The 2024 Africa Sustainable Development Report (ASDR) reviews the status of the implementation of the two Agendas in Africa and offers policy recommendations to facilitate their attainment. As in previous years, the 2024 report aligns with the theme and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the high-level political forum on sustainable development (HLPF) selected for any particular year. In this context, the SDGs under review by the 2024 HLPF focus on ending poverty (Goal 1); eliminating hunger (Goal 2); combating climate change (Goal 13); promoting peaceful societies (Goal 16) and strengthening global partnerships (Goal 17). Each SDG is analysed in relation to the corresponding goal of the African Union Agenda 2063. The findings of the report highlight the need for Africa to accelerate progress on SDGs 1, 2 and 17, reverse the negative trend on climate action (Goal 13) and strengthen statistical systems to track performance particularly on good governance (SDG 16), where data limitations abound and inhibit performance tracking. For Africa, less than six percent of the 32 measurable SDG targets are on track to be achieved by 2030. Of the remaining measurable targets, 21 need achieving in the region and the negative trends for 8 need to be reversed. Overall, data gaps prevent a full picture of the continent’s performance.

The Africa Sustainable Development Report (ASDR) for the year 2022 comes at the midway of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to which world leaders, including African leaders, made commitments in 2015, to end extreme poverty, inequality and climate change by 2030. In addition, the ten-year implementation plan of the African Union’s Agenda 2063, titled, “the Africa We Want,” that was initiated in 2013, ends in 2023. This report is also paramount because it covers the period when the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukraine-Russia crisis emerged with significant bearing on the implementation of both agendas. The report is aligned with the 2022 High-level Political Forum (HLPF), which reviewed SDGs 4, 5, 14, 15 and 17, focussed on the theme of “Building back better from the Coronavirus disease while advancing the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.” It examines the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukraine-Russia crisis in the implementation of the SDGs and related goals of Agenda 2063. It tracks the performance of all African countries using latest data and highlights critical areas that require urgent policy interventions. The report also provides a benchmark with which to assess the scale of the impacts of both shocks on the SDGs. The key findings, and messages, specific policy recommendations as well as the associated data issues that have been relied on are summarized below.

The Africa Sustainable Development Report 2018 reviews Africa’s performance on five goals, and related targets and indicators of the 2030 Agenda, taking into account their correspondence with Agenda 2063. The report uses the latest data from international sources to track performance and highlight lessons learned in the implementation of the two agendas. In line with the theme of the 2018 High-level Political Forum (HLPF), this year’s report is aligned with the theme, “Transformation towards sustainable and resilient societies” and Goals 6, 7, 11, 12 and 15 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In addition, the report examines trends in science, technology and innovation in Africa and its role in advancing implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals on the continent.