Georgia presents 2nd voluntary national review on UN’s 2030 agenda on sustainable development

Georgia has presented its second, voluntary national review on the implementation of the UN's 2030 agenda on sustainable development, covering the country's progress and achievements between 2015 and 2019.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the global development agenda provided by the UN which includes 17 goals and 169 targets to be achieved by 2030 to make the world a better place to live for everyone. 

The goals address global challenges such as poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. 

In the foreword of the review, Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia says that the world faces developmental challenges ‘which require our firm, innovative, and smart response.’

The review cites Gakharia as saying that in the past years Georgia has made ‘significant socio-economic progress’ and the country has been elevated from lower middle to upper middle-income countries by the World Bank classification. 

Despite regional economic shocks, the country managed to sustain stable economic development with an average annual GDP growth rate of 5% during the last three years. Economic development, coupled with a continuous internationally acknowledged business-friendly environment (globally, ranked 7th out of 190 countries in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2020 report) had a positive impact on the jobs-creation. In 2019, we achieved the lowest historical unemployment rate (11.6%) in 18 years. Consequently, since 2015, the proportion of the population living below the national poverty line (absolute poverty) declined by 9.7%,” Gakharia said. 

Gakharia said that full implementation of some SDGs ‘is challenging in the light of the Russian occupation’ of two regions of Georgia, Abkhazia and Tskhinvali, ‘where we face major human rights challenges.’ 

Gakharia stated that although Georgia has been successful in containing the spread of the coronavirus, the economic and social impacts are anticipated to be challenging.