Are the UN Sustainable Development Goals SMART?

As mentioned in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Report 2024, "In 2023, only 65 percent of countries had fully funded and implemented national statistical plans." In low and lower-middle-income countries only 35% have sufficient funding for national statistical plans. To make things worse, it is the low and middle-income countries that drive the divergence among countries in reaching the SDGs and as such they should be prioritized accordingly for collective efforts and provision of additional support in that regard.

While researching the topic these days, as I am writing a book chapter on happiness and sustainability with a colleague of mine, I came to wonder whether the 17 Sustainable Development Goals 2030, set forward in 2015, represent an example of wishful thinking or, even better, wishful dreaming. Or whether they represent an agenda of policy makers sitting in...