Disparities in sustainable development goals compliance and their association with country risk

Abstract

The sustainable development goals are aimed at making humankind aware of the importance of establishing common guidelines relating to three fundamental purposes: eradicating poverty, protecting the planet, and improving people's lives. Sustainable development is linked to financial and business risk, financing is necessary to achieve the SDGs. In this context, the aim of this paper is to analyze the homogeneity in SDG achievement, based on People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, and Partnership for year 2021. To that end, a cluster analysis is applied, distinguishing between two samples of countries defined by their level of wealth. Furthermore, a synthetic indicator is used to produce a ranking of countries according to their achievement of the SDGs; contingency tables are then created and the χ2 test is used to identify which country risk factors are associated with SDG achievement. The results indicate that the major powers perform similarly in successfully achieving the 5Ps. Also, the χ2 test confirms that a good economic and financial position which allows access to international financial markets at a reasonable cost is linked to optimal SDG achievement in high-income areas. However, Economic assessment, Access to international capital markets and Debt indicators are not associated with better SDG achievement in the poorest countries.