SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Our Commitment to Advancing the UN SDGs.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Our commitment to Advancing the UN SDGs.
Building Bridges to Sustainable Development through Trust and Collaboration.
It is often said that collaboration proceeds at the speed of trust. In addition to supporting work on many individual SDGs, we look forward to hosting conversations and collaborations around SDG 16 and 17 specifically.
SDG 1 - No Poverty
Global efforts to eradicate extreme poverty have faced significant setbacks by the COVID-19 pandemic and a series of major shocks during 2020-22. The pandemic caused extreme poverty to increase in 2020 for the first time in decades, reversing global progress by three years. Recovery has been uneven, with low-income countries lagging behind. With the ongoing poly-crisis, ending poverty by 2030 appears increasingly out of reach, particularly in regions that lack the fiscal capacity to cope with economic stresses.
SDG 2 - Zero Hunger
Globally, hunger persists with nearly 1 in 10 of the world's population facing it in 2022, while 2.4 billion people experienced moderate to severe food insecurity. In the same year, nearly 60 per cent of countries worldwide saw significant increases in food prices due to conflicts and disrupted supply chains. Achieving zero hunger requires intensified efforts to transform food systems towards sustainability, resilience, and equity. Furthermore, accelerating improvements in diets, nutrition, health, and hygiene is crucial to meeting the SDG target of halving the number of children suffering from chronic undernutrition.
SDG 3 - Good health and well-being
Achieving global health goals faces significant challenges, with progress slowing since 2015 in areas like maternal mortality, premature deaths from major non-communicable diseases, and access to essential healthcare. Inequalities persist, especially among vulnerable populations, exacerbated by the climate crisis. To meet the SDG 3 targets by 2030, substantial investment and focus are needed to address these challenges, including tackling inequality and environmental factors. Urgent action is required to protect vulnerable groups and regions with high disease burdens.
SDG 4 - Quality education
SDG4 is a key enabler of most other SDGs. Unfortunately, global progress in education has not been fast enough. Only 58% of students worldwide achieved at least the minimum proficiency level in reading at the end of primary schooling in 2019. A large share of countries is moving backwards in learning outcomes at the end of lower secondary school. Improvement in upper secondary completion rate has slowed since 2015. Some regions, including sub-Saharan Africa, are facing teacher shortages, high student-teacher ratios, and inadequate training and lack of professional development opportunities for teachers. Accelerating progress towards SDG 4 should be prioritized as it will have a catalytic impact on achieving the overall 2030 Agenda.
SDG 5 - Gender equality
Progress towards gender equality is clearly off track. Harmful practices like child marriage and female genital mutilation are decreasing, but not fast enough to keep pace with population growth. Gender parity, especially in women's participation in public life and managerial roles, remains distant. At the current rate, achieving gender parity in managerial positions will take 176 years. Many women still lack control over their sexual and reproductive health, and violence against women persists. Urgent action is needed to challenge biased social norms, eliminate harmful practices, and change discriminatory laws. Increasing women's leadership roles and investments in gender equality are crucial at national, regional, and global levels.
SDG 6 - Clean water and sanitation
None of the SDG 6 targets are on track to be met. As of 2022, 2.2 billion people were without access to safely managed drinking water and 3.5 billion lacked access to safely managed sanitation. Between 2002 and 2021 droughts affected more than 1.4 billion people. As of 2022, roughly half of the world’s population experienced severe water scarcity for at least part of the year, while one quarter faced ‘extremely high’ levels of water stress. Climate change worsens these issues, posing significant risks to social stability. While transboundary river and lake basins are home to approximately 40% of the world’s population and are shared by 153 countries, less than a fifth of these countries have operational arrangements for cooperation in place for all their transboundary waters. Coordinated global action on integrated water management, addressing the impacts of climate change on water resources, and better management of shared waters are key to restoring focus on the Goal.
SDG 7 - Affordable and clean energy
In 2022, global electricity access declined for the first time in a decade, primarily due to disruptions from COVID-19 and the Ukraine conflict. Despite improvements in energy intensity and renewable energy growth, international financial flows for clean energy in developing countries remain insufficient. At the current rate, 660 million people will still lack electricity and 1.8 billion will not have access to clean cooking by 2030. To achieve universal access to energy by 2030, we need to expedite electrification efforts, boost investments in renewable energy, enhance energy efficiency, and establish supportive policies and regulatory frameworks.
SDG 8 - Decent work and economic growth
Progress towards SDG 8 faces challenges from COVID-19 aftermath, trade tensions, rising debts in developing nations, conflicts, and geopolitical strains, collectively threatening global economic growth. While labour markets have shown resilience, uneven pandemic recovery, the declining protection of labor rights and emerging vulnerabilities erode social justice prospects. The report foresees a worsening labour market outlook, with higher unemployment and sluggish growth in 2024, exacerbating income inequality and jeopardizing equitable pay for women and decent work for young people. Achieving SDG 8 mandates policies fostering economic growth with a focus on social justice and inclusive employment.
