SDG progress ‘in danger’ of going backwards without change in direction, new UN report reveals

11 September 2019
SDGs


The current worldwide sustainable development model is threatening to reverse years of progress, if strategies don’t drastically change, an independent group of scientists has concluded in a major new report launched on Wednesday.


The UN report will be at the centre of discussions during the UN summit on the SDGs later this month.

Worsening inequalities and potentially irreversible damage to the natural environment on which we all depend, demands concerted action, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), urged in a statement on the report findings, compiled by a team of 15 UN-appointed experts.

“Achieving human well-being and eradicating poverty for all of the Earth’s people—expected to number 8.5 billion by 2030—is still possible,” they highlighted, “but only if there is a fundamental—and urgent—change in the relationship between people and nature.”

The report, “The Future is Now: Science for Achieving Sustainable Development,” points to understanding the relationships between individual SDGs and the “concrete systems that define society today” to devise a plan to ameliorate global instability.

At the request of countries to evaluate progress of the 2030 SDG Agenda, adopted in 2015, the Global Report on Sustainable Development (GDSR) consists of surveys on scientific findings from ocean livelihoods, to sustainable consumption, production, and disaster risk management, among other issues.
Science-backed recommendations


The current roadmap for development has generated prosperity for “hundreds of millions,” the scientists said, but at the cost of other resources and a growing inequality that undermines global growth.

Boosting economies via increasing consumption for example, is exhausting the planet’s materials and creating toxic by-products which threaten to overwhelm the world. At the current rate of consumption, “use of material is set to almost double between 2017 and 2060, from 89 Gigatons to 167 Gigatons”, resulting in consequential “increased levels of greenhouse gas emissions, and other toxic effects” from resource extraction, they stressed.

The status quo must change, scientists said, in order to eschew further loss in “social cohesion and sustainable economic growth,” curb biodiversity losses, and save a “world close to tipping points with the global climate system.”

For this to happen, all sectors must come together in coordinated action, the report urges. Increasing investment in science for sustainability, is one key approach, and acknowledging that achievement of the SDGs requires economic growth be divorced from environmental degradation, while reducing inequalities.

The experts noted that “the extensive transformation that is needed will not be easy, and the report suggests that a deep scientific understanding is needed to anticipate and mitigate the tensions and trade-offs inherent in widespread structural change.”
Key points of intervention

According to the report, there are 20 points of intervention that can be used to accelerate progress toward multiple goals and targets in the next ten years.

Among these, basic services must be made universally available—healthcare, education, water and sanitation infrastructure, housing and social protection— as a prerequisite” toward eliminating poverty.

In addition, ending legal and social discrimination, scaling up trades unions, nongovernmental organizations, women’s groups and other communities will “be important partners in efforts to implement the 2030 Agenda”, the experts said.

Inefficient food and energy systems are depriving some 2 billion people of food security, while 820 million are undernourished, and 2 billion adults are overweight. Production processes are causing severe environmental impact.

Transitioning to renewable energy systems could help reduce the 3 billion who rely on pollutants for cooking, and avoid premature deaths, estimated at 3.8 million each year, they cited. Meanwhile, the energy access gap has left close to one billion without access to electricity at all. Increases in renewable energy supply in the past decade have corresponded with price drops in clean fuel technology—around 77 per cent for solar power and a 38 per cent drop for onshore wind.

With an estimated two-thirds of the global population projected to live in cities by 2050, the experts said achieving the 2030 Agenda will require “more compact and efficient” urban areas that will be nature-based in infrastructure—but the ecosystem’s services and resources “must be safeguarded.”

What the scientists call “the global environmental commons” - the rainforests, oceans, and atmosphere - need support from governments, international actors and the private sector to ensure good practices.

The full report and its recommendations will be presented during the High-Level Political Forum at the 2019 SDG Summit that will convene heads of State and Government in New York on 24 and 25 September.

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Security Council: New faces, old tensions as five nations take their seats

UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras

 

A wide view of the Security Council Chamber. (file photo)

   

By Vibhu Mishra

2 January 2026 

Peace and Security

From deploying peacekeepers to conducting quiet – but at times heated – diplomacy, the UN Security Council sits at the heart of global decision-making on war and peace. As of January, five new countries will have a seat around the iconic horseshoe table.

