Sustainable Development Goal 17 - Partnerships for the Goals 2022

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by Ireland along with all countries of the United Nations in 2015, sets out common goals for peace and prosperity, now and for generations to come, for all societies and the planet. The 17 goals and 169 targets contained within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), are ambitious, wide in scope and a global call to action and partnership. They are interlinked and recognise that progress needs to be made across every goal equally, "that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests". A CSO report released this week looks at Ireland's progress. 

SDG17 - Partnership for the goals, focuses on the global macro economy and can only be realised with a strong commitment to global partnership and cooperation.  SDG17 seeks to ensure an open universal multilateral trading system for sustainable development under the WTO. Coordinating policies to help developing countries, particularly the least developed countries, is vital to achieving sustainable growth and development. In an EU context, monitoring of SDG17 has focused on global partnership and financial governance within the EU. 

Key Findings in CSO Report

• Total government revenue as a proportion of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 23.2% in 2021 and 23% in 2022.

• The proportion of domestic budget funded by domestic taxes by central government was 95.8% in 2022, up from 82.5% in 2021.

• In 2021, the Irish government invested more than €976 million in official development assistance (ODA), and preliminary data from the OECD shows Ireland’s total ODA increased to €2.33 billion in 2022.

• Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Ireland increased by €109 billion to €1,208 billion in 2021.

• At the end of June (Q2) 2022, there were 1.95 million active broadband subscriber lines in Ireland, an increase of 0.6% on Q1 2022.

• Ireland exported nearly €209 billion of goods in 2022 and imported more than €141 billion, which resulted in a trade surplus of €67 billion.

The SDGs are a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future. We believe that knowing where we stand, identifying the most pressing sustainability challenges, and critically examining our performance is essential if we are to ensure a sustainable future for our country. We need a new Social Contract. 

The need for a New Social Contract

We in Social Justice Ireland have long argued that to deliver there are five key components to a successful Social Contract. These are: (i) a thriving economy, (ii) decent services and infrastructure, (iii) just taxation, (iv) real participation and (v) sustainability - economic, social, and environmental. To deliver these components, however, requires that they be delivered SIMULTANEOUSLY. Until now, priority has been given to the economy over all the others. Continuing in that direction is a recipe for ongoing failure, growing inequality, and the embedding of a deeply divided two-tier society which is bad for business bad for people and bad for the planet.

Read our analysis of Ireland's progress in the SDGs here.