USAID played a leading role in the development of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the U.S. Government has endorsed all 17, which were adopted in 2015 and will define global development priorities through 2030. To achieve the SDGs, each goal has a set of targets designed to ensure that this shared progress leaves no one behind. With land formally recognized as a target in three SDGs, land is acknowledged as a critical metric of progress in this shared worldwide agenda:
- Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere. Target 1.4: “By 2030, ensure that all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial services, including microfinance.”
- Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. Target 2.3: “By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment.”
- Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Target 5.a: “Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws.”
All 17 Sustainable Development Goals are available on the UN’s Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform.