10% of the world’s population live in extreme poverty, down from 36% in 1990. This means 1 person in every 10 is extremely poor. Half of all people living in poverty are under the age of 18.
No Poverty
Zero Hunger
According to the UN Food Programme (FAO) the impact of coronavirus on the global economy has meant that one tenth of the world's population - or about 811 million people - are undernourished. Compared to 2019, that's an increase of between 70 and 161 million people.
Good Health
400 million people got better kitchen facilities between 2010 and 2019, so they don't have to live in smoke and particle pollution at home.
Quality Education
In 2000, 46.8% of sub-Saharan women were literate. By 2019, this had risen to 58.8% across all age groups. Looking at the figures for younger women aged 15-24, almost three out of four women today can read.
Gender Equality
The world's women are also slowly making their presence felt in politics. In 2016, the number of women in world parliaments rose to 23%. In 2006, the figure was just 17%, but at the current rate, it will still be 45 years before women and men are equally represented in parliaments.
Clean Water and Sanitation
40% shortfall in freshwater resources by 2030 coupled with a rising world population has the world careening towards a global water crisis. Therefore, the UN have declared the 2018-2028 the Water Action Decade, to ensure that everyone have access to clean water.
Affordable and Clean Energy
It is estimated that only 28% of health facilities have access to reliable electricity in sub-Saharan Africa, yet energy is critically needed to keep people connected at home and to run life-saving equipment in hospitals.
If hospitals and local communities don’t have access to power, this could magnify the human catastrophe and significantly slow the global recovery.
Decent Work and Economic Growth
Half of the world population does not yet benefit from freedom of association and collective bargaining. In addition, 152 million children are still in child labor and 40 million persons are in some kind of forced labor.
Globally, in 2018, some 64 million people between 15 and 24 were unemployed, representing a global unemployment rate of 12,1 % of this age group.
Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Globally, the share of manufacturing jobs in total employment declined from 13.7 % in 2019 to 13.1 % in 2020.
Reduced Inequalities
Globally, the right to personal freedom is not developing in a positive direction. The world has actually regressed in this specific area. Since 2011, the right to personal freedom have been debilitated in 116 out of 168 surveyed countries.
Sustainable Cities and Communities
Over 50% of the world's population live in cities. They are responsible for around 70% of the global energy related emissions. Therefore, they are on the frontline of both climate impacts and the transition to a sustainable future for all.
Responsible Consumption and Production
The per-capita material footprint of developing countries grew from five metric tons in 2000 to nine metric tons in 2017, representing a significant improvement in material standard of living.
For all types of materials, developed countries have at least doubleed the per-capita footprint of developing countries. In particular, the material footprint for fossil fuels.
Climate Action
Natural disasters kill on average 60,000 people per year, globally.
Disasters affect those in poverty most heavily: high death rates tend to be centered in low-to-middle income countries without the infrastructure to protect and respond to events.
Along with the consequences of the climate crisis, the world will experience more natural disasters and need to adapt more natural disaster risk management.
Life Below Water
Feeding the world in a sustainable way is one of our most urgent challenges in the coming decades.
The world produces around 200 million tons of fish and seafood every year. In the Western countries 1 out of 3 fish that get caught goes to waste.
Life on Land
Changes in land use and overuse of ecosystems can harm biodiversity. Birds are sensitive to both human-induced and natural environmental change, making them good indicators of wider ecosystem health.
Peace, Justice and strong Institutions
“Without peace there can be no sustainable development, and without sustainable development we cannot achieve peace” - United Nations in the preface to the SDG's
It is fundamentally important to put an end to war, but peace cannot stand alone. SDG 16 is also about reducing all other forms of violence, including from organized crime and terrorism.
Partnerships for the goals
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the global economy is projected to decline sharply, by 3%, in 2020, experiencing its worst recession since the Great Depression (1929).
Strong international cooperation is needed now more than ever to ensure that countries have the means to recover from the pandemic, rebuild and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
How well do you know the SDGs?
The Self-Reflection Tool has been designed to help you reflect on your familiarity with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and help you assess your ability to handle the 17 SDGs in your school activities.
Below you find 28 tasks related to the teaching of SDSs and to cross-border learning. The tasks are grouped into four (4) sections which are as follows:
- Section A: Social sustainability.
- Section B: Economic sustainability.
- Section C: Environmental sustainability.
- Section D: Cross-border learning and partnership for the goals.
Please, evaluate how self-confident you feel in handling each task, choosing from 
(one star – “I do not feel confident in doing this task at all.” ) up to
(five stars – “I feel very confident in doing this task and I think I could help other people in doing it.”).
According to each user’s choice, the tool is designed to reflect on the level of familiarity of the users in order to open up the path to training. It is NOT meant to evaluate your experience or work as a teacher. It is supposed to draw your attention on the different aspects of the SDG’s and make you reflect on how you understand them and how you could work with them. It is completely fine to be in every level or to get different results in different sections. Actually, it is very probable that you feel comfortable in dealing with certain tasks (according to your preferences, interests or the subject you teach) and not in others.
After the completion of the procedure, a relevant report indicating the results is developed and is available for the users.
The Self-Reflection Tool is being developed by the partnership of ACT! Project. The estimated time necessary to complete the Self-Reflection Tool is 10 -15 minutes.
Any information provided in the Self-Reflection Tool is recorded anonymously and will be used solely by the ACT! Project partnership. We will not sell, trade, or transfer an individual’s personal information to any third party or entity. The ACT! Project partnership respects the privacy rights of the tool users, in accordance with the General Personal Data Protection Regulation 2016/679/ EU and the current national and European legal and regulatory framework for the protection of personal data.
