The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) has launched a first regional report on SDG progress. The report aims to inform the 2020 session of the UNECE Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (RFSD).

The report titled, ‘Towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in the UNECE region: A statistical portrait of progress and challenges,’ reviews trends in progress on 49 global SDG indicators. UNECE selected the indicators based on their relevance to region and availability of data, and they cover all 17 SDGs. The report shares progress on people, planet, prosperity, and partnership.

On people, the report finds UNECE countries are making good progress on ending poverty (SDG 1) and hunger (SDG 2) and ensuring that all people can fulfill their potential with equality and dignity and in a healthy environment. Social protection schemes cover a large majority of the population, with about half of UNECE countries providing universal pension schemes for older persons, and 30 out of 41 countries with data providing a disability cash benefit for everyone with severe disabilities.

Almost all UNECE countries have maternal, infant and child mortality rates (SDG 3) below the global SDG targets; in the few countries with rates above the targets, these rates have “fallen substantially over recent years.” The report also highlights progress on: family planning; disaster-related mortality (SDG 13); proficiency levels in reading, mathematics and information, communications and technology (ICT) skills (SDG 4); and some gender equality targets (SDG 5), such as narrowing the gender gap in domestic and care work and increasing the proportion of women among parliamentarians and managers. Still, very few countries are approaching gender parity.

In some areas, “little or no progress has been made.” The UNECE region has high overweight rates among children, and the proportion of local governments with disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies varies widely. Births to adolescents remain relatively high in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Although countries have made progress in reducing road fatalities since 2007, progress has stalled or reversed in recent years, and the region is “far from reaching the  global target.” Air pollution remains the “most significant environmental risk to human health,” and only ten UNECE countries have levels of air pollution with fine particulate matter below the recommended limit (SDG 11).

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