SDGPP in Russia

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), otherwise known as the Global Goals, are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

These 17 Goals build on the successes of the Millennium Development Goals, while including new areas such as climate change, economic inequality, innovation, sustainable consumption, peace and justice, among other priorities. The goals are interconnected – often the key to success on one will involve tackling issues more commonly associated with another.

The SDGs work in the spirit of partnership and pragmatism to make the right choices now to improve life, in a sustainable way, for future generations. They provide clear guidelines and targets for all countries to adopt in accordance with their own priorities and the environmental challenges of the world at large. The SDGs are an inclusive agenda. They tackle the root causes of poverty and unite us together to make a positive change for both people and planet.

Progress

• Decrease in poverty ratio from 18.4 million people (12.6% of total population) in 2018 to 18.1 million (12.1%) in 2019; 
• Increase in real disposable household income by 1% in 2019 compared to 0.1% in 2018;
• Establishment of a nation-wide policy of combating poverty, including a variety of state assistance forms, such as National Projects (targets set out in the Russian National Development Plan) or social contract agreement (an agreement between an individual and the state, under which the state obliges to provide social assistance and the individual — to fulfil the social adaptation programme).

Challenges

• Poverty level standing at 12.1% of the population of the country;
• Families with children constituting 81% of low-income households (2017);
• Poverty eradication requiring a complex and comprehensive approach in a wide range of spheres, such as education, employment, healthcare and others.

SDG Priorities

• Relieving from poverty families with children through implementing and improving maternity and childcare benefits such as maternity capital and others;
• Eradicating remaining poverty and promoting prosperity through National Projects such as ‘Demography’ alongside with a number of other forms of state social assistance.

Progress

• Increase in staple-food production (2015-2018);
• Increase in the number of schoolchildren provided with healthy meals from 88.7% (2015) to 90.2% (2018);
• Rise in the Global Food Security Index from 42nd to 24th place (2019-2020).

Challenges

• 10.6% of children in Russia having stunting (2018), with 3.1% being underweight;
• More than half of Russian population having an inclination to be overweight, with 7.5% of children being overweight (2018);  
• Irrational use of foodstuffs with 17 million tons of produced foods being discarded;
• Lack of modern technologies and practices in the sphere of agriculture alongside with the lack of awareness on sustainable food consumption, agriculture and farming.

SDG Priorities

• Fulfilling the 2020 Food Security Doctrine, aimed at ensuring that the population of the country is provided with safe, quality and affordable food according to the balanced food consumption rates;
• Establishing a sustainable, high-performance and innovation-oriented agriculture development;
• Focusing on combatting all forms of malnutrition of population through the State Policy Guidelines of the Russian Federation in Ensuring Healthy Nutrition of the Population (2020);
• Continuing joint efforts within the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) to pursue the goal of a coordinated and mutually acceptable agro-industrial policy of the Union;
• Assisting other countries within the framework of the Food Aid Convention and the World Food Programme.

Progress

• Decrease in mortality rate from 13.0 (2015) to 12.3 persons per 1000 (2019);
• Increase in life expectancy at birth from 71.39 in 2015 to 73.34 in 2019; 
• Decrease in first-time diagnosed HIV cases, incidence of tuberculosis and hepatitis B;
• Decrease in alcohol and tobacco consumption.

Challenges

• Under-financing of the healthcare system, with the goal to increase financing to at least 4% of the GDP not reached;
• High levels of death and illness cases (75,400 and 3.0 million accordingly) directly associated with air, water and soil pollution;
• High traffic-related death rate (9.7 per 100,000 population in 2018);
• More than 1 million people living with HIV.

SDG Priorities 

• Achieving a higher life expectancy of the population (up to 78 years by 2024 and to 80 years by 2030) and reducing mortality (especially from cardiovascular diseases and cancer) through the ‘Healthcare’ National Project;
• Achieving zero deaths from road traffic accidents by 2030 through National Road-Traffic Safety Strategy;
• Developing medicines production;
• ​​​​​​​Consistently and comprehensively supporting UN and WHO in achieving its goals by contributing to UNAIDS, UN special-purpose agencies, non-contagious disease programs and UN funds.

