Asia-Pacific Off Track On SDGs As Youth Forum Demands Transformative Shift
With less than five years to the 2030 deadline, the promise to “leave no one behind” is fast becoming a slogan without substance.
From water and energy to cities and partnerships, Asia and the Pacific are drifting off course on all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), prompting urgent calls for a radical reset in how development is financed and delivered.
This warning was sounded at the Asia Pacific Youth
Forum on Sustainable Development 2026, where feminist leader Sai Jyothirmai Racherla of the Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW) told over 705 youth participants from 38 countries that “more of the same model will fail us even more.”
The forum was held ahead of next week’s intergovernmental review of progress on SDGs 6 (water and sanitation), 7 (clean energy), 9 (industry, innovation, and infrastructure), 11 (sustainable cities and communities), and 17 (partnerships for the goals).
According to the Asia-Pacific SDG Progress Report 2026, the region is missing 103 out of 117 measurable targets, with only 14 on track.
Goals central to inclusion and accountability, such as SDG 5 on gender equality and SDG 16 on peace and justice, remain trapped in severe data gaps, making it difficult to design policies that truly reach the most marginalised.
Racherla warned that progress is most skewed for communities already at risk of being left behind, including women and girls, young people, indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities and older persons.
She linked setbacks across the SDGs to worsening environmental degradation, noting that climate change, biodiversity loss and disasters are reversing gains in health, water access and livelihoods.
The youth forum also raised concerns over “corporate capture” of public policy, calling for SDGs to be firewalled from industry interference and financing linked to businesses that harm human rights or the environment.
Participants argued that development funding must be clean and accountable, not “blood money” drawn from exploitative industries.
On specific goals, speakers highlighted that access to clean water and sanitation remains critical to health, dignity and sexual and reproductive rights, especially for women and girls.
Clean energy goals are also slipping, with the region still heavily dependent on fossil fuels, while gender-blind energy policies continue to expose women to indoor air pollution and unpaid labour burdens.
Rapid urbanisation has left SDG 11 off track too, with millions still living in slums and disaster resilience weakening across cities.
Racherla urged governments to embrace structural shifts, from transitioning to renewable energy and investing in sustainable cities, to strengthening social protection and unlocking fair financing through debt relief and global partnerships.
She stressed that innovation must serve people, not corporate greed, and that equity, human rights and justice must sit at the heart of SDG implementation.
As young people push for a development justice model that prioritises the marginalised and protects the planet, the message from the Asia-Pacific youth forum was blunt: without transformative, coordinated action now, Agenda 2030 will arrive with its bold promises largely unfulfilled.
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