Impending risks as SDG targets in Africa remain off track

The SDG report from July sounds the alarm, projecting that roughly 575 million individuals, about 7% of the world's population, will remain in extreme poverty by 2030. This predicament is most acute in sub-Saharan Africa, where the anticipated reduction in poverty since 2015 falls below 30%.

In 2021, both sub-Saharan Africa and the least developed countries (LDCs) experienced a second consecutive year of escalating high food prices, reaching 40.9% and 34.1%, respectively, according to the report.

These regions combat additional difficulties, including deteriorating security conditions, economic hardships, and heavy dependence on imported food and agricultural inputs.

Hunger and famine crises are surging in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen, putting 20 million people, including numerous children, at risk of starvation due to armed conflicts, drought, and civil wars, SOS Children’s Villages, an international non-profit organisation reported.

African conflicts have displaced over 40 million people in countries such as Sudan, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and Ethiopia, a 2023 study by the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies reports.

A collaborative study released in 2022 by the African Union Commission (AUC), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the African Development Bank (AfDB), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) highlights Africa's sluggish progress in quality education

288 million school-age children, particularly in conflict-affected regions, are not receiving an education, according to the study.

In 2015, world leaders committed to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 SDGs, vowing to ensure the well-being and rights of all on a healthy and thriving planet.

 "The SDGs aren’t just a list of goals. They carry the hopes, dreams, rights, and expectations of people everywhere," UN Secretary-General António Guterres said at this year’s SDG Summit,  

However, African nations face increasing challenges with floods, droughts, storms, and other disasters displacing a significant portion of their populations even though they have contributed the least to climate change.

Fragile states are confronted with higher temperatures than other countries, possibly experiencing an average of 61 days per year with temperatures exceeding 35 degrees Celsius by 2040. This extreme heat, combined with more frequent extreme weather events, carries severe implications for human health and vital sectors like agriculture and construction, the IMF in 2023 reported.