Progress

• Gross enrolment ratio of primary, basic general and general secondary education programmes in Russia standing steadily at 99.9;
• Increase in the number of foreign students studying in Russian institutions of higher education by more than 2.5 times (from 108,000 in 2010 to 267,000 in 2018);
• Increase in the wages of teaching staff in 2015-2019 from 26% (for general education teachers) to 77.2% (for higher vocational education teachers).

Challenges

• A lack of modern educational solutions and technologies;
• The prestige of the teaching profession being low, as traditionally associated with bureaucratic red tape and an abundance of paperwork.

SDG Priorities 

• Implementing the ‘Education’ National Project, aimed at free access to education;
• Implementing the ‘Accessible Environment’ programme focused on improving accessibility and quality of education for people with disabilities;
• Implementing measures to increase involvement rate in early childhood education and to provide women with children under the age of 3 with opportunities of education and advanced training for the purposes of further employment;
• Lifting the prestige of the teaching profession.

Progress

• Reducing the list of professions banned for women from 456 to 100 in 2019
• Expanding the maternity capital programme - financial state support to Russian families who give birth to/adopt children;
• The Human Development Index for females being equal to or exceeding the Human Development Index for males 2018-2020 according to UNDP Human Development report.

Challenges

• Russia fell in the UNDP Gender Inequality Index ranking from the 49th position (2019) to the 52th (2020);
• The gender pay gap still exists and comes up to 27.9% according to the International Labour Organization (2018);
• 100 professions are banned for women;
• Women are underrepresented in political authorities, with more than 80% of parliament members being men;
• The lack of effective mechanisms and institutions to prevent and combat domestic violence.

SDG Priorities 

• Implementing the National Action Strategy for Women 2017–2022, aimed at ensuring full and equal participation of women in all social life areas;
• Implementing the ‘Demography’ National Project, including the “Promotion of Women’s Employment — Creation of Conditions for Preschool Education for Children Aged under Three” Federal Project;
• Reducing the gender pay gap;
• Improving social security of women.

Progress

• Increase in the number of people having access to safe drinking water — 91.5% of population (2018) against 80.6% in 2010 and 90.7% in 2016;
• Increase in the proportion of households that have access to centralized water supply from 86.7% to 90.3% (2014-2018);
• Increase in the proportion of population using safe sanitation services from 85.8% (2018) to 88.3% (2020);
• Reduced discharged pollutant volumes by 9% — from 14.4 billion m3 to 13.1 billion m3;
• Increase in recycling water supply for production needs from 138.9 billion m3 to 144.2 billion m3 per year (3.8 %).

Challenges

• 1.5 million persons (1.2% of total population) have no access to drinking water;
• The share of insufficiently treated wastewater in Russia is still about 88.4%;
• More than 2700 cases of high and extremely high levels of contamination of water bodies (in 2018), with the basins of the Ob, Volga and Amur Rivers being the most polluted;
• The existing model of water resources management does not fully address water problems, with the Water Code not covering the key tasks of water resources protection.

SDG Priorities 

• Implementing the ‘Clean Water’ Project which is as part of ‘Environment’ National Project and is aimed at increasing the share of population supplied with quality drinking water from centralized water supply systems;
• Reducing the volume or mass of pollutant discharges into the water bodies of Russia;
• Establishing systematic, purposeful environmental education and developing public environmental awareness.

Progress

• 100% of population having access to electric energy;
• Improving positions in the 2020 Doing Business ranking, taking the 7th place in terms of ease of getting electricity;
• Increase in the provision of gas supply to Russian rural areas from 34.8% in 2005 to 59.4% in 2019;
• Increase in the total share of renewable energy sources in the electric energy mix with 17.8% in 2019, which is by 1.5 p.p. more than in 2014;
• Decrease in the share of coal in primary energy consumption from 19% to 16% between 2015 and 2018.

