Our Terms & Conditions | Our Privacy Policy
AFRICA
African countries are unlikely to attain five of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals by the 2030 target date: good health and well-being (SDG 3); gender equality (SDG 5); decent work and economic growth (SDG 8); life below water (SDG 14) and strengthening global partnerships (SDG 17).
This necessitates accelerating efforts to achieve the SDGs and the African Union’s Agenda 2063 through adopting a holistic approach, which includes investing in higher education and scientific research.
This is according to the 2025 Africa Sustainable Development Report that was officially launched at a ministerial meeting on Africa Day, held at the end of July on the side of the High-Level Political Forum 2025, organised at the UN headquarters in New York, United States.
The report is a tool to assist African countries and policymakers to address challenges and formulate strategies to intensify efforts towards the SDGs and Agenda 2063, stated the High-Level Political Forum in a concept note. In 2025, the report interrogated specific SDGs (3, 5, 8, 14 and 17), which the forum selected as focus areas.
Outcomes
The Ethiopia-based United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), responded to questions by University World News, saying the report provided a “rigorous assessment of progress in the implementation of the SDGs and Agenda 2063’s Second Ten-Year Implementation Plan”.
In addition, UNECA believes that it also provides an evidence-based analysis of the status quo on the achievement of the goals, highlights successes and case studies and moves on to recommend policies and strategies that could accelerate progress.
It does pinpoint several challenges as countries pursued the SDGs, including the global tariff war, debt, declining development assistance and growth without productive jobs.
The findings reveal “a continent of immense potential but uneven progress” and highlight the need for Africa to accelerate progress on all five SDGs and strengthen statistical systems to track performance.
Of the 63 targets within SDGs 3, 5, 8, 14 and 17, 46 of them are measurable. However, only two targets are on track to be achieved by 2030. These are targets 14.5 (conservation of coastal areas) and 17.19 (statistical capacity).
“Africa is making progress in 12 of the 17 SDGs. However, the current pace of progress is insufficient to achieve the SDGs by 2030. Overall, data gaps prevent a full picture of the continent’s performance,” the report pointed out.
“Indeed, the report is significant for various stakeholders, including government officials, intergovernmental group representatives, civil society members, NGO representatives, media professionals, academics, business representatives, [and] national and regional analysts who are keen to support the implementation of the two agendas,” UNECA noted.
Cross-cutting measures towards the SDGs
The report put forward several cross-cutting recommendations for the advancement of the SDG agenda.
It called for investing in skills and education at all levels, including higher education, to be able to tap into “the demographic dividend and attaining inclusive development in Africa”.
“An integrated approach to developing skills and education for the workforce, with a focus on vulnerable populations, including persons with disabilities, youth and women, will facilitate job creation and social cohesion,” according to the report.
In addition to investing in higher education to enhance critical thinking and specialised expertise, countries should promote lifelong learning opportunities to “facilitate upskilling and reskilling of the workforce, reducing unemployment and supporting sustainable development,” said the report. “Investing in skills and education at all levels will act as a catalyst to attaining sustainable and inclusive development.
“Africa is home to the youngest population in the world, with over 60% of the total population under the age of 25. Countries should support engagement with young people as strategic partners,” the report stressed.
“Countries should also, therefore, ensure the empowerment of the youth population through education, skills development, entrepreneurship, and access to technology. Countries should also rigorously review plans and programmes in areas with transformational effects on the attainment of several SDGs, such as infrastructure, science, technology and innovation, digitalisation, food systems, renewable energy systems, value-added manufacturing and climate action,” the report pointed out.
The report said that, although Africa has made progress in terms of data infrastructure and open data initiatives, significant gaps remain in data availability, quality and disaggregation.
Expanding capacity-building through digital platforms and targeted programmes for young people and women is central to leveraging the demographic dividends of the continent.
Therefore, the report called for strengthening data collection and use for the design and implementation of interventions and for the tracking of progress towards the attainment of the SDGs through adopting several measures – including the use of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, or AI.
Measures for advancing specific SDGs
The report put forward several recommendations to advance the achievement of specific SDGs. It called upon countries to ensure that academic institutions and their research outputs are strengthened to contribute to the formulation of health policies and programmes towards achieving SGD 3, which focuses on health and well-being.
“Although women’s access to education has improved, they continue to be underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, fields and vocational training due to entrenched societal norms and discriminatory practices,” according to the report.
Speaking about gender equality (SDG 5), it, therefore, called for enhancing women’s access to science, technology and innovation through digital learning and literacy programmes to help them to gain employment in emerging sectors.
In terms of SDG 14, or life below water, the report called on countries to invest in education and capacity-building programmes for emerging scientists and local experts to advance ocean science and improve marine management practices.
Besides scaling up investment in research, ocean science infrastructure and ocean entrepreneurship, countries must promote scientific cooperation and ensure that local communities benefit from and contribute to ocean preservation.
“Investment in research and technology, effective governance, regional collaboration and adherence to international agreements will be essential in addressing the threats to marine and freshwater resources,” the report noted.
“With the 2030 Agenda approaching its midpoint deadline and the Second Ten-Year Implementation Plan of Agenda 2063 now under way, the imperative is clear: the actions taken today will shape Africa’s development trajectory for decades to come,” the report said.
The report was jointly produced by the African Union, the African Development Bank, the United Nations Development Programme and UNECA.
Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.
Aggregated From –
Comments are closed.