SDG 9 - Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Since 2022, the manufacturing sector has faced stagnation, attributed to geopolitical instability, inflation, logistical challenges, rising energy costs, and a broader global economic slowdown. Globally, manufacturing's share in employment has regressed. While there has been progress in reducing CO2 intensity in manufacturing, it falls short of 2030 target values. To expedite progress towards SDG 9, efforts should prioritize accelerating the green transition, strategically prioritizing sectors, and addressing inequalities in digital and innovation sectors.
SDG 10 - Reduced inequalities
Incomes of the poorest 40% of the population have generally grown faster than the national average in many countries and financial transfers during the pandemic boosted shared prosperity. However, over the past five years, the gap in per capita income growth between the poorest and richest countries has widened. In addition, discrimination based on age, gender, religion, race, or belief affects one in six people globally. The year 2023 marked a record high of 35.8 million refugees, and over 8,000 migrant deaths were recorded globally. Addressing both within- and between-country inequality necessitates equitable resource distribution, investment in education and skills development, implementation of social protection measures, combating discrimination, supporting marginalized groups, and fostering international cooperation for fair trade and financial systems.
SDG 11 - Sustainable cities and communities
More than half the world’s population currently reside in cities. However, cities are grappling with a multitude of complex issues, made more difficult by rising global urban poverty levels in the wake of COVID-19. From rising slum populations, insufficient public transport, city expansion outpacing population growth to threats to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic services by disasters, it is essential that cities are equipped to adequately handle these challenges. As the world turns more urban, with nearly 70% of the global population projected to reside in cities by 2050, critical infrastructure, affordable housing, efficient transport and essential social services are crucial for creating resilient, sustainable cities for all.
SDG 12 - Responsible consumption and production
The crisis of unsustainable consumption and production patterns worldwide is fuelling the ongoing triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature loss and pollution. Domestic material consumption and material footprint continue to rise, some one billion meals worth of edible food are wasted every day in homes around the world and stockpiles of e-waste steadily grow. While countries are fulfilling their environmental agreement obligations and embracing comprehensive approaches to address environmental degradation, public funding supporting the production and consumption of fossil fuels has more than tripled since 2015, impeding the transition to net-zero emissions. Each stage of production or manufacturing presents an opportunity to reduce resource and fossil fuel use, foster innovation, conserve energy, cut emissions, and advocate for a circular economy approach.
SDG 13 - Responsible consumption and production
Climate records were shattered in 2023, with the world watching the climate crisis unfold in real time. Communities around the world are suffering the effects of extreme weather, which is destroying lives and livelihoods on a daily basis. The roadmap to limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5°C and avoid the worst of climate chaos cannot afford any delays, indecision or half measures by the global community. It demands immediate action for drastic reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions in this decade and the achievement of net zero by 2050.
SDG 14 - Life below water
Oceans cover over 70% of the Earth’s surface and play a crucial role in providing food and livelihoods for more than 3 billion people as well as combating the effects of climate change. Yet, alarming trends from declining fish stocks, marine pollution, ocean acidification and habitat destruction threaten marine ecosystems and the livelihoods of coastal communities worldwide. Urgent action is needed to address these challenges and ensure the long-term health and sustainability of the ocean through sustainable fishing practices, marine conservation efforts, pollution reduction and global cooperation to safeguard marine life and ecosystems for future generations.
SDG 15 - Life below water
SDG 15 underscores the critical importance of biodiversity as humanity’s life-support system. Yet, the relentless depletion of forests, coupled with an alarming rate of species extinction and stagnation in safeguarding key biodiversity areas, jeopardizes the delicate balance of our ecosystems. To address the pressing global environmental challenges and crises, including climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, as well as desertification, land and soil degradation, drought and deforestation, it is imperative to intensify efforts in fulfilling our global environmental and biodiversity commitments.
SDG 16 - Promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development
Forging successful transitions over the next decade requires continued attention be paid to civic trust. In the face of deepening political polarization and social distrust, the Victoria Forum is engaging civic institutions, governments, business and the media in overcoming sectarian and ideological divides in society.
SDG 17 - Building Partnerships to accomplish the SDGs
The complex challenges facing humanity cannot be solved by any one sector. As an organization that promotes cross-sector collaboration, the Victoria Forum convenes leaders and innovators from government, business, civil society and academia to develop integrated, multi-scalar interventions on critical issues. Beginning with a partnership with CIFAL Victoria – part of the UNITAR network – we are in the process of joining several SDG-focused networks in Canada and globally in order to contribute and learn from others' work on these issues.