Sustainable Development Agenda

Photo: UN Women
Photo: UN Women

On 2 August 2015, governments including the Republic of Kazakhstan united behind an ambitious agenda that features 17 new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets that aim to end poverty, combat inequalities and promote prosperity while protecting the environment by 2030.

In 2024, Kazakhstan ranked 66th out of 167 in the global SDG ranking. Over the past five years, the SDG index score in Kazakhstan has not changed, remaining at 71%.

Supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UN Women provides comprehensive expert and technical support to help Kazakhstan achieve its national goals and targets for the gender-linked SDGs.

UN Women in Action in Kazakhstan

  • Supported 2017 launch by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Support to Nationalization of Gender-Linked Sustainable Development Goals in Central Asian Countries. This will:
    • Increase national capacity to nationalize the SDGs;
    • Create targets to promote gender equality and women’s rights
    • Link the SDGs with the state’s obligations under international agreements in the field of women’s right and gender equality (Beijing Platform of Action, Convention on the Elimination of All Form of Discrimination Against Women, the Human Rights Bill);
  • Provided support to the Government to prepare the Voluntary National Review on Sustainable Development;
  • Trained journalists and state press services members to promote the SDGs;
  • Built capacity of state bodies representatives to understand the SDGs, tools and approaches to work on Agenda 2030 (SDGs);

Over 45 journalists and media relations staff from academia and public agencies were trained in the SDGs and in gender-related SDGs as they apply to Kazakhstan in November 2017 in Astana and Almaty. They can now benefit from a virtual network on adapting the SDGs to Kazakhstan that acts as an information hub and discussion platform.

In September 2017, over 70 participants from public agencies, international and national organisations and foreign experts attended a seminar to identify priority national indicators to monitor SDG implementation. Organised by UN Women Kazakhstan in partnership with UN agencies, this kicked off activities to select and integrate priority national SDG monitoring targets with global ones.

Work to assemble harmonized national indicators to monitor implementation progress in the global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development continued in 2018 with regional seminars in Astana, Aktau, Borovoye, Taraz and Almaty for 250 representatives of local executive authorities and members of the inter-ministerial working group on SDGs monitoring. Participants defined national 2030 Agenda priorities and discussed their relevance to strategic national and local development priorities, with each oblast encouraged to select its own primary indicators for SDGs monitoring.