AGENDA

21 /2030
 • Agenda 21 is a
comprehensive plan

What is
of action to be taken
globally, nationally
and locally by

AGENDA organizations of the

United Nations
System, Governments,

21? and Major Groups in

every area in which
human impacts on the
environment.
What is the main aim of Agenda 21?
• Its aim is to achieve global sustainable development. One major
objective of the Agenda 21 initiative is that every local government
should draw its own local Agenda 21. Since 2015, Sustainable
Development Goals are included in the newer Agenda 2030.
Why is it • The "21" in Agenda 21 refers to the
original target of the 21st century where
called they were hoping to achieve their
development goals by then. It has been
Agenda affirmed and had a few modifications at

21? subsequent UN conferences.

What are Agenda 21 was adopted at first
International Earth Summit held in
the two 1992 at Rio de Janerio Brazil.

principles The two principles are as follows:

of • To combat environmental damage, poverty

disease through global cooperation on

Agenda (common interests, mutual needs and shared

responsibilities) and
• that every local government should have
21? there own local agenda 21.
What do you mean by sustainable
development?

• Sustainable development is the idea that human societies must live

and meet their needs without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs. Specifically, sustainable
development is a way of organizing society so that it can exist in the
long term.
Developing the 2030 Agenda
• The journey started in June 2012, with the "Rio+20" Conference on
Sustainable Development, where Governments decided to develop
global Sustainable Development Goals, building on the Millennium
Development Goals but also including issues such as natural resources
management, sustainable consumption and production, effective
institutions, good governance, the rule of law and peaceful societies.
 • The 2030 Agenda is based on the concept of
global partnership, supported by a
comprehensive approach to the mobilization of
all means of implementation, and is
Nature and complemented by the Addis Ababa Action
Agenda, which is an integral part.
characteristic • In addition, the 2030 Agenda integrates in a
s of the 2030 balanced manner the three dimensions of
sustainable development – economic, social and
Agenda environmental. The 2030 Agenda is also
indivisible, in a sense that it must be
implemented as a whole, in an integrated rather
than a fragmented manner, recognizing that the
different goals and targets are closely interlinked.
Why is 2030 so important?
• The 2030 Agenda is universal, applying to all
countries and actors. It requires all nations to
take climate action, reduce unemployment,
strengthen gender equality and promote
peaceful societies, to name a few, if the world
is to eradicate poverty and shift into a more
sustainable development.
The
Sustainable
Development
Goals (SDGs)
or Global
Goals
#1 No Poverty
• Globally, the number of people living in extreme poverty declined from 36 per cent in 1990 to
10 per cent in 2015. But the pace of change is decelerating and the COVID-19 crisis 
risks reversing decades of progress in the fight against poverty. New research published by
the UNU World Institute for Development Economics Research warns that the economic
fallout from 
the global pandemic could increase global poverty by as much as half a billion people, or 8%
of the total human population. This would be the first time that poverty has increased globally
in thirty years, since 1990.
• More than 700 million people, or 10 per cent of the world population, still live in extreme
poverty today, struggling to fulfil the most basic needs like health, education, and access to
water and sanitation, to name a few. The majority of people living on less than $1.90 a day
live in sub-Saharan Africa. Worldwide, the poverty rate in rural areas is 17.2 per cent—more
than three times higher than in urban areas. 
• For those who work, having a job does not guarantee a decent living. In fact, 8 per cent of
employed workers and their families worldwide lived in extreme poverty in 2018. One out of
five children live in extreme poverty. Ensuring social protection for all children and other
vulnerable groups is critical to reduce poverty.
• After decades of steady decline, the number of people who suffer from hunger – as measured by the prevalence of
undernourishment – began to slowly increase again in 2015. Current estimates show that 
nearly 690 million people are hungry, or 8.9 percent of the world population – up by 10 million people in one year
and by nearly 60 million in five years.
• The world is not on track to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030. If recent trends continue, the number of people affected
by hunger would surpass 840 million by 2030.
• According to the World Food Programme, 135 million suffer from acute hunger largely due to man-made conflicts,
climate change and economic downturns. The COVID-19 pandemic could now double that number, putting an
additional 130 million people at risk of suffering acute hunger by the end of 2020.
• With more than a quarter of a billion people potentially at the brink of starvation, swift action needs to be taken to
provide food and humanitarian relief to the most at-risk regions.
• At the same time, a profound change of the global food and agriculture system is needed if we are to nourish the
more than 690 million people who are hungry today – and the additional 2 billion people the world will have by 2050.
Increasing agricultural productivity and sustainable food production are crucial to help alleviate the perils of hunger.
 • Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being at all ages is
essential to sustainable development. Currently, the world is facing
a global health crisis unlike any other — COVID-19 is spreading
human suffering, destabilizing the global economy and upending