Bahrain, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Latvia and Liberia have begun two-year terms as non-permanent members, replacing Algeria, Guyana, the Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone and Slovenia, whose terms ended last month.

They join the other five non-permanent members – Denmark, Greece, Pakistan, Panama and Somalia – who will serve through the end of 2026, alongside the five nations who are a constant presence – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The P5, as permanent members are called, hold veto power, allowing any one of them to block the adoption of a substantive resolution, regardless of majority support.

What the Security Council does

Under the UN Charter, the Security Council has primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security. It is the only UN body whose decisions are legally binding on all Member States.

It can investigate disputes, urge parties to resolve conflicts, impose sanctions, authorise peacekeeping operations and – in exceptional circumstances – approve the use of force. Its resolutions shape international responses to armed conflicts, terrorism and nuclear proliferation.

The Council’s work unfolds both in public and behind closed doors: open meetings allow Member States, the media and the public, access to debates and briefings, while closed consultations give diplomats space to negotiate sensitive issues privately.

The Council has a calendar of meetings but can also convene emergency sessions at short notice.

UN Photo/Loey Felipe

 

An open meeting of the Security Council. Its 15 members and the Secretary-General seated at the iconic horseshoe table, along with an invited participant (far right).

Inside the Security Council Chamber

• The mural: A vast painting dominates the chamber, depicting a phoenix rising from the ashes as a symbol of renewal – humanity’s struggle from conflict toward peace.
• The doors: The heavy wooden doors, inlaid with images of torches and swords – symbols of war – emphasise the Council’s responsibility to preserve peace.
• The horseshoe table: The curved table ensures there is no head position, symbolic of formal equality, even as diplomatic power dynamics play out in practice. 

Read more about the Chamber here.

Prestige and responsibility

Non-permanent members are elected annually by the 193-member General Assembly through a secret ballot. Seats are allocated by regional group, and candidates must secure a two-thirds majority to win election.

Membership involves considerable costs, covering meetings, travel, logistics and staff. More than 50 UN Member States have never served, underscoring the significance and capital involved in occupying a seat – Latvia makes history this January, joining for the first time.

Countries that are not Council members may take part in discussions without a vote when their interests are affected or when they are party to a dispute under consideration.

Growing deadlock, vetoes

The new members take their seats amid growing geopolitical divisions, with deep disagreements over conflicts such as Ukraine and the Middle East increasingly limiting unified action.

This deadlock is reflected in the growing use of the veto.

In the years following the end of the Cold War, vetoes were rare, often numbering one or two per year - and sometimes none at all. Since the mid-2010s, hands have been raised inside the chamber more often: seven times in 2023 and eight in 2024.

Diplomats often point to this trend as evidence of widening geopolitical rifts, which have made consensus harder to achieve and limited the Council’s ability to respond decisively.

UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

 

The seat of the President of the Security Council and the gavel used to conduct its meetings.

Somalia at the helm

Each month, one Council member serves as President, a role that rotates in English alphabetical order among the 15 members. For January, it is Somalia.

The Presidency sets the programme of work, chairs meetings and issues statements on behalf of the Council. It is a role described as “wearing two hats”: acting both as a neutral facilitator for the Council as a whole and as a representative of their own national government.

After a turbulent 2025 that saw escalating warfare and shrinking resources, 2026 will test whether members can help build momentum and open space for decisive action, in a body increasingly shaped by entrenched positions.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/01/1166697

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Results expected 5 January after landmark elections in Central African Republic

MINUSCA

 

A woman, carrying a baby, casting her votes during the elections.

   

By Vibhu Mishra

31 December 2025 

Peace and Security

Voting proceeded largely as planned in the Central African Republic’s first-ever combined presidential, legislative, regional and municipal elections, and ballot counting is now complete, the UN peacekeeping mission (MINUSCA) said on Wednesday, with results expected to be announced on 5 January.

According to MINUSCA, preliminary reports from observers indicate that more than 99 per cent of polling stations across the country opened as scheduled on election day.

The transfer of envelopes containing the results from 19 prefectural capitals to the national capital, Bangui, is now underway, with logistical and security support from the mission.

The 28 December vote marked an unprecedented moment in the country’s political history, bringing together four ballots in a single electoral exercise. Municipal elections, in particular, had not been held in the Central African Republic (CAR) since 1988 and were a key provision of the 2019 Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation.

