After a strong start in 2015, progress on the 2030 Agenda has slowed since the pandemic. Conflicts, climate shocks, inequalities, and mounting debt are derailing global Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) efforts. In Pakistan, already lagging, the focus now seems more on revenue generation than pursuing real human development.

It is, therefore, unsurprising that Pakistan’s ranking on SDG index has deteriorated. It has slipped 15 places since 2022, holding 140th position in 2025 among 166 countries assessed, last year it was ranked 137th.

In analysing Pakistan’s poor performance on the SDGs, local experts, business leaders, and officials offered varying explanations. While some reasons — weak coordination and limited public funding — overlapped, the differences in perspective were telling. Private sector representatives and policy experts largely placed the blame on government inefficiency, whereas some bureaucrats questioned the credibility of data while others pointed to external factors, including challenging global conditions and lack of meaningful partnerships, as key reasons for declining ranking of the country.

Notably, none of the stakeholders consulted cited a lack of public support for SDGs as a reason for the government’s lacklustre commitment to development targets once adopted with great enthusiasm.

‘The path forward is well-documented in policy papers and research; unfortunately, both gather dust in ministry offices’

Senior sources in Islamabad revealed that the government is working to revive the SDG unit in the planning........

© Dawn Business