Seventeen goals, 169 targets and the five words that organise the global development agenda

Background

Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is the plan of action for people, planet and prosperity agreed by world leaders meeting at United Nations Headquarters in New York. It announced 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets, and pledged that no one will be left behind. The Goals seek to build on the Millennium Development Goals and to complete what those did not achieve. They are described as integrated and indivisible, balancing the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. The Agenda sets out its areas of critical importance under five headings: People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace and Partnership. Under Partnership, the means of carrying out the Agenda are to be mobilised through a revitalised Global Partnership for Sustainable Development, focussed in particular on the poorest and most vulnerable. The world leaders who adopted it committed themselves to full implementation by 2030.