Vast, sparsely populated and landlocked, CAR is crisscrossed by dense forests, rivers and long, often impassable roads. Outside Bangui, many communities are reachable only by air or days-long journeys.

MINUSCA

 

Ballots are counted under flashlights after the elections in Central African Republic.

Extensive UN support for complex operation

MINUSCA said it worked closely with national authorities and UN agencies to support the electoral process, delivering all voting materials on time despite difficult terrain and security constraints.

In total, the mission carried out 84 flights and eight road convoys to transport more than 230 tonnes of election materials, including ballot papers, indelible ink, voter cards, voting booths and ballot boxes.

Electoral materials were delivered to 6,679 of the country’s 6,700 polling stations, allowing them to function normally across 20 prefectures.

On the technical and operational front, some 34,500 people – including electoral agents, supervisors and polling station staff – were trained with UN support.

Security measures

Security for the polls was reinforced through the deployment of additional national troops and police, supported logistically by MINUSCA, alongside strengthened patrols by UN peacekeepers and police personnel.

The mission also provided Central African armed forces and internal security personnel with vehicles and motorcycles to reach remote and isolated areas.

Speaking at a press conference in Bangui on Wednesday, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for CAR, Valentine Rugwabiza, said the mission had successfully fulfilled its mandate despite operating in a challenging environment.

MINUSCA

 

UN peacekeepers on patrol at a polling centre in the capital Bangui during the elections.

Incident in Haut-Mbomou

Ms. Rugwabiza strongly condemned an attack in Bambouti, in the south-eastern Haut-Mbomou prefecture near the border with South Sudan, which prevented voting from taking place in that locality due to insecurity.

The attack, carried out by the Azandé Ani Kpi Gbe (AAKG) armed group, also involved hostage-taking, including the sub-prefect.

She said MINUSCA has been working around the clock since Sunday to facilitate the release of those taken hostage.

Results expected next week

The National Elections Authority (NEA) is expected to announce the preliminary results of the presidential election on 5 January 2026.

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The General Assembly has approved a $3.45 billion regular budget for the United Nations for 2026

30 December 2025 

UN Affairs

The General Assembly has approved a $3.45 billion regular budget for the United Nations for 2026, following weeks of intensive negotiations and one of the Organization’s most important reform initiatives, UN80.

The budget – approved by the 193-member General Assembly on Tuesday – authorizes  $3.45 billion for the coming year, covering the Organization’s three core pillars of work: peace and security, sustainable development and human rights.

The budget largely reflects the Secretary-General’s proposed 15 per cent reduction in financial resources and a nearly 19 per cent cut in staffing.

The regular budget finances the UN’s core activities, including political affairs, international justice and law, regional cooperation for development, human rights, humanitarian affairs and public information.

It is separate from the United Nations peacekeeping budget, which operates on a 1 July to 30 June fiscal cycle, while the regular budget follows the calendar year.

Consensus after intense negotiations

Addressing delegates as the Fifth Committee – the Assembly’s main administrative and budget body – wrapped up negotiations, UN Controller Chandramouli Ramanathan praised the Committee for steering a complex and compressed process to a timely conclusion.

“It has been a year of challenges,” he said, noting that the Secretariat had been tasked with assembling an entire budget in less than six weeks, producing hundreds of tables and responding to thousands of questions from oversight bodies and Member States.

He underscored that, despite often arduous negotiations, the Committee had once again reached agreement by consensus, a hallmark of the budgetary process. “That is something remarkable that you should not underestimate,” he told delegates.

Challenges ahead  

Looking ahead, the Controller warned that the adoption of the budget marks the beginning – not the end – of a demanding implementation phase.  

As of 1 January 2026, he said, 2,900 positions will be abolished, while more than 1,000 staff separations have already been finalized, requiring careful management to ensure affected personnel continue to receive salaries and entitlements during the transition.

Mr. Ramanathan also welcomed what he described as a record level of potential advance payments by Member States toward the 2026 budget and appealed for continued prompt payment of assessed contributions.

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UN chief urges world leaders to ‘get priorities straight’ as New Year message calls for peace over war

   

29 December 2025 

UN Affairs

As the world enters 2026 amid mounting crises, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres has issued a stark but hopeful New Year appeal, urging global leaders to shift resources away from destruction and towards development, peace and people.

