and of how much remains to be done, is the fight against malaria, which the UN aims to win by 2030. The UN makes its intention explicit in one of the targets of the third goal: “By 2030, end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases.”In 2000 this disease caused about 864,000 deaths, according to current WHO estimates; in 2012 the OECD forecast that malaria deaths would be around 700,000 by 2030 and 400,000 in 2050, meaning that malaria would go on causing millions of deaths.Deaths fell to about 567,000 in 2019, but progress has since stalled: WHO estimates that malaria claimed about 610,000 lives in 2024, up from 598,000 in 2023, and describes progress in reducing the malaria mortality rate as “far off track” (World malaria report 2025). In other words, the world is far from ending this epidemic by 2030.
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At the 2023 SDG Summit, world leaders adopted a political declaration to accelerate progress toward the 2030 Agenda.
Last updated: September 26, 2026
During the negotiations before their adoption in September 2015, most governments supported this initiative, although some countries considered the program and its 17 goals too difficult to implement and sell to the public, and would have preferred fewer of them. Insiders said it had been a struggle to reduce the number of goals to 17, so there would have been even greater resistance to cutting them further.
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