Development of a global SDG progress index aimed at “leaving no one behind”

Abstract

[Abstract:] The United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) constitute a set of shared global objectives for the development over the coming years, which both developed and developing countries are working together to achieve. It is, however, very difficult to know from tracking national-level SDG performance estimates whether steps are being taken to arrive at 2030 with an adequate degree of compliance, and fully delivering on the aim of “leaving no one behind”. This paper proposes and evaluates a Global SDG Progress Index which exploits the reported country rankings for the SDG Index, and incorporates a series of weighting coefficients to effectively involve all countries in improving SDG performance, regardless of their position in the ranking. Thresholds for the index are established to determine the adequacy of progress in relation to the 2030 goals. The results show that the current rate of progress in developing countries (assuming as an indicator GDP per capita values) is insufficient to achieve equitable compliance with the SDGs at the global level.