Good
the lives of billions of people around the globe. 
• Before the pandemic, major progress was made in 
improving the health of millions of people. Significant strides were
made in increasing life expectancy and reducing some of the

health and common killers associated with child and maternal mortality. But
more efforts are needed to fully eradicate a wide range of diseases
and address many different persistent and emerging health issues.
By focusing on providing more efficient funding of health systems,

well- improved sanitation and hygiene, and increased access to

physicians, significant progress can be made in helping to save the
lives of millions.

being
• Health emergencies such as COVID-19 pose a global risk and have
shown the critical need for preparedness. The United Nations
Development Programme highlighted huge disparities in 
countries’ abilities to cope with and recover from the COVID-19 cris
is
. The pandemic provides a watershed moment for health
emergency preparedness and for investment in critical 21st
century public services. 
• Education enables upward socioeconomic mobility and is a key to escaping poverty. Over the past
decade, major progress was made towards increasing access to education and school enrollment
rates at all levels, particularly for girls. Nevertheless, about 260 million children were still out of school
 in 2018 — nearly one fifth of the global population in that age group. And more than half of all children
and adolescents worldwide are not meeting minimum proficiency standards in reading and
mathematics. 
• In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the globe, a majority of countries announced the
temporary closure of schools, impacting more than 91 per cent of students worldwide. By April 2020,
close to 1.6 billion children and youth were out of school. And nearly 
369 million children who rely on school meals needed to look to other sources for daily nutrition. 
• Never before have so many children been out of school at the same time, disrupting learning and
upending lives, especially the most vulnerable and marginalised. The global pandemic has far-reaching
consequences that may jeopardize hard won gains made in improving global education.
Gender Equality
• Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. 
• There has been progress over the last decades: More girls are going to school, fewer girls are forced into early marriage, more women are
serving in parliament and positions of leadership, and laws are being reformed to advance gender equality. 
• Despite these gains, many challenges remain: discriminatory laws and social norms remain pervasive, women continue to be
underrepresented at all levels of political leadership, and 1 in 5 women and girls between the ages of 15 and 49 report experiencing
physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner within a 12-month period.
• The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic could reverse the limited progress that has been made on gender equality and women’s rights.  The
coronavirus outbreak exacerbates existing inequalities for women and girls across every sphere – from health and the economy, to security
and social protection. 
• Women play a disproportionate role in responding to the virus, including as frontline healthcare workers and carers at home. Women’s
unpaid care work has increased significantly as a result of school closures and the increased needs of older people. Women are also
harder hit by the economic impacts of COVID-19, as they disproportionately work in insecure labour markets. Nearly 60 per cent of women
work in the informal economy, which puts them at greater risk of falling into poverty. 
• The pandemic has also led to a steep increase in violence against women and girls. With lockdown measures in place, many women are
trapped at home with their abusers, struggling to access services that are suffering from cuts and restrictions. Emerging data shows that,
since the outbreak of the pandemic, violence against women and girls – and particularly domestic violence – has intensified.
• While substantial progress has been made in increasing access to clean drinking water
and sanitation, billions of people—mostly in rural areas—still lack these basic services.
Worldwide, one in three people do not have access to safe drinking water, 
two out of five people do not have a basic hand-washing facility with soap and water,
and more than 673 million people still practice open defecation.
• The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the critical importance of sanitation,
hygiene and adequate access to clean water for preventing and containing diseases. 
Hand hygiene saves lives. According to the World Health Organization, 
handwashing is one of the most effective actions you can take to reduce the spread of
pathogens and prevent infections, including the COVID-19 virus. Yet billions of people
still lack safe water sanitation, and funding is inadequate.
Energy
• The world is making progress towards Goal 7, with encouraging signs that energy is
becoming more sustainable and widely available. Access to electricity in poorer
countries has begun to accelerate, energy efficiency continues to improve, and
renewable energy is making impressive gains in the electricity sector. 
• Nevertheless, more focused attention is needed to improve access to clean and safe
cooking fuels and technologies for 3 billion people, to expand the use of renewable
energy beyond the electricity sector, and to increase electrification in sub-Saharan Africa.
• The Energy Progress Report provides global dashboard to register progress on energy
access, energy efficiency and renewable energy. It assesses the progress made by each
country on these three pillars and provides a snapshot of how far we are from achieving
the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals targets.
• Sustained and inclusive economic growth can drive progress, create decent jobs for all and
improve living standards. 
• COVID-19 has disrupted billions of lives and endangered the global economy. The International
Monetary Fund (IMF) expects a global recession as bad as or worse than in 2009. As job losses
escalate, the International Labor Organization estimates that 
