Partnerships for the Goals

Amid uneven SDG progress and overlapping crises, efforts to deliver sustainable development that leaves no one behind continue to face persistent, intersecting barriers—even where commitments are strong. Consider, for example, the experience of a woman with a disability in an informal settlement: she cannot afford assistive devices, faces inaccessible infrastructure, encounters weak enforcement of rules, experiences hiring bias and may struggle to evacuate during an earthquake. This scenario shows how multiple barriers converge to deepen exclusion. This policy brief highlights five dimensions where exclusion is often observed—affordability, access, governance, participation and external shocks, among others—and illustrates how governments are responding in each through policy examples and observations. Insights are drawn from 2024–2025 country implementation updates from thirteen countries that announced commitments at the 2023 SDG Summit, as well as 2025 Voluntary National Review (VNR) reports from three additional countries3 with such commitments. The analysis is intended to inform global policy discussions, including, as relevant, the World Social Summit under the title Second World Summit for Social Development.

The May 2021 hostilities were the fourth round of offensive by Israel on the Gaza Strip, following the 2008, 2012, and 2014 hostilities. It resulted in devastating consequences, taking the lives of 261 Palestinians, including 67 children and 41 women. It led to a considerable destruction of residential and commercial buildings, as well as damages of schools, health facilities, water and power networks, roads, and public buildings, which in turn disrupted the provision of vital basic services. UNDP led the design and implementation of a detailed infrastructure damage assessment from June to August 2021 in coordination with the Ministry of Public Works and Housing (MoPWH) as well as line ministries, municipalities, the Palestinian Contractors Union (PCU), UNRWA, UNMAS, and in consultation with UN agencies, the cluster coordinators, and civil society actors. The primary purpose of the assessment was to identify real damages resulting from the May 2021 hostilities, to inform rehabilitation, reconstruction and recovery interventions. It provides an estimate of two types of costs: a) reconstruction / rehabilitation to the state it was before the destruction / damages (Building Back as was – BBaw), and b) reconstruction / rehabilitation incorporating the principles of Building Forward Better.