SDG Action was launched in 2021 to support the UN’s Decade of Action. Its aim is to encourage cross-sector dialogue and problem solving to accelerate the transition to sustainability.
Climate — Sub-Saharan Africa
A shrinking Lake Chad and increasingly erratic rains are pushing herders and farmers in the Sahel into conflict over water and land. Lasting peace depends on securing indigenous land rights, strengthening cross-border cooperation, and putting climate finance directly in local hands
Too often, adaptation finance is treated as an exercise that begins only once a plan is finished. Building investment planning into resilience strategies from the start is key to turning plans on paper into bankable projects on the ground
We can now predict many climate hazards months in advance, yet international finance still flows mainly after the damage is done. Closing that gap means funding preparedness when credible forecasts warn of danger, not only recovery once disaster hits
Ten years on, the New Urban Agenda has shaped national urban policies, but much-anticipated innovations in financing have yet to deliver at scale, and the stakeholders who helped create it have been sidelined. Its halfway point raises a bigger question about whether 20-year global frameworks still make sense in a world of fast-moving, overlapping crises
SDG 11, the New Urban Agenda and the International Guidelines on Urban and Territorial Planning all rely on planners to put them into practice. Yet no one has conducted a representative survey of planners, asking whether these frameworks have changed their work, or whether the planning laws they work under even allow what the frameworks call for
The war in Ukraine, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and El Niño are hitting global agrifood systems at once, just as the buffers that absorbed past shocks are running low. Preventing these disruptions from becoming food crises means tackling not only countries’ exposure to shocks but also the fragility that leaves them unable to respond
More frequent extreme weather events, as well as gradual changes to the global climate, are increasingly harming people and economies. Integrating climate risk into economic management can help unlock the finance needed to build resilience and protect progress towards the SDGs
Demographics and climate change are combining to create an impending sanitation crisis in many poorer regions of the world. Averting it means investing now in safe, climate-resilient sanitation as a foundation for health, dignity, and prosperity
At every level, development is being disrupted and overshadowed by conflict. A common and glaring omission in the ongoing peace efforts is the absence of justice.
.
With the Security Council divided and the UN’s wider credibility under strain, member states are looking to the next Secretary-General for a fresh vision of peacemaking. But what can one leader realistically do to restore the organization’s influence on peace and security?
As conflicts grow more protracted, climate shocks intensify, and aid budgets shrink, gender equality cannot be treated as optional. Women’s leadership and rights must be central to effective humanitarian action
Cities face difficult choices about how to invest in resilience as climate
pressures intensify. Valuing health, ecosystems, social inclusion, and reliable services alongside financial costs can help them choose fairer, more effective ways to adapt to climate change
Work can liberate women and transform societies, but employment alone is not enough. As digital, green, and demographic transitions reshape labor markets, the challenge is to ensure that every woman has access to decent work, rights, security, and opportunity
Mothers are encouraged to breastfeed, yet too often expected to do so within work systems built around separation. If we want to improve breastfeeding rates, those systems must change – through stronger legislation on workplace responsibilities, flexible working, and care arrangements that allow mothers and babies to stay together
