New report showcases Scottish links to over 100 countries

2
Scotland’s International Development Alliance publishes a new report that maps its members’ contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals across the globe.

At the start of December 2019, Scotland’s International Development Alliance (the Alliance) published its new report ‘Working towards the Global Goals’, providing detailed insight into its members’ contributions to sustainable development across the world.

The new report – published only a month before the world enters the ‘decade of delivery’ for the ambitious UN 2030 Agenda – demonstrates a far reaching and impactful international development sector in Scotland. It reveals that over 120 members organisations have projects in over 100 countries and contribute to all 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The report is the culmination of research undertaken by the Alliance earlier in the year that mapped out the work of its diverse membership in different countries against all SDGs. The findings show that the Alliance membership are working – directly or indirectly – towards all of the 169 targets that constitute the 17 SDGs.

But the SDGs are more than 17 Goals and the 169 Targets underneath them. The report emphasises the holistic nature of sustainable development and the interdependency of different Goals and Targets. It highlights the interconnected nature of the Goals themselves and reveals that most Alliance member organisations claim to work across multiple SDGs and contribute to multiple targets.

Through the presentation of 56 case studies across all 17 goals, the report offers practical examples of how a different civil society-led projects can contribute to the achievement of specific SDG targets.

However, the report also highlights some of the stark and shocking statistics that prove the world is way off track to achieve the SDGs by 2030. Despite progress in a number of areas, the most vulnerable people and countries continue to suffer the most and the global response has not been ambitious enough.

Jane Salmonson, Alliance CEO said:

“The Alliance is deeply proud of its members’ contributions to the SDGs and is pleased to have showcased elements of this work throughout this report. The diverse and far reaching nature of this work is incredible, and it is important to recognise and celebrate that fact.

“But this report should also inspire us to do more as we approach the 10-year countdown to 2030.

“We know we are we off target, and we all have to step up if we are to have any hope of achieving these ambitious goals.

“Understanding the SDGs not as 17 isolated Goals; but rather as a highly interconnected and interdependent whole is key to ensuring their achievement.”

The report is available to download here.