“The world stands at a crossroads,” he said, warning that conflict, climate breakdown and systemic violations of international law are eroding trust in leadership worldwide.

“People everywhere are asking: Are leaders even listening? Are they ready to act?” he said.

Mr. Guterres underscored the scale of global suffering, noting that more than a quarter of humanity now lives in conflict-affected areas. Over 200 million people require humanitarian assistance, while nearly 120 million have been forcibly displaced by war, crises, disasters or persecution.

Against this backdrop, he pointed to what he described as a profound imbalance in global priorities.

“As we turn the page on a turbulent year, one fact speaks louder than words: global military spending has soared to $2.7 trillion,” he said, nearly 10 per cent higher than the pervious year.

That figure, he stressed, is 13 times higher than total global development aid and equivalent to the entire gross domestic product (GDP) of the African continent. If current trends continue, military spending could more than double to $6.6 trillion by 2035, even as humanitarian needs continue to rise.

A path to hope

Despite the grim statistics, the Secretary-General underscored that solutions are within reach.

In September 2025, he launched the report The Security We Need: Rebalancing Military Spending for a Sustainable and Peaceful Future. The report shows how relatively small shifts in spending could deliver transformative results.

Less than four per cent of current military expenditure could end world hunger by 2030, it finds, while just over 10 per cent could fully vaccinate every child. Redirecting 15 per cent would more than cover the annual cost of climate adaptation in developing countries.

 “It’s clear the world has the resources to lift lives, heal the planet, and secure a future of peace and justice,” Mr. Guterres said.

Call to action

Looking ahead, he had a direct message to leaders globally.

“On this New Year, let’s resolve to get our priorities straight. A safer world begins by investing more in fighting poverty and less in fighting wars. Peace must prevail,” he urged.

Addressing people everywhere, he added: “Play your part. Our future depends on our collective courage to act.”

“In 2026,” he concluded, “I call on leaders everywhere: Get serious. Choose people and planet over pain. Let’s rise together – for justice, for humanity, for peace.”

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UN, US sign $2 billion humanitarian funding agreement for 17 crisis-hit countries

 

High energy biscuits are distributed to newly displaced families in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

   

29 December 2025 

Humanitarian Aid

The United Nations and the United States on Monday formalized an agreement under which the US committed $2 billion in humanitarian assistance for global relief programmes, a move the UN’s top relief official hailed as a landmark commitment to saving lives amid escalating humanitarian needs worldwide.

Speaking at the signing in Geneva, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher paid tribute to humanitarian workers operating under increasingly difficult conditions, describing the past year as “a very, very tough year for everyone engaged in humanitarian action.”

Despite the challenges, he said the agreement, known as a memorandum of understanding or MOU, offered grounds for optimism.

“Millions, millions more will get that support that they so badly need,” Mr. Fletcher said, adding that the funding would help save tens of millions of lives in the year ahead.

The agreement covers 17 crisis-affected countries: Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Ukraine, Haiti, Nigeria, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Mozambique, Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Sudan, Bangladesh, Syria, Uganda, Kenya and Chad, as well as the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).

Saving lives

Mr. Fletcher said the true impact of this “landmark agreement” would be its impact on the ground. “A number that really matters...is that millions of lives will be saved,” he said.

He noted that the funding supports the UN’s 2026 plan to reach 87 million people with emergency assistance. That plan, he said, has been “hyper-prioritized” to reduce duplication, streamline bureaucracy and maximize efficiency across the humanitarian system.

The agreement is a major vote of confidence in the ‘Humanitarian Reset’ – which Mr. Fletcher had announced in March 2025 – to deliver aid faster, smarter and closer to people who need it most.

Accountability

Reform and accountability featured prominently in his remarks.

Mr. Fletcher emphasized that donors expect results, saying accountability mechanisms would ensure that “every dollar we spend” is tracked to confirm that it is saving lives. He also underlined that the agreement does not imply alignment on all issues but reflects a shared focus on urgent life-saving priorities.

He also highlighted the link between humanitarian action and diplomacy, calling for 2026 to be “a year of diplomacy and peacemaking.” Ending conflicts, he said, remains the most effective way to reduce humanitarian need.

“This lifesaving announcement is not the end of the process,” Mr. Fletcher concluded. “It is the beginning.”

