BD performs better than neighbours in SDG index

Bangladesh has achieved a better position than neighbouring countries -- including India, Pakistan and Afghanistan -- in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Index 2020.

The country has ranked 109th among the 166 countries and moved seven notches up in the latest index released recently.

The position is ahead of India (117th), Pakistan (134th) and Afghanistan (139th) in South Asia, as per the index, reports BSS.

Last year, Bangladesh ranked 116th out of 162 countries. Overall, the country improved its ranking and score in the 2020 edition of the report.

The Sustainable Development Report 2020 presents the SDG Index and Dashboards for all UN member states and frames the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in terms of six broad transformations.

It was prepared by teams of independent experts at the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the Bertelsmann Stiftung.

The SDG dashboard highlighted that Bangladesh faces major challenges in reaching seven sustainable development goals out of seventeen, which are SDG: 2, 3, 6, 9, 11, 16, and 17.

Also, there are six significant challenges facing the country with the goal of sustainable development.

However, the SDG dashboard indicates Bangladesh has achieved SDG 12 and 13.

Director of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network and first author of the report, Jeffrey D. Sachs said, “The Sustainable Development Goals are needed more than ever. Their bedrock principles of social inclusion, universal access to public services, and global cooperation are the guideposts for fighting Covid-19 as well as for the investment-led recovery the world should adopt to overcome the economic crisis caused by the pandemic.”