The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a collection of seventeen interlinked objectives designed to serve as a "shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future". They were set forward by the United Nations (UN) in 2015 and aim to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity. The SDGs are monitored by the UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), an annual forum held under the auspices of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. The Division for Sustainable Development Goals (DSDG) in the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) provides substantive support and capacity-building for the SDGs and their related thematic issues.

The SDGs are integrated and indivisible, global in nature, and universally applicable, taking into account different national realities, capacities, and levels of development and respecting national policies and priorities. The SDGs are designed to end poverty, hunger, AIDS, and discrimination against women and girls. They address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace, and justice. The SDGs are a bold commitment to finish what we started and end poverty in all forms and dimensions by 2030.

To facilitate monitoring of progress on SDG implementation, the online SDG Tracker was launched in June 2018 to present all available data across all indicators. The SDG Tracker relies on the Our World in Data database and is also based at the University of Oxford. The publication has global coverage and tracks whether the world is making progress towards the SDGs. The UN Secretary-General presents an annual SDG Progress report, which is developed in cooperation with the UN System, and based on the global indicator framework and data produced by national statistical systems and information collected at the regional level.