The 2030 Agenda in one page

On 25 September 2015, all 193 member states of the United Nations adopted a plan called Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. At its heart are 17 Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs. The goals came into effect on 1 January 2016 and run until 2030.

Think of the SDGs as a shared to-do list for the whole world, for rich and poor countries alike. They cover poverty and hunger, health, education, gender equality, water, energy, work, cities, climate, nature, peace and justice, and the partnerships needed to deliver all of it. India signed up to every goal, as did every other UN member state.

Goals, targets and indicators

The Agenda works in three layers. Knowing them is the most useful thing you will take from this course, because serious SDG conversations happen at the level of targets and indicators, not goals.

• 17 goals: broad ambitions, such as Goal 4, Quality Education.
• 169 targets: specific commitments under the goals, most with a deadline. Target 4.1, for example, is that by 2030 all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education.
• Indicators: the measures used to track each target. The UN's global indicator framework currently has 234 unique indicators.

How to read a target number

Targets numbered with digits, such as 6.1 or 6.2, describe the results the world wants. Targets numbered with letters, such as 6.a or 6.b, describe the means of implementation: the money, technology, skills, policies and participation needed to get there. Goal 17 is entirely about means of implementation.

Global targets, national choices

The Agenda calls its targets aspirational and global. Each government sets its own national targets, guided by the global ambition but taking its own circumstances into account. That is why India has its own National Indicator Framework, which you will meet in Module 4.