nearly half of the global workforce is at risk of losing their livelihoods.
• Even before the outbreak of COVID-19, one in five countries – home to billions of people living
in poverty – were likely to see per capita incomes stagnate or decline in 2020. Now, the
 economic and financial shocks associated with COVID-19—such as disruptions to industrial
production, falling commodity prices, financial market volatility, and rising insecurity—are
derailing the already tepid economic growth and compounding heightened risks from other
factors.  
• Inclusive and sustainable industrialization, together with innovation and infrastructure, can unleash dynamic and
competitive economic forces that generate employment and income. They play a key role in introducing and
promoting new technologies, facilitating international trade and enabling the efficient use of resources. 
• However, the world still has a long way to go to fully tap this potential. Least developed countries, in particular,
need to accelerate the development of their manufacturing sector if they are to meet the 2030 target, and scale
up investment in scientific research and innovation. 
• Global manufacturing growth has been steadily declining, even before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic is hitting manufacturing industries hard and causing disruptions in global value chains and the
supply of products. 
• Innovation and technological progress are key to finding lasting solutions to both economic and environmental
challenges, such as increased resource and energy-efficiency. Globally, 
investment in research and development (R&D) as a proportion of GDP increased from 1.5 per cent in 2000 to
1.7 per cent in 2015 and remained almost unchanged in 2017, but was only less than 1 per cent  in developing
regions.
• In terms of communications infrastructure, more than half of the world’s population is now
online and almost the entire world population lives in an area covered by a mobile network.
It is estimated that in 2019, 96.5 per cent were covered by at least a 2G network.     
• The coronavirus pandemic has revealed the urgent need for resilient infrastructure. The
Asian Development Bank notes that critical infrastructure in the region remains far from
adequate in many countries, despite the rapid economic growth and development the
region has experienced over the past decade. The 
Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific highlights that making
infrastructure resilient to disasters and climate change will require an additional investment
of $434 billion per year. This sum may need to be even greater in some subregions, such as
the Pacific small island developing states.    
Reduced Inequalities
• Reducing inequalities and ensuring no one is left behind are integral to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. 
• Inequality within and among countries is a persistent cause for concern. Despite some positive signs toward reducing
inequality in some dimensions, such as reducing relative income inequality in some countries and preferential trade status
benefiting lower-income countries, inequality still persists.
• COVID-19 has deepened existing inequalities, hitting the poorest and most vulnerable communities the hardest. It has put a
spotlight on economic inequalities and fragile social safety nets that leave vulnerable communities to bear the brunt of the
crisis.  At the same time, social, political and economic inequalities have amplified the impacts of the pandemic.
• On the economic front, the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly increased global unemployment and dramatically slashed
workers’ incomes.
• COVID-19 also puts at risk the limited progress that has been made on gender equality and women’s rights over the past
decades. Across every sphere, from health to the economy, security to social protection, the impacts of COVID-19 are
exacerbated for women and girls simply by virtue of their sex.
• Inequalities are also deepening for vulnerable populations in countries with weaker health systems and those facing existing
humanitarian crises. Refugees and migrants, as well as indigenous peoples, older persons, people with disabilities and children
are particularly at risk of being left behind. And hate speech targeting vulnerable groups is rising.
• The world is becoming increasingly urbanized. Since 2007, 
more than half the world’s population has been living in cities, and that share is projected to rise to 60 per cent by
2030. 
• Cities and metropolitan areas are powerhouses of economic growth—contributing about 60 per cent of global
GDP. However, they also account for about 70 per cent of global carbon emissions and over 60 per cent of
resource use. 
• Rapid urbanization is resulting in a growing number of slum dwellers, inadequate and overburdened infrastructure
and services (such as waste collection and water and sanitation systems, roads and transport), worsening air
pollution and unplanned urban sprawl. 
• The impact of COVID-19 will be most devastating in poor and densely populated urban areas, especially for the
one billion people living in informal settlements and slums worldwide, where overcrowding also makes it difficult
to follow recommended measures such as social distancing and self-isolation. 
• The UN food agency, FAO, warned that hunger and fatalities could rise significantly in urban areas, without
measures to ensure that poor and vulnerable residents have access to food. 
• Worldwide consumption and production — a driving force of the global economy — rest on the use of the natural environment and
resources in a way that continues to have destructive impacts on the planet. 
• Economic and social progress over the last century has been accompanied by environmental degradation that is endangering the very
systems on which our future development — indeed, our very survival — depends. 
• A few facts and figures:
• Each year, an estimated one third of all food produced – equivalent to 1.3 billion tons worth around $1 trillion – ends up rotting in the
bins of consumers and retailers, or spoiling due to poor transportation and harvesting practices.
• If people worldwide switched to energy efficient light bulbs the world would save US$120 billion annually.
