Global Sustainable Development Report - 2016 edition (GSDR 2016)

Building upon the 2014 and 2015 reports, the current report responds to the mandate from the Rio+20 Conference to contribute to strengthening the science-policy interface for sustainable development in the context of the high-level political forum on sustainable development (HLPF).

The preparation of the report involved an inclusive, multistakeholder process drawing upon scientific and technical expertise from within and outside the United Nations. 245 scientists and experts based in 27 countries, including 13 developing countries, contributed to the report. 62 policy briefs were submitted in response to an open call.

Twenty agencies, departments and programmes of the UN system contributed to the report with inputs, comments, suggestions or revisions.

Major international conferences and summits in 2015 – on financing for development, sustainable development, and climate change – have defined a new sustainable development agenda for the next 15 years. At all levels, from global to local, attention is turning to implementing this ambitious agenda. This is the context in which this year’s Global Sustainable Development Report appears. Given the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with its sustainable development goals (SDGs), the report adopts the SDGs as its scope. True to its mandate, the report is designed as an assessment of assessments. It endeavors to present a range of scientific perspectives and to be policy-relevant but not policy-prescriptive. Like its predecessors, it continues to explore possible approaches and vantage points from which to examine the science-policy interface, as well as scientific approaches that can inform policies building upon integration and interlinkages across sustainable development goals, sectors, and issues.