Challenges

• Russian energy policy is still focused on the extraction, consumption and export of fossil fuels;
• The energy intensity of Russian GDP currently exceeds the average world level by 46%;
• The share of reusable energy sources (RES), excluding large hydro-power plants, in the generation of power in Russia amounts to only 0.24% in 2018;
• Consumers are not ready to pay any extra for switching to renewable energy sources.

SDG Priorities 

• Developing RES projects with the help of the mechanism of Renewable Power Supply Agreements (RPSA);
• Reducing the GDP energy intensity in accordance with The Complex plan to improve the energy efficiency of the Russian economy (2018);
• Continued transformation and digitalization of the energy infrastructure in the country;
• Enhancing the reliability of energy supply to isolated and hard-to-reach territories;
• Increasing the competitiveness of alternative RES;
• Promoting awareness among the population.

Progress

• Steady economic growth 2016-2019;
• Increase in household consumer spending by 4.3% in 2018;
• Decline in unemployment rates (from 5.6% in 2015 to 4.6% in 2019);
• Increase in non-resource non-oil export volumes by 11.6% and in exports of services by more than 12%;
• Improved positions in a number of international ratings, such as the World Bank’s Doing Business ranking (from the 123rd position in 2011 to the 28th position in 2020), the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report (43rd position in 2018 compared with 53rd in 2015–2016);

Challenges

• High level of informal employment (32.5% of the economically active population in Russia, which is about 25 million people, are in one form or another involved in the shadow labor market);
• Low contribution of small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) to the country’s economic development;
• Limited employment opportunities for people with disabilities;
• The percentage of employees with low wages is high and increasing;
• There is no general criteria for determining the value of labor, and the legal definition of discrimination is incomplete.

SDG Priorities 

• Implementing the ‘Workforce Productivity and Employment Support’ and the ‘SMEs and Support for Individual Entrepreneurial Initiative’ National Project;
• Creating relevant conditions for the development of small- and medium-sized businesses;
• Improving business and investment climate in the country;
• Insuring accelerated growth in labour productivity as a step towards inclusive and sustainable economic growth;
• Taking measures to prevent labour discrimination against people with disabilities.

Progress

• Increase in cargo turnover for all modes of transportation by 10.3% in 2015–2018 as well as in passenger turnover of all public transport by 12.1 %;
• Ranking 46th in the Global Innovation Index, two positions higher than in 2015;
• Increase in the proportion of the Russian population covered by 4G mobile network from 50 % to 70 % in 2015–2018.

Challenges

• A low contribution of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to the country’s economic development;
• The number of researchers per 1,000 employed persons (5.7 researchers) and the share of research and development expenditures in terms of GDP (1.1%) in Russia are significantly lower than in other developed countries.

SDG Priorities 

• Providing quality growth of the transport infrastructure with the help of the 2024 Comprehensive Plan for the Modernization and Expansion of Main Infrastructure;
• Developing industrial parks and industrial clusters;
• Enhancing the industrial potential of the regions of Russia, including projects to increase the investment appeal of single-industry cities;
• Promoting non-resource non-oil exports, namely through the ‘International Cooperation and Export’ National Project;
• Increasing the availability of financial resources for SMEs in order to increase the contribution of SMEs to the country’s economic development;
• Reversing the negative trend of a decrease in the number of researchers per 1 million inhabitants and the research and development expenditure;
• Promoting creation of a sustainable and secure infrastructure in accordance with the ‘Digital Economy’ National Project.

Progress

• Recording the highest level of support for equal rights for LGBTQ+ people among population in the past 14 years (2019);
• Increase in the availability of day nurseries and preschool for children from 51.86% to 83.6% and from 91.4% to 98.89% accordingly;
• Expanding the system of comprehensive rehabilitation and habilitation of people with disabilities and the proportion of employed working-age people with disabilities.