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Ex-UN chief Ban warns Security Council risks irrelevance without reform

 

A wide view of the UN Security Council open debate on "Leadership for Peace".

   

By Vibhu Mishra

15 December 2025 

Peace and Security

Gathered around the Security Council’s iconic horseshoe table, ambassadors were challenged on Monday to look backwards – when, despite deep rivalry and distrust, the body chose leaders capable of steering the world away from catastrophe towards active cooperation.

That call came during an open debate on “Leadership for Peace,” where former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and academic Anjali Dayal pressed members to confront both the external crises facing the UN and internal constraints that have weakened its ability to act.

Mr. Ban, now an emeritus member of The Elders group, warned that global conditions have worsened since he left office at the end of 2016, marked by deepening confrontation among major powers, eroding multilateralism and conflicts in which civilians continue to pay the highest price.

“This deeply disappointing situation is characterized by confrontation rather than cooperation among major powers,” he told the Council, mass civilian casualties in Gaza and weakening international cooperation – even as the global climate crisis accelerates.

Lurching towards irrelevance

The former UN chief said the overall crisis cannot be separated from the Security Council’s own failures.

“The Security Council’s ongoing failure to properly function constitutes the most egregious cause,” he said, highlighting the repeated use of veto by permanent members “to shield themselves, their allies and their proxies from accountability.”

Without meaningful reform, Mr. Ban warned, civilians will remain unprotected and impunity will persist. “Without it, the UN risks lurching towards either collapse or irrelevance,” he said.

UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

 

Former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, addresses the Security Council.

Reduce political pressures

Turning to the selection of the next Secretary-General, Ban called for a single, non-renewable seven-year term to strengthen the independence of the office.

The current practice of two five-year terms, he said, leaves Secretaries-General “overly dependent on this Council’s Permanent Members for an extension,” even though the arrangement is a convention rather than a requirement of the UN Charter.

“The General Assembly holds the power to set the terms of the appointment itself,” Mr. Ban noted, urging member states to use that authority to empower the next UN leader more fully.

UN Photo/Mark Garten

 

Former Secretaries-General Kofi Annan (left) and Ban Ki-moon (right) with Secretary-General António Guterres at the UN Headquarters, in New York.

The selection process

Secretary-General António Guterres’ second term expires at the end of next year, and the formal selection process is already under way.

In November, the Presidents of the General Assembly and the Security Council launched the process together, in line with General Assembly resolution 79/327, which emphasises transparency and inclusivity.

Under the established procedure, candidates are nominated by Member States or groups and are required to submit a vision statement, curriculum vitae and campaign financing disclosures. The President of the General Assembly convenes publicly broadcast interactive dialogues with all candidates, while engaging closely with Member States throughout the process.

As of mid-December, only Rafael Mariano Grossi – the Director-General of the UN nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) – has been nominated by Argentina.

You can find the list of candidates on the UN website here.

UN Photo/Loey Felipe

 

Anjali Dayal, Associate Professor for International Politics at Fordham University, addresses the Security Council.

Unprecedented strain

Anjali Dayal, Associate Professor for International Politics at Fordham University, told the Council that the next Secretary-General will assume office at a time of unprecedented strain, including a deepening funding crisis that is already shrinking the UN’s capacity to deliver essential services.

“That will result not just in shrinking this Organization, but also in less of the work that only the UN can do at scale,” she said, pointing to fewer vaccinations, reduced humanitarian aid and diminished mine-clearance efforts, even as global needs grow.

Ms. Dayal said history shows that even in periods of intense division, the Council has been capable of choosing leaders who advanced peace and cooperation.

She recalled the protracted deadlock that preceded the selection of Javier Pérez de Cuéllar in 1981 and the critique of U Thant, yet they deftly maneuvered an end to the Iran-Iraq war, resolve conflicts in Cambodia and Nicaragua, and help end the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Jaw-jaw better than war-war

Those examples, she said, underscore that the Secretary-General’s influence lies less in material power than in the ability to shape ideas, narratives and long-term cooperation – “to make conference rooms always more attractive than the battlefield.”

For Mr. Ban, that responsibility ultimately rests with the Council itself. Reforming veto use and renewing support for UN leadership, he said, are essential if the Organization is to remain relevant in the twenty-first century.

“The path of each for themselves is no different from the path of mutual destruction,” he warned.

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