DSS5101 Chap.4 Leaving No One Behind in the Global Goals
Leaving No One Behind in the Global Goals
Seventeen goals built on five Ps
The 2030 Agenda describes itself as an action plan for people, the planet and prosperity, one that also aims at universal peace and is carried out through partnership. Those five Ps organise its preamble.
It announces 17 goals and 169 targets, describes them as integrated and indivisible, and says they balance the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development.
The Week 2 lecture presents the goals as a call on every country, whatever its income level, to pursue prosperity and protect the planet at once.
The pledge that changes the arithmetic
Member states promised to leave no one behind and that they would endeavour to reach the furthest behind first. The pledge is practical because of what it does to measurement.
An average can improve while a group within it stands still, so the Agenda asks for quality, accessible, timely, reliable and disaggregated data. The global indicator framework lists the splits it expects where relevant: sex, age, income, disability, race, ethnicity, migratory status and location.
The lecture’s example is literacy, where a high overall rate can hide a gap between boys and girls.
What the splits have shown
The lecture gathers findings from UN progress reporting. Around one in ten children aged 5 to 17 was in child labour in 2012. In 2015 youth unemployment stood at 15 per cent against 4.6 per cent for adults.
Children in rural areas were at 1.7 times the urban risk of dying before age five, and children from the poorest households were nearly four times as likely to be out of school. Each figure is invisible in a national average. The Agenda also leaves room for national judgement: its targets are aspirational and global, and every government chooses national targets suited to its circumstances.
What this chapter covers
- 01
People, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership
- 02
Seventeen goals and 169 targets described as indivisible
- 03
The pledge to reach the furthest behind first
- 04
Disaggregation by income, sex, age, place and more
- 05
Gaps the averages hide, from schooling to child survival
- 06
Global targets translated into national ones
Worked example · free
How much an average can hide
- 2Weight each group's rate by its share of the labour force.
- 2Compare the combined rate with the youth and adult rates.
- 2State the consequence for the pledge.
Key terms
- Five Ps
- People, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership, the five areas of critical importance around which the 2030 Agenda's preamble is organised.
- Disaggregated Data
- Data broken down by characteristics such as sex, age, income, disability or location, so that disparities hidden in an average become visible.
- SDG Target
- A specific commitment under one of the goals, numbered goal then target, such as target 1.1 on eradicating extreme poverty.
- SDG Indicator
- A measured quantity used to track a target, numbered goal, target and indicator, such as indicator 1.1.1.
- Social Protection Floor
- A basic level of social security below which no one should fall, named in target 1.3 on nationally appropriate protection systems.
- Extreme Poverty
- Living below the international poverty line, measured as income under $1.25 per day when target 1.1 was set.
Leaving No One Behind in the Global Goals FAQ
What are the five Ps of the Sustainable Development Goals?
People, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership. They are the headings of the 2030 Agenda's preamble, each naming a commitment: ending poverty and hunger, protecting the planet, prosperity in harmony with nature, peaceful and inclusive societies, and a revitalised global partnership.
What does leave no one behind mean in practice?
It means progress is judged by whether it reaches every group, with the furthest behind reached first. In practice that requires disaggregated data, because an improving national average can conceal groups whose situation has not changed at all.
Why are the goals called integrated and indivisible?
The Agenda says they balance the economic, social and environmental dimensions and must be pursued together. Progress on one goal that undermines another does not count as success in the Agenda's own terms, which is why interactions between goals matter.
Who sets the targets each country aims for?
The global targets are aspirational. Each government fixes its national targets in the light of the global ambition and its own circumstances, and decides how to build them into national planning, so two countries can pursue the same goal with different numbers.
Which groups does the lecture show being left behind?
Among others, children in child labour, young people facing unemployment far above the adult rate, rural children with higher mortality before age five, and children from the poorest households who are more often out of school and more often stunted.
Assessment move
For each goal you study, practise naming the one split that would matter most and why. That habit answers exam-style questions about the pledge, and it gives your data report a sharper question than a comparison of national averages ever could.
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