Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Sustainable Development Goals were adopted on the 25th of September 2015 by 193 countries of the United Nations General Assembly. They form part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a document of 92 paragraphs.
There are 17 Sustainable Development Goals, 169 targets, and 234 official indicators as of 2025. Each goal typically carries eight to 12 targets, and each target is measured by an average of 1.5 indicators.
Estimates range from US$2.5 to $5.0 trillion per year globally, based on a 2018 study by the Basel Institute of Commons and Economics. For Africa alone, the United Nations calculated yearly funding of $1.3 trillion would be needed.
Leave No One Behind, abbreviated LNOB, is the central pledge of the SDG framework, committing member states to reach the people and countries furthest behind first. A 2024 study of 77 voluntary national reviews found that people with disabilities are most often identified as furthest behind, named in more than 70 percent of those reviews.
The COVID-19 pandemic, which lasted from 2020 to 2023, threatened progress particularly on SDG 3 covering health, SDG 4 on education, SDG 6 on water and sanitation, SDG 10 on reduced inequality, and SDG 17 on partnerships. In Asia specifically, data showed losses of progress on goals 2, 8, 10, 11, and 15.
Scholars have criticized the SDGs for having too many goals, weak emphasis on environmental sustainability, and internally conflicting targets. A 2022 meta-analysis found that the SDGs have had only limited transformative political impact and warned they may provide a "smokescreen of hectic political activity" that obscures stagnation.