Challenges

• The distribution of income of the population by quintiles remained practically unchanged;
• Differences in household income between regions can reach up to 33.3 times;
• Slow progress in the creation of an inclusive environment for people with disabilities;
• Limited opportunities for legal employment for migrant workers with nearly 30% being employed illegally.

SDG Priorities 

• Implementing and developing the ‘Accessible Environment’ National Project, aimed at providing legal and regulatory support for barrier-free access for people with disabilities and people with limited mobility to priority facilities and services;
• Eliminating the gaps in the distribution of income among the Russian population in regional terms;
• Organizing and simplifying the legalization procedure for migrants from visa-free countries and increasing supervision over compliance with migrants’ rights;
• Eliminating discriminatory practices against LGBTQ+ personas and raising public awareness on the matter.

Progress

• Increase in the index of affordability of housing purchase in Russia from 91% to 128% in 2015–2018;
• Successful implementation of the Priority Programme ‘Integrated Development of Single-industry Cities’, with more than 400,000 new jobs created;
• Decrease in the number of deaths in emergencies from 0.538 to 0.488 (per 100,000 population), and the number of victims in emergency situations from 89.392 to 39.127 (per 100,000 population);
• Decrease in the average concentrations of major pollutants in Russian cities in 2014-2018.

Challenges

• The population of small cities in Russia has decreased by almost 1.5 million people over the past 15 years, with the number of residents of large cities growing;
• Only 24% of Russian cities remain favorable for living in terms of urban pollution, with 56 million people in 143 cities breathing polluted air.

SDG Priorities 

• Implementing the ‘Housing and Urban Environment’ National Project, aimed at providing affordable housing for families with average incomes, increasing the volume of housing construction, and ensuring a steady reduction in the uninhabitable housing stock;
• Developing single-industry cities through the Priority Programme ‘Integrated Development of Single-industry Cities’;
• Monitoring the level of pollution and reducing air pollution in major industrial centers through the ‘Clean Air’ Federal Project included in the ‘Environment’ National Project;
• Implementing the 2025 Strategy of Spatial Development of the Russian Federation, which includes the strengthening of interregional cooperation and coordination of the socio-economic development of the regions;
• Mitigating and eliminating gaps in the level of socio-economic development, quality of the urban environment, and the level of human capital development in Russian cities.

Progress

• Increase in the volume of transactions in the main co-consumption sectors in 2018 by 30% compared to 2017;
• Increase in the volume of recycling and neutralization of waste from 2 685 to 3 818 thousand tons 2015-2018;
• Increase in the number of commissioned waste treatment plants 2010–2018. 

Challenges

• The share of fossil fuel in the energy balance of Russia accounts for approximately 85%, making it highly dependent on raw materials;
• Russia’s production and consumption waste generation is growing (7.3 billion tons in 2018 compared to 5.1 billion tons in 2015);
• Public  distrust of the new waste management system implemented in 2019;
• Green public procurement is hindered by the lack of legal regulation that makes it mandatory.

SDG Priorities 

• Implementing the 2030 Strategy for the Development of Industrial Processing, Utilization and Decontamination of Production and Consumption Wastes, developing a modern waste management system throughout the country based on the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle principle;
• Changing the country’s raw materials export model of development;
• Promoting rational use of primary and secondary resources as well as the development of efficient and clean technologies, institutions of eco-certification and eco-labeling;
• Increasing energy and resource efficiency, minimizing waste generation, and increasing the responsibility of industrial companies to mitigate the cumulative damage caused.

Progress

• Reduction of annual greenhouse gas emissions by 41 billion tons in comparison to 1990 levels;
• Increase in the area of forest land in the Russian Federation by 15% compared to 1990;
• Decrease in the carbon intensity of national GDP decreased by 2.3 times in comparison to 1990 and by 1.5 times in comparison to 2000;
• Increase in the consumption of ‘non-hydrocarbon’ primary energy by on average 1.5% per year;
• Moscow joining the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group.

Challenges

• The level of global warming in Russia is 2.5 times higher than the global average;
• A low level of public awareness and education on the topic of climate change;
• The economy of the country depending on extraction and export of coal, oil and natural gas.

