As a follow-up to the Millennium Development Goals, the “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” (hereinafter - Agenda 2030), consisting of 17 goals and 169 targets that will contribute to the creation of extremely important opportunities for human development in the next 15 years and ensuring the sustainability of global development by protecting our planet, was approved through the 25 September 2015 Resolution # A/RES/70/1 of the UN General Assembly. The uniqueness of SDGs is reflected in their call for all countries, including poor, wealthy and middle-income countries to take measures to promote progress, provided that protection of the planet is ensured. The SDGs acknowledge that elimination of poverty should be carried out in concert with strategies aimed at ensuring economic growth. They highlight a wide range of social needs, including education, social protection and employment, as well as combating climate change and environmental protection. The global goals and targets set by the Agenda 2030 reflect collective measures, implementation of which is deemed necessary by the international community for balanced management in the economic, social and environmental areas of sustainable development that form unity with each-other.
Building on the principle of “leaving no one behind,” these goals and targets envisage: i) (for the sake of humanity) to end poverty and hunger, in all their forms and dimensions, and to ensure that all human beings can fulfil their potential in dignity and equality and in a healthy environment, ii) (for the sake of the planet) to protect our planet from degradation, including through sustainable consumption and production, sustainably managing its natural resources and taking urgent action on climate change, so that it can support the needs of the present and future generations, iii) (for the sake of progress) to ensure that all human beings can enjoy prosperous and fulfilling lives and that economic, social and technological progress occurs in harmony with nature, iv) (for the sake of peace) to foster peaceful, just and inclusive societies which are free from fear and violence, and v) (for the sake of progress) to revitalise global partnership for sustainable development and to mobilize the required means based on a spirit of strengthened global solidarity, focused in particular on the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable and with the participation of all countries, all stakeholders and all people.
The duties arising from the Agenda 2030 necessitate developing new national strategies, programmes and action plans on sustainable development, enhancing the statistical capacity for the purpose of acquiring high-quality, current, reliable and more detailed data, and forming a mechanism for efficient, systematic and regular assessment that allows to monitor the progress to be made in the field of sustainable development through involvement of civil society, public and private sector and other stakeholders in accordance with the national context and priorities.
In connection with monitoring and assessment of the state of implementation of the Agenda 2030, a preliminary system of global indicators consisting of 244 indicators was established at the 48th session of the UN Statistical Commission and approved by the 6 July 2017 resolution of the 90th plenary session of the UN General Assembly
The system of global indicators on SDG will be updated regularly every year until 2025 and will be comprehensively reviewed at the 56th session of the UN Statistical Commission. Thus, at the 52nd session of the UN Statistical Commission, which took place in March 2021, various changes were made to the SDG indicators at the suggestion of the Interagency Expert Group.
Currently, the global indicator system includes 231 SDG indicators. The total number of SDG indicators, including duplicate indicators, is 248.