Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - What Are They and How to Measure the Distance to SDG Targets

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted in September 2015 by world leaders at the UN General Assembly, presents an exceptional challenge for countries to achieve by 2030. It is a call for action to all countries to promote growth and prosperity along with protecting the planet, for a better and more sustainable future for all.
The Agenda is broad and ambitious, with 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets to be achieved globally by 2030. Most of these goals and targets are drawn from previous international agreements, especially concerning development, environment, and human rights. The plan outlines the path to economic growth and the eradication of poverty and issues in the fields of education, health, social care, employment, climate change, and environmental protection. The 17 goals consist of 169 goals, and they include 247 indicators aimed at monitoring the implementation of the goals, both at the global level and at the country level. The Voluntary National Review (VNR) is a voluntary report that countries submit to update on the state of progress in achieving the goals. The Central Bureau of Statistics of Israel acts as the national coordinator for reporting all indicators from all sources along with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Environmental Protection and other ministries. Achieving the Goals requires understanding how far countries are from achieving their targets. To assist member countries in this assessment, the OECD Measuring Distance to the SDG Targets study applied a specific methodology showing how far OECD countries will have to travel to achieve the 2030 targets. However, the OECD methodology of measuring the distance from SDG targets applied for Member States (including Israel), is naturally relative to all Member States. We present statistical data on existing main SDG indicators for Israel and other countries. In addition, we adopt the fundamental methodology of the OECD for measuring distance, yet adjust it to measure also the absolute distance to SDG Targets for achieving the Goals for Israel.