UN’s “Sustainable Development Goals” report turns into another opportunity for America-bashing

WELL, I NEVER: UN’s “Sustainable Development Goals” report turns into another opportunity for America-bashing. Bjorn Lomborg:

The United States scores a surprising number of reds and yellows, ranking 42nd out of 157 countries overall. In fact, the US fails to achieve a single green ranking for any of the 17 SDGs, sharing this dubious honor with only Greece, Italy, Latvia, Mexico, Spain, and Turkey, among OECD nations. (War-torn Yemen, by contrast, scores green for both “Climate Action” and “Partnership for the Goals”.)
America-bashing is popular and easy. But US taxpayers do give nearly a quarter of all the money spent on direct development aid by rich countries. A report that gives the world’s biggest donor the lowest possible rating for “Partnerships for the Goals” would seem to have some underlying issues. (Myanmar, Uzbekistan, and Saudi Arabia all score green marks in this category.)

Of course, the UN’s approach is fatally flawed. As I said when the goals were launched in 2015:

The U.N.’s approach is flawed because it focuses on simply announcing a slew of targets that are unlikely to prove achievable, especially as there are tradeoffs involved in meeting some targets over others.
Moreover, the U.N.’s emphasis on “sustainability,” as generally defined among development bureaucrats and NGOs, imposes significant burdens on developing countries’ freedom and ability to achieve the rapid increases in human welfare that were the target of the original Millennium goals.

But a focus on “sustainability” does have the advantage of letting UN bureaucrats criticize their biggest funder. Incentives matter.

30 by Iain Murray

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