EN 
NL 
Source: Wikimedia Commons
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are officially 10 years old today. The goals, which originated as a hopeful successor to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), after 10 years give mixed feelings about how the world is doing.
Between 2000 and 2015, the eight MDGs proved a good formula for getting countries around the world to work together on concrete priorities, such as halving poverty and reducing child mortality. That is why the MDG agenda was given a successor which was more ambitious (from halving poverty to eradicating poverty) and broader (from 8 to 17 goals). In addition, the SDG agenda was worked on more inclusively, with many more countries and people involved, to ensure that goals were more representative and supported.
When the SDG agenda officially came into force in 2015, countless countries, NGOs, companies and individuals committed to it. But since then, the world's international cooperation has unfortunately become more difficult rather than easier. While cooperation is precisely a crucial factor in achieving the goals.
That things are laborious is also reflected in this year's interim report on how progress is going:https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2025/The-Sustainable-Development-Goals-Report-2025.pdf. With a handful of green exceptions, the indicators are predominantly at orange or red. This does not look pretty on paper, but more painful is that in reality, it means hunger, inequality, conflict and animal extinction.
However, as the Max van der Stoel Foundation, we continue to stand for the SDGs. Our responsibility is to fight for development precisely when the internationalnotwindfall. To help devise and implement ways in which we bring the SDGs as close as possible. We do this, among others, with our partners at Building Change (www.buildingchange.nl).
After 10 years of SDGs, we have to acknowledge that, as happy as we should be that they exist, the magic of 2015 seems to have worn off. It poses a few questions: what can we still do to still achieve as many of the goals as possible before 2030? And how can we create a post-2030 agenda that we can believe in again, work together for and ultimately create a better future for the world with?It is time to turn the tide.
