All topics

Every Goal Seventeen explainer, grouped by theme. Each one is a self-contained introduction with links to its primary sources.

Some addresses on this site, including this one, were once used by a different website that published a programme of online sessions in 2020. Goal Seventeen is unrelated to it and does not publish events or programmes; this page is simply an index of articles. Read more on the about page.

Research infrastructures

• The Square Kilometre Array: how a telescope on two continents is built and run

  What the SKA Observatory is, where its telescopes are, and why radio astronomy needs an intergovernmental treaty.

• LifeWatch ERIC: Europe's e-infrastructure for biodiversity research

  How a European Research Infrastructure Consortium serves biodiversity and ecosystem science, and which SDGs it touches.

• How space technology supports the Sustainable Development Goals

  Earth observation, satellite navigation and communications, and the UN framework that governs them.

• GBIF: how billions of species records are shared worldwide, and where the map is still blank

  How museums, researchers and volunteers publish species occurrence data, and what 3.9 billion records say about the gaps.

Health and data

• Health data and the SDGs: what gets measured, and how

  Civil registration, surveys, routine health information systems and the indicators behind SDG 3.

• GDPR and health research: the rules researchers actually work with

  Legal bases, special category data, safeguards for research and international transfers.

• Genomics in public health: a plain guide

  Pathogen surveillance, rare disease diagnosis, newborn screening and the equity questions WHO has raised.

• Childhood cancer in Africa: the survival gap and what research can change

  Why cure rates differ so widely, and the priorities set by the WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer.

Inclusion and rights

• Assistive technology at work: the state of the art for employment

  From screen readers to workplace adjustments, and the legal duties behind them.

• Women and inclusive innovation: what the data show

  Women's share of researchers and inventors, and why it matters for the goals.

• SDG 16.9: legal identity for all, and the role of digital ID

  Birth registration, identity systems and the safeguards they need.

• The right to privacy at the United Nations: texts and mechanisms

  From Article 12 of the Universal Declaration to the Special Rapporteur on privacy.

• SDG 11: affordable housing in numbers, and how to check that a rent is fair

  Slums and housing cost burdens in official figures, and how renters can compare a rent with reference rents and similar homes.

Cooperation and skills

• How the EU and the UN work together on the SDGs

  The EU's status at the UN, its development policy framework and its SDG reporting.

• Research and innovation in agri-food systems

  Why food systems research is central to SDG 2, and how it is organised internationally.

• Digital and high-tech skills for the SDGs

  How ICT skills are measured under SDG 4.4, and the frameworks used to build them.

• Open science and the SDGs

  The 2021 UNESCO Recommendation, its seven areas of action, and the FAIR and CARE principles for data.