Goal 17 is about revitalizing the global partnership for sustainable development. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a universal blueprint and a call to action for all countries—both developed and developing—to ensure no one is left behind. Achieving them requires active partnerships between governments, the private sector, and civil society.
These Goals can only be realized with a strong commitment to global cooperation, ensuring that everyone progresses together on our journey to development.
However, not all countries are starting from the same line. Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are currently treading water against a tidal wave of debt.
In 2023, LMICs were hit by a record-high $1.4 trillion in debt-servicing costs. This crushing debt, combined with declining foreign direct investment and a dramatic 23.1% drop in Official Development Assistance (ODA) in 2025, has returned funding to 2015 levels—with further declines expected. As traditional development aid stalls, finding other sources of finance will become increasingly important to support sustainable development.
Today, the annual investment gap to achieve the SDGs stands at $4 trillion, a 60% surge from the $2.5 trillion estimated in 2019. This widening divide is the result of persistent funding shortfalls compounded by the global pandemic, as well as ongoing food, fuel, and financing crises. To prevent further setbacks, the UN Secretary-General is calling on global leaders to back an SDG Stimulus of at least $500 billion per year to get global development back on track.
To succeed, we must mobilize both existing and additional resources, and developed countries must fulfill their official development assistance commitments.
Why?
In light of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and rising geopolitical tensions, mobilizing financial resources, strengthening multilateralism, and building global partnerships are more important than ever to drive global recovery and achieve the SDGs.
Why does this matter to me?
We are all in this together. The 17 goals are universal and call for action by all countries—both developed and developing—to ensure no one is left behind.
How much progress have we made?
Support for implementing the SDGs has been steady but fragile, marked by major and persistent challenges.
Financial resources remain scarce, trade tensions are rising, and crucial data is still lacking. Furthermore, while a growing share of the global population has access to the Internet and a Technology Bank for Least Developed Countries has been established, the digital divide still persists.
As partners, what would we need to do to reach this?
We need to mobilize both existing and additional resources—focusing on technology development, financial resources, and capacity building—while developed countries must fulfill their official development assistance commitments.
Multi-stakeholder partnerships will be crucial to leverage the connections between the various Sustainable Development Goals, enhancing their impact and accelerating our overall progress.
How can we ensure the resources needed are effectively mobilized?
This will primarily be the responsibility of individual countries. Regular progress reviews must be undertaken in each nation, actively involving civil society, businesses, and representatives from various interest groups.
At the regional level, countries will share experiences and tackle common issues. Annually, at the United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), nations will take stock of global progress, identify gaps and emerging issues, and recommend corrective actions.
What can we do to help?
- Join or create a group in your local community that seeks to mobilize action on implementing the SDGs.
- Encourage your government to partner with businesses to drive the implementation of the SDGs forward.
- Developing countries are grappling with an unprecedented rise in external debt levels following the COVID-19 pandemic, compounded by challenges such as record inflation, escalating interest rates, competing priorities and constrained fiscal capacity, underscoring the urgent need for debt relief and financial assistance.
- Despite improvement in Internet access since 2015, progress in bridging the digital divide has slowed down post-pandemic. Sustained efforts are required to ensure equitable access to the Internet for all.
- External debt reached a record $8.9 trillion in 2024, up 1.1 per cent from 2023.
- In 2025, almost 75 per cent of the world’s population used the Internet, up from 40 per cent in 2015.
- Worldwide, 77 per cent of men use the Internet compared to 71 per cent of women, with 280 million more men than women online in 2025.
Finance
17.1 Strengthen domestic resource mobilization, including through international support to developing countries, to improve domestic capacity for tax and other revenue collection
17.2 Developed countries to implement fully their official development assistance commitments, including the commitment by many developed countries to achieve the target of 0.7 per cent of ODA/GNI to developing countries and 0.15 to 0.20 per cent of ODA/GNI to least developed countries ODA providers are encouraged to consider setting a target to provide at least 0.20 per cent of ODA/GNI to least developed countries
17.3 Mobilize additional financial resources for developing countries from multiple sources
17.4 Assist developing countries in attaining long-term debt sustainability through coordinated policies aimed at fostering debt financing, debt relief and debt restructuring, as appropriate, and address the external debt of highly indebted poor countries to reduce debt distress
17.5 Adopt and implement investment promotion regimes for least developed countries
Technology
17.6 Enhance North-South, South-South and triangular regional and international cooperation on and access to science, technology and innovation and enhance knowledge sharing on mutually agreed terms, including through improved coordination among existing mechanisms, in particular at the United Nations level, and through a global technology facilitation mechanism
17.7 Promote the development, transfer, dissemination and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies to developing countries on favourable terms, including on concessional and preferential terms, as mutually agreed
17.8 Fully operationalize the technology bank and science, technology and innovation capacity-building mechanism for least developed countries by 2017 and enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology
Capacity building
17.9 Enhance international support for implementing effective and targeted capacity-building in developing countries to support national plans to implement all the sustainable development goals, including through North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation
Trade
17.10 Promote a universal, rules-based, open, non-discriminatory and equitable multilateral trading system under the World Trade Organization, including through the conclusion of negotiations under its Doha Development Agenda
17.11 Significantly increase the exports of developing countries, in particular with a view to doubling the least developed countries’ share of global exports by 2020
17.12 Realize timely implementation of duty-free and quota-free market access on a lasting basis for all least developed countries, consistent with World Trade Organization decisions, including by ensuring that preferential rules of origin applicable to imports from least developed countries are transparent and simple, and contribute to facilitating market access
Systemic issues
Policy and institutional coherence
17.13 Enhance global macroeconomic stability, including through policy coordination and policy coherence
17.14 Enhance policy coherence for sustainable development
17.15 Respect each country’s policy space and leadership to establish and implement policies for poverty eradication and sustainable development
Multi-stakeholder partnerships
17.16 Enhance the global partnership for sustainable development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources, to support the achievement of the sustainable development goals in all countries, in particular developing countries
17.17 Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships
Data, monitoring and accountability
17.18 By 2020, enhance capacity-building support to developing countries, including for least developed countries and small island developing States, to increase significantly the availability of high-quality, timely and reliable data disaggregated by income, gender, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, geographic location and other characteristics relevant in national contexts
17.19 By 2030, build on existing initiatives to develop measurements of progress on sustainable development that complement gross domestic product, and support statistical capacity-building in developing countries
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