The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, along with its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), provide countries with an ambitious development agenda to leave no one behind. As countries grapple with this complex and integrated development agenda, building a reliable evidence base to take stock of where we stand, to measure progress, to help identify priorities and to address the interlinkages and tradeoffs will be a vital element of success. The Sustainability Outlook of Mongolia (SOM) is a comprehensive evidence base of the country’s sustainable development, providing an overview of the green and sustainable development processes, analyzing progress in the implementation of the SDGs and identifying priority areas for action. We hope that the report is a helpful tool for aligning national objectives and priorities with the SDGs and for helping identify some of the priority areas for integrated action in further policy dialogues and respective actions.
Three years into the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable development, Mongolia shows encouraging signs of progress on many SDGs. However, on some SDGS – including poverty, inequality, decent work, responsible consumption and production, and land management – the country must redouble its efforts or risk moving further away from the 2030 Targets. Special attention must be called to poverty. Following substantial improvement measured from the year 2000, Mongolia’s poverty rate increased from 21.6% to nearly 30% between 2014 and 2016, resulting in a dramatic regression from the SDG target. Without focused actions to reverse this regression, Mongolia risks serious obstacles to achieve the 2030 Agenda.
Imbedded in the SOM are ways and means of analyzing and visualizing complex data and information including the SDG Baseline assessment – used for the very first time at national level – as well as an innovative systemthinking approach. More than the methodologies, however, the multi-stakeholder, cross government and cross sectoral participatory process has enabled the SOM to deliver a common vision of progress, challenges, priorities and pathways forward that provides the basis for stronger cross-sectoral cooperation and collaboration in implementation of the SDGs.
ESCAP is pleased to have worked with the Government of Mongolia on the Sustainability Outlook of Mongolia (SOM). We commend the Government of Mongolia for its forward-looking approach to development planning, its leadership in piloting the Sustainability Outlook methodology, and its commitment to implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
