Sustainable Development Goals in Ukraine
Since joining the global sustainable development process in 2015, Ukraine has committed to the achievements of the SDGs, although success in achieving the Millennium Development Goals has been limited. Ukraine has made the SDGs a national priority and initiated a participatory and inclusive process to adapt the SDGs to the Ukrainian context. The SDG framework for Ukraine was institutionalized by the decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine № 686-r of 21 August 2019 “The Issues of Data Collection for the SDGs Implementation Monitoring” and the decree of the President of Ukraine “On the Sustainable Development Goals of Ukraine for the period up to 2030”, and the data framework contains information on the status of SDG achievement according to the 183 national indicators. However, the data excludes the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the city of Sevastopol and part of the temporarily occupied territories in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which means that the possibility of achieving the SDGs was jeopardized from the very beginning. The war in Ukraine affects the design of indicators compared to other countries (e.g. there are indicators related to demining).
According to the Voluntary National Review (2020), Ukraine made progress on 15 of the 17 SDGs before the full-scale invasion. Due to the reforms introduced and the process of European integration, there was significant progress on SDG 1 “No Poverty”. At the same time, there were notable regional differences in the achievement of the SDGs. One of the drawbacks of the state policy, especially in the realization of SDG 8 “Decent Work and Economic Growth”, was the low inclusion of SDGs in the strategic documents for long-term planning. Despite the extensive invasion, Ukrainian companies continue to join the UN Global Compact to implement the Ten Principles.
However, the devastating consequences of the invasion will have a long-term impact on the prospects for achieving the SDGs in Ukraine, the progress of which can be tracked on the website of the State Statistics Service of Ukraine.
Voluntary National Reviews
Ukraine published its first Voluntary National Review in 2020. According to UNDP Ukraine, the publication of the second VNR was originally planned for 2023. However, this planned publication did not materialize and there is currently no clear indication of when the next VNR report will be available.
Related publications on the SDG implementation in Ukraine include:
Monitoring Report “Sustainable Development Goals Ukraine 2021”
Monitoring Report on national indicators “Sustainable Development Goals Ukraine 2020”
National Report “Sustainable Development Goals for the Children of Ukraine” (2019)
Monitoring Report “Sustainable Development Goal 8 in Ukraine” (2019)
National Baseline Report “Sustainable Development Goals: Ukraine” (2017)
The Role of Civil Society in Ukraine
Ukraine has a strong and vibrant civil society and NGOs play an important role in the resistance of Ukraine. The formation of civil society is mainly “bottom-up”, but there is a National Strategy for Promoting Civil Society Development in 2021-2026, which sets the direction and ways for further development and support of civil society in Ukraine.
