Jordan ranks 72nd globally, 5th in MENA on Sustainable Development Goals Index

AMMAN — Jordan ranks 72 worldwide and fifth in the MENA region on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) index report. The report analyses the SDG’s performance in 165 countries worldwide. 

The report was published in June 2021 by Cambridge University Press. The report has been adopted since 2015.

Jordan’s SDG index score, which measures progress towards achieving all SDGs, is 70.1 per cent. Jordan’s spillover score, which measures influence on other countries’ ability to achieve the SDGs, is 90.4 per cent.

The pandemic has impacted all three dimensions of sustainable development: Economic, social and environmental, according to the report. There are 17 goals in the SDG report, covering poverty, hunger, education, gender equality and many more. 

While the poverty and good health and wellbeing scores are moderately improving in Jordan, the improvement is insufficient to obtain the country’s goal, the report stated. 

Regarding the good health and wellbeing score, Jordan has an age-standardised mortality rate from cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases in adults aged 30 to 70 years.

Jordan also continues to face major challenges regarding life on land goal, the decent economic and work growth goal and the gender equality goal, according to the report. 

The Kingdom has met the quality of education goal given its school enrollment levels. 

Jordan tracks the clean water and sanitation goal through measuring its achievements on sanitation services and basic services for drinking water. 

The top three countries with the highest SDG globally are Finland, Sweden and Denmark.

Jordan is preceded by Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and the UAE in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region’s SDG ranks. 

There has been a global decline in the SDG’s performance due to the outbreak of the virus, causing increased poverty rates and unemployment, according to the report.