SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDGs)

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDGs): Indicator Baseline Report

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Sustainable Development Goals: Baseline report 2017 / Statistics South Africa

Published by Statistics South Africa, Private Bag X44, Pretoria 0001

? Statistics South Africa, 2017 Users may apply or process this data, provided Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) is acknowledged as the original source of the data; that it is specified that the application and/or analysis is the result of the user's independent processing of the data; and that neither the basic data nor any reprocessed version or application thereof may be sold or offered for sale in any form whatsoever without prior permission from Stats SA.

Stats SA Library Cataloguing-in-Publication (CIP) Data

217pp

ISBN: 978-0-621-45888-6

A complete set of Stats SA publications is available at Stats SA Library and the following libraries: National Library of South Africa, Pretoria Division National Library of South Africa, Cape Town Division Library of Parliament, Cape Town Bloemfontein Public Library Natal Society Library, Pietermaritzburg Johannesburg Public Library Eastern Cape Library Services, King William's Town Central Regional Library, Polokwane Central Reference Library, Mbombela Central Reference Collection, Kimberley Central Reference Library, Mmabatho

This report is available on the Stats SA website: .za

Copies are obtainable from: Reprographics, Statistics South Africa

Tel:

012 310 8619

012 310 8161

Email:

SDG@.za

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FOREWORD

Minister Jeffrey Thamsanqa Radebe, the Minister in the Presidency: Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation

I am sure that I do not need to remind any of us that regardless of where we live, we are experiencing a very critical time in the evolution of our history as a people. Therefore, accelerating sustainable development to deliver on the United Nations' Agenda 2030, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) must be at the centre of all our deliberations and actions. Even though South Africa's own development plan precedes the SDGs, the aspirations articulated in the SDGs resonate with those found in our National Development Plan (NDP).

We all know too well that the SDGs were created to transform the world. This can only be achieved if development is rooted in building lasting, meaningful and effective partnerships, as a response to our aspirational NDP and the UN Agenda 2030. Since the launch of the SDGs, we now have an unprecedented opportunity to accelerate the implementation of sustainable development in South Africa; to deliver the goals and bring governments, businesses, and people together to embark on a new path towards a more sustainable and better planet for all.

I welcome this report that examines each of the 17 SDGs. It serves as a reference point of where we are and the road yet to be travelled to reach the indicator targets set out in Agenda 2030. South Africa is confronted by the triple threat of poverty, unemployment and inequality. The NDP and UN Agenda 2030 advocate for living standards of the poor to be raised to a minimum level. For this to be achieved, South Africa has to create jobs and employment opportunities for its people.

The NDP presents a long-term strategy to increase employment and broaden opportunities through education, vocational training and work experience, public employment programmes, health and nutrition, public transport and access to information. While there are "quick wins" to be had in each of these areas, the strategies will take time to have a large-scale effect on poverty. In working towards realising the vision of both the NDP and the SDGs, we have taken several important steps forward. One of the key issues underpinning both the NDP and the SDGs is the necessity for an integrated approach to development that incorporates all sectors of society and fosters a mind-set and behavioural shift of ownership and agency.

As government we will use data and statistics to come up with a comprehensive plan, which will respond to the emerging needs to ensure sustainable and inclusive development. While there are no shortcuts for human development, the SDGs give us the opportunity to collaborate more sharply, more effectively and more deliberately.

The UN 2030 Agenda is without doubt our boldest agenda for achieving human progress. This colossal effort is not about what individual people, governments, business and organisations do alone ? it is about what we can and must do, together, to better support our efforts in implementing such a boldly transformative agenda. So, it falls upon us to reflect on whether we are being held back by insufficient collaboration, coordination and accountability on system-wide activities. There may often be good reasons why things are the way they are; but change for the better, sooner rather than later, we must.

JT Radebe

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MESSAGE

His Excellency Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma, President of the Republic of South Africa In 2015, world leaders adopted the Post-2015 Development Agenda at the 70th Session of United Nations General Assembly. This commitment followed on the Millennium Declaration in 2000, fifteen years ago. The international community committed to double their efforts in fighting poverty, hunger, and unemployment and to address the environment and climate change. The achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has been uneven across geographical regions, with regions such as Africa distinctly lagging behind. Thus the commitment to leaving no one behind in the SDGs rekindle the hope that underdevelopment and uneven development will be top on the agenda for the SDGs. The Post-2015 Agenda is an important programme that addresses the unfinished business undertaken by the MDGs. It is an ambitious programme that has seventeen goals compared to the eight of the MDGs. No doubt therefore it is a demanding programme. In South Africa we are fully behind the SDGs. We have our own Vision 2030, a blueprint document mapping the development path of our country ? the NDP. In the Continent we have the Africa Agenda 2063. In the work of aligning the global agenda to the local one, we have found resonance and as such I am confident that the SDGs address by and large expressions articulated in the NDP. In fact, our government is promoting sustainable development policies which seek to make significant interventions in reducing poverty and inequality. As the SDGs are interlinked, their realisation requires an integrated policy response. Inclusive growth would remain a dream if powerful nations continued to put their national interests ahead of the global collective interest and conflicts around the world would continue. The modest achievements made in this report, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Indicator Baseline Report 2017, are further testimony to our zeal and commitment to realise the aspirations contained in the 2030 Development Agenda.

JG Zuma

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