Skip to main content

Curated by Project Syndicate

Is Sustainable Development Being Achieved?

6 commentaries

The Sustainable Development Goals are now two years old.  Is the UN community keeping its word to the world’s poorest people?  Are too many nations backsliding into the old game of relying on others to do the heavy lifting in enacting the SDGs? 

Sort by: Show:
  1. Counting What Counts in Development
    Sudan: young Dinka girl Christophe Calais/Getty Images

    Counting What Counts in Development

    Sep 14, 2017 Selim Jahan says the best way to improve human development outcomes is to change how we measure quality of life.

  2. Data-Driven Gender Equality
    Somalia daily life Mohamed Abdiwahab/Getty Images

    Data-Driven Gender Equality

    Sep 13, 2017 Mark Suzman says that achieving the UN’s development goals for women and girls must start with better metrics.

  3. How to Achieve the SDGs
    Venezuela-Colombia migration Luis Acosta/Getty Images

    How to Achieve the SDGs

    Aug 29, 2017 Mahmoud Mohieldin advocates a bottom-up approach to achieving global development goals, citing Colombia as an example.

  4. A Scientific Method for the SDGs
    fishermen Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

    A Scientific Method for the SDGs

    Jun 6, 2017 Anne-Sophie Stevance & David McCollum describe a new analytical framework for prioritizing development goals and investments.

  5. The Private Sector and the SDGs
    Woman sustainable farming Bangladesh Barcroft Media

    The Private Sector and the SDGs

    Feb 6, 2017 Mahmoud Mohieldin & Svetlana Klimenko describe how to mobilize financial markets to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

  6. Investment for Sustainable Growth
    sachs266_Westend61_Getty Images_infrastructure Westend61/Getty Images

    Investment for Sustainable Growth

    Oct 31, 2016 Jeffrey D. Sachs describes the types of long-term investments the world economy needs – and how to finance them.

  1. tharoor198_AnadoluGettyImages_kash_patel_maga Anadolu/Getty Images

    The Indians Dividing MAGA

    Shashi Tharoor shows how one immigrant group became central to the “civil war” within Donald Trump’s base.
  2. james225_AnadoluGettyImages_un_security_countil_meeting Anadolu/Getty Images

    Shock Therapy for Multilateralism

    Harold James considers what another Donald Trump presidency will, and will not, mean for global cooperation.
  3. rogoff257_Drew AngererGetty Images_trumppowell Drew Angerer/Getty Images

    Will Trump Fire the Fed?

    Kenneth Rogoff

    Despite Donald Trump’s assurances that he will not seek to remove Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, there is little doubt that the US president-elect aims to gain greater influence over the Fed’s decision-making. Such interference could drive up long-term interest rates, damaging the American economy.

    worries about the incoming US administration’s plans to weaken the central bank’s independence.
  4. velasco155_Apu GomesGetty Images_musk Apu Gomes/Getty Images

    Crypto’s Unholy Choir

    Andrés Velasco hears a chorus of deceivers, demagogues, dictators, and tax dodgers singing Donald Trump’s praises.
  5. nye265_GettyImages_modi_putin_xi Getty Images

    What Are the BRICS Good For?

    Joseph S. Nye, Jr.

    Following the addition of new members to the BRICS, some observers believe that the group has a good chance of becoming the new lodestar of global politics and international affairs. But the organization is neither representative enough nor sufficiently united to lead others.

    explains why the group of major emerging economies will not become the new fulcrum of world politics.
  6. teitel15_Wally McNameeGettyImages_torrijos_carter Wally McNamee/Getty Images

    MAGA Goes to Panama

    Ruti Teitel asks whether the United States ever became truly reconciled to giving up control of the canal it built.
  7. patten171_WPA PoolGettyImages_starmer_xi WPA Pool/Getty Images

    China Won’t Save Labour’s Britain

    Chris Patten urges British policymakers to focus instead on crafting polices that really can promote economic recovery.
  8. roubini192_TIMOTHY A. CLARYAFP via Getty Images_trumpnyse Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images

    The Good, the Bad, and the Uncertainty of the Trump Economy

    Nouriel Roubini considers what the US president-elect's promised policy agenda will mean for growth and inflation.
  9. usrof1_Robert AlexanderGetty Images_clouds Robert Alexander/Getty Images
    Free to read

    Ban Solar Geoengineering

    Mohammed Usrof, et al. predict that the controversial technology will foist upon young people yet another crisis they did not create.

Edit Newsletter Preferences

Set up Notification

To receive email updates regarding this {entity_type}, please enter your email below.

If you are not already registered, this will create a PS account for you. You should receive an activation email shortly.