1Introduction
The Sustainable Development Goals
1.In September 2015, 193 UN Member States, including the UK, adopted The United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (the Agenda or Agenda 2030). This committed them to working “tirelessly for the full implementation of this Agenda by 2030.”1 Agenda 2030 consists of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (the Goals or SDGs), broken down into 169 targets.2
2.Unlike its predecessors, the Millennium Development Goals, the SDGs are “universal”, applying to the entire world, “developed and developing countries alike.”3 It also includes a pledge that “no one will be left behind.” This recognises that the Goals and its targets should be “met for all nations and peoples and for all segments of society,” and promises to “endeavour to reach the furthest behind first.”4 The UK championed this approach during negotiations on the Agenda.5
SDGs in the UK
3.The Single Departmental Plans (SDPs) are the principle vehicle by which the Government intends both to implement the SDGs and measure progress in delivering them:
In their Single Departmental Plans, each department outlines how planned activity will support the delivery of the Goals. Departmental reporting against the Single Departmental Plans include evidence of progress in implementing the Goals, allowing DFID and the Cabinet Office to track delivery.6
4.The SDGs were first included in SDPs in December 2017, when just two departments made specific reference to them. The SDPs were updated in May 2018 when, following a letter of protest from this Committee, Government committed to “work with departments to ensure Goals are embedded within them.” All departments now reference the SDGs by name.
5.The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is responsible for reporting the UK’s data to the United Nations.7 It presents the UK’s performance against the SDG indicators in an online reporting platform, which went live in November 2017 following a period of consultation.8 ONS aims to disaggregate all reported data by “sex, age, geography, race, ethnicity, disability, migratory status and income, where applicable.”9 Currently, ONS reports against 64% (157 out of 244) of the SDG indicators, with a further 9% in progress.10
Sustainable Development Goal 2
6.SDG2, Zero Hunger, aims to “end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.”11 There are eight targets which make up SDG 2: 2.1 - 2.5, which are largely domestic in focus, and 2.a - 2.c, which are chiefly international targets. A full list of the targets which make up SDG2 are below.
Figure 1: Targets for SDG2: Zero Hunger
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2.1 |
By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round |
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2.2 |
By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons |
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2.3 |
By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment |
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2.4 |
By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality |
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2.5 |
By 2020, maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, and promote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed |
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2.A |
Increase investment, including through enhanced international cooperation, in rural infrastructure, agricultural research and extension services, technology development and plant and livestock gene banks in order to enhance agricultural productive capacity in developing countries, in particular least developed countries |
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2.B |
Correct and prevent trade restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets, including through the parallel elimination of all forms of agricultural export subsidies and all export measures with equivalent effect, in accordance with the mandate of the Doha Development Round |
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2.C |
Adopt measures to ensure the proper functioning of food commodity markets and their derivatives and facilitate timely access to market information, including on food reserves, in order to help limit extreme food price volatility |
Source: Sustainable Development Goals Knowledge Platform12
7.This report will focus on targets 2.1 and 2.2, the domestic targets which aim to “end hunger”, “ensure access by all people … to safe nutritious food all year round” and “end all forms of malnutrition.” The full set of indicators which make up these two targets are below.
Figure 2: Indicators for Targets 2.1 and 2.2
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Target |
Indicator |
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2.1 By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round |
2.1.1 Prevalence of undernourishment 2.1.2 Prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in the population, based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) |
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2.2 By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons |
2.2.1 Prevalence of stunting (height for age <-2 standard deviation from the median of the World Health Organization (WHO) Child Growth Standards) among children under 5 years of age 2.2.2 Prevalence of malnutrition (weight for height >+2 or <-2 standard deviation from the median of the WHO Child Growth Standards) among children under 5 years of age, by type (wasting and overweight) |
Source: Sustainable Development Goals Knowledge Platform13
Our inquiry
8.This report examines what the Government is doing to implement SDG2 in the UK, focusing on the nutrition targets 2.1 (end hunger) and 2.2 (end malnutrition). It then uses SDG2 as a case study through which to review Government’s broader progress against the domestic implementation of the SDGs. The report follows up on our predecessor Committee’s 2016–17 inquiry, Sustainable Development Goals in the UK, which found that “the Government has shown little interest in, or enthusiasm for, implementing the Goals in the UK”, and that a focus on action abroad had left a “doughnut shaped hole” in the UK.14 This report will be the Committee’s first annual review of the Government’s domestic progress against the SDGs, with each review focusing on a different Goal.
9.The report builds on work of the International Development Committee, whose report in June 2016 found that “the Government’s response to domestic implementation of the SDGs has so far been insufficient.”15 It also builds on the March 2017 report by the Women and Equality Committee, Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 5 in the UK, which expressed concerns that it was “not clear that effective lines of responsibility” had been established in the Single Departmental plans for handling cross-departmental towards Goal 5.16
10.As part of this inquiry we issued a call for evidence and received 39 written submissions. This included responses to nine specific requests for evidence from major UK supermarkets. We held a public evidence session, where we heard from a range of NGOs, the Office for National Statistics, and Ministers from the Cabinet Office, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Department for International Development and Department for Work and Pensions. We also held four outreach events, collecting evidence from users and staff of a homeless shelter, two social supermarkets and a food redistribution charity. All written and oral evidence can be found on our website, and a summary of the outreach events can be found in Appendix 2. We are grateful to all those who contributed.
1 United Nations Resolution, A/RES/70/1, para 2
2 A full list of the SDG goals can be found in the Appendix.
3 United Nations Resolution, A/RES/70/1, para 5
4 Ibid, para 4
6 Sustainable Development Goals in the UK: Government response, p.7
7 Office for National Statistics, Sustainable Development Goals, accessed 5 December 2018
8 ONS, UK Data for Sustainable Development Goal indicators, accessed 5 December 2018
9 ONS, Sustainable Development Goals
10 ONS, UK Data for Sustainable Development Goal indicators
11 Ibid., Sustainable Development Goals and Targets
14 Environmental Audit Committee, Ninth Report of Session 2016–17, Sustainable Development Goals in the UK, HC 596, paras 7 and 59
15 International Development Committee, First Report of Session 2016–17, UK implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, HC 103, para 74
16 Women and Equalities Committee, Eighth Report of Session 2016–17, Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 5 in the UK, HC 885, Summary
Published: 10 January 2019