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Curated by Project Syndicate

Is Sustainable Development Being Achieved?

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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? 

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  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. terzi6_green transition degrowth Getty Images

    What the G20 Can Do for Green Growth

    Mariana Mazzucato & Vera Songwe explain how the world’s premier economic grouping can keep global climate targets on track.
  2. bildt128_EYAD BABAAFP via Getty Images_israel war EYAD BABA/AFP via Getty Images)

    An Israeli Victory May Not Bring Peace

    Carl Bildt sees the aftermath of the 1967 Six-Day War as a cautionary tale for the current conflict.
  3. moghalu5_Oleksandr RupetaNurPhoto via Getty Images_namibiauniversity Oleksandr Rupeta/NurPhoto via Getty Images

    Fixing Africa’s Governance Crisis Must Come First

    Kingsley Moghalu foresees home-grown educational institutions equipping the continent’s leaders with public-policy skills.
  4. okonjoiweala31_CostfotoNurPhoto via Getty Images_supply chain trade CostfotoNurPhoto via Getty Images

    The Key to Unlocking the Benefits of Trade

    Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala & Makhtar Diop

    The finance underpinning supply chains is crucial, but too many small businesses in emerging and developing economies cannot access it, cutting them off from the benefits of global trade. Plucking this relatively low-hanging fruit can drive progress toward many development goals at once.

    show how a lack of supply-chain finance keeps many businesses and economies on the sidelines.
  5. frankel165_CHRISTINE OLSSONTTTT NEWS AGENCYAFP via Getty Images_nobelwinners Christine Olsson/News Agency/AFP via Getty Images

    What Causes Prosperity?

    Jeffrey Frankel shows how this year's Nobel Prize-winning economists tackled a once-insoluble problem.
  6. ignatieff7_nocopyright

    Ukraine’s Post-Colonial Future

    Michael Ignatieff believes that what is at stake in the war with Russia is the fate of the last European imperialism.
  7. obstfeld6_Anthony KwanGetty Images_tariffs Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

    Donald Trump’s Tariffs Would Hurt US Workers and Businesses

    Maurice Obstfeld shows why targeting an overall reduction in imports would reduce America’s real wages and national income.
  8. kenewendo6_ LUIS TATOAFP via Getty Images_green energy africa LUIS TATO/AFP via Getty Images

    Africa’s Green Future Starts with Debt Relief

    Bogolo Kenewendo & Patrick Njoroge propose large-scale relief to ensure that the continent’s countries can invest in climate action.
  9. james159_getty images-inflation Getty Images

    Diane Coyle on economic progress, tech monopolies, artificial intelligence, and more

    Diane Coyle advocates a new public philosophy that rejects viewing “government” and “market” as opposites, explains why time-use data must shape technological development, warns that policymakers are devising AI regulation in a thick conceptual fog, and more.

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