• Should the global population reach 9.6 billion by 2050, the equivalent of almost three planets could be required to provide the natural
resources needed to sustain current lifestyles.
• The COVID-19 pandemic offers countries an opportunity to build recovery plans that will reverse current trends and change our
consumption and production patterns towards a more sustainable future.
• Sustainable consumption and production is about doing more and better with less. It is also about decoupling economic growth from
environmental degradation, increasing resource efficiency and promoting sustainable lifestyles.
• Sustainable consumption and production can also contribute substantially to poverty alleviation and the transition towards low-carbon
and green economies.
Climate Action
• 2019 was the second warmest year on record and the end of the warmest decade (2010- 2019) ever recorded.  
• Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere rose to new records in 2019. 
• Climate change is affecting every country on every continent. It is disrupting national economies and affecting
lives. Weather patterns are changing, sea levels are rising, and weather events are becoming more extreme.
• Although greenhouse gas emissions are projected to drop about 6 per cent in 2020 due to travel bans and
economic slowdowns resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, this improvement is only temporary. 
Climate change is not on pause. Once the global economy begins to recover from the pandemic, emissions are
expected to return to higher levels.
• Saving lives and livelihoods requires urgent action to address both the pandemic and the climate emergency.
• The Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015, aims to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change
by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The
agreement also aims to strengthen the ability of countries to deal with the impacts of climate change, through
appropriate financial flows, a new technology framework and an enhanced capacity building framework.
• The ocean drives global systems that make the Earth habitable for humankind. Our
rainwater, drinking water, weather, climate, coastlines, much of our food, and even the
oxygen in the air we breathe, are all ultimately provided and regulated by the sea. 
• Careful management of this essential global resource is a key feature of a sustainable
future. However, at the current time, there is a continuous deterioration of coastal waters
owing to pollution, and ocean acidification is having an adversarial effect on the functioning
of ecosystems and biodiversity. This is also negatively impacting small scale fisheries. 
• Saving our ocean must remain a priority. Marine biodiversity is critical to the health of
people and our planet. Marine protected areas need to be effectively managed and well-
resourced and regulations need to be put in place to reduce overfishing, marine pollution and
ocean acidification.
• Nature is critical to our survival: nature provides us with our oxygen, regulates our weather patterns, pollinates our crops, produces
our food, feed and fibre. But it is under increasing stress. Human activity has altered almost 75 per cent of the earth’s surface,
squeezing wildlife and nature into an ever-smaller corner of the planet.
• Around 1 million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction – many within decades – according to the 2019 Global
Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service. The report called for transformative changes to restore and protect
nature. It found that the health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever,
affecting  the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide. 
• Deforestation and desertification – caused by human activities and climate change – pose major challenges to sustainable
development and have affected the lives and livelihoods of millions of people. Forests are vitally important for sustaining life on
Earth, and play a major role in the fight against climate change. And investing in land restoration is critical for improving
livelihoods, reducing vulnerabilities, and reducing risks for the economy.
• The health of our planet also plays an important role in the emergence of zoonotic diseases, i.e. diseases that are transmissible
between animals and humans. As we continue to encroach on fragile ecosystems, we bring humans into ever-greater contact with
wildlife, enabling pathogens in wildlife to spill over to livestock and humans, increasing the risk of disease emergence and
amplification.
• Conflict, insecurity, weak institutions and limited access to justice remain a great
threat to sustainable development. 
• The number of people fleeing war, persecution and conflict exceeded 70 million in
2018, the highest level recorded by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in almost 70
years. 
• In 2019, the United Nations tracked 357 killings and 30 enforced disappearances
 of human rights defenders, journalists and trade unionists in 47 countries.
• And the births of around one in four children under age 5 worldwide are never
officially recorded, depriving them of a proof of legal identity crucial for the
protection of their rights and for access to justice and social services.
• The SDGs can only be realized with strong global partnerships and cooperation.
• A successful development agenda requires inclusive partnerships — at the global, regional,
national and local levels — built upon principles and values, and upon a shared vision and shared
goals placing people and the planet at the centre.
• Many countries require Official Development Assistance to encourage growth and trade. Yet, 
aid levels are falling and donor countries have not lived up to their pledge to ramp up development
finance.
• Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the global economy is projected to contract sharply, by 3 per cent,
in 2020, experiencing its worst recession since the Great Depression.
• Strong international cooperation is needed now more than ever to ensure that countries have the
means to recover from the pandemic, build back better and achieve the Sustainable Development
Goals.