Four years to the 2030 SDGs

In 2015, the United Nation established the Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs; a set of seventeen ambitious, interwoven goals which were adopted by all member states (2026a). Individual goals encompass the reduction of poverty and hunger; and the improvement of health, education, equality, water, access to energy... and decent work. The latter is goal number eight, the "Promot[ion of] sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all" (United Nations, 2026b). This goal has twelve individual measures, including sustaining economic growth at 7% GDP/year, promoting job creation policies and enterprise growth, youth and employment strategies, education and training (United Nations, 2026a).

While there have been a range of challenges, including COVID-19 and unrest, if we are to make our desired progress towards the SDGs by 2030 - a mere four years away - in nations where persistent inequalities of gender and age exist, the shortfall remains substantial:

• 58% of the global workforce is 'informally' employed; up to 90% nations such as sub-Saharan Africa
• Global GDP only 1.5%, a shortfall of 5.5%
• 20% of youth are "NEET", i.e. not in employment, education or training; and where women are twice as likely as men to be NEET
• Youth unemployment is triple that of adults (University of Auckland, 2026; United Nations, 2026b).

Realistically, none of us can make a shift to a sustainable economic future alone. Aotearoa New Zealand is not doing brilliantly: as one of the 38 OCED nations tracking SDGs, we barely scrape a pass mark of 53 for decent work; 52 for real GNDI/person (gross national disposable income; Te Ara, 2026); an unemployment rate at 59, and a domestic material consumption of 47 (Victoria University of Wellington, 2026). Or put another way, out of eight traffic light measures, we have five green lights, and three orange (Sustainable Development Report, 2026): meaning that overall our report card is 'moderate' (University of Auckland, 2026).

So if we 'could do better', it is easy to see how far many nations less fortunate than ourselves have to travel. 

Sam

References:

Sustainable Development Report. (2025). New Zealand. https://dashboards.sdgindex.org/profiles/new-zealand/indicators/

Te Ara. (2026). Definition of GNDI. https://teara.govt.nz/en/diagram/23574/gdp-gne-and-gndi

United Nations. (2026a). Sustainable Development Goals. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/development-agenda-retired/#:~:text=On%201%20January%202016%2C%20the,Summit%20%E2%80%94%20officially%20came%20into%20force.

United Nations. (2026b). Goal 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Goal-8_Fast-Facts.pdf

University of Auckland. (2026). SDG 8 explained. https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/about-us/about-the-university/the-university/sustainability-and-environment/sustainable-development-goals/sdg8-hub/sdg-8-explained.html

Victoria University of Wellington. (2026). New Zealand Sustainable Development Goals: Indicators for Decent Work and Economic Growth. https://www.sdg.org.nz/datavis/?name=Decent%20Work%20and%20Economic%20Growth