SDG Priorities 

• Establishing a legal, regulatory, methodological and institutional framework as well as appropriate measures to monitor the implementation of climate change adaptation plans;
• Adopting targeted measures and the adjusting economic policies with a view to a gradual transition to a sustainable development model with a low greenhouse gas emission;
• Development of a national greenhouse gas emission management system in accordance with the Paris Agreement mechanisms;
• Increasing energy efficiency of economic sectors, infrastructure, residential and industrial buildings and facilities (including development of low and carbon-free energy sources, conversion of transport to gas and electricity);

Progress

• Increase in the diversity of fish species of coastal marine waters between 2015 and 2018 (from 400 species in 2015 to 1,500 species in 2018);
• Increase in the sea area of Specially Protected Natural Areas (SPNAs) of federal importance by 73% 2015-2018;
• Increase in financing of sea expeditions on research vessels more than fourfold in 2015-2018.

Challenges

• Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is an acute problem, with an example of 77 Russian and foreign vessels apprehended in Russian territorial waters for violating fishery regulations and the conservation of aquatic bio-resources in 2017.

SDG Priorities 

• Preventing bottom trawling fishing, overfishing and illegal harvesting of marine biological resources;
• Mitigating and preventing marine pollution through combining the efforts of government and private sector;
• Fulfilling the commitments of the ‘Ecology’ National Project.

Progress

• Increase in the area of land within forestry and forest parks from 51.21 % to 53 % (2015–2018);
• Growth in the number of Specially Protected Natural Areas (SPNAs), with the current area amounting to 241.2 million hectares. 

Challenges

• The attempts to improve the use of natural resources through revising the basic codes for urban planning, land, forest, and water, made between 2006 and 2008, didn’t reach the desired effect;
• Low levels of awareness and responsibility among enterprises and individuals, especially in the regions of the country, lead to low results in promoting sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems.

SDG Priorities 

• Ensuring the sustainability of water security indicators through such Federal Projects as ‘Clean water’, ‘Volga recovery’, ‘Preservation of Lake Baikal’, ‘Preservation of unique water objects’ of ‘Environment’ National Project;
• Working on restoration and rehabilitation of degraded and disturbed lands;
• Forming of a legal and regulatory framework for the conservation and reintroduction of rare and endangered species;
• Developing long-term schemes of location, use and protection of hunting lands in order to plan hunting activities in the regions of the country;
• Improving forest management, encouraging businesses to implement models of responsible forest management in their activities.

Progress

• Decline in the number of murders and attempted murders, intentional infliction of serious harm to health, attempted rapes, as well as in the total number of victims of criminal offences and of crimes involving violent acts against juveniles (2015-2018);  
• Decrease in the volume of suspicious financial flows by 33% (2015-2018);
• Developing a whole network of multifunctional centers, aimed at establishing single-window interaction between the citizens and authorities for receiving public services. 

Challenges

• Political corruption still remains the most significant challenge, with Russia ranking 137th out of 180 positions in the 2019 Corruption Perceptions Index;
• 25% of all cases before the European Court of Human Rights are related to Russia (2019).

SDG Priorities 

• Creating a broader corruption measurement system alongside with detecting, suppressing and solving large and particularly large-scale crimes in compliance with the National Anti-Corruption Plan for 2018–2020;
• Strengthening the culture of publicity and openness in public decision-making processes, as well as improving the accountability of authorities and encouraging personal responsibility of senior officials in government agencies and organizations to the public for the achievement of goals and objectives.

Progress

• Increase in the 2018 federal budget expenditures classified as official development assistance (ODA) to almost USD 1 billion;
• Assistance to partner countries since 2014 has amounted to more than USD 5.5 billion;
• Supporting 12,575 socially significant projects by a total of over 26.3 billion rubles through the Presidential Grants Foundation over the past 3 years.

Challenges

• Tense relations with the EU countries and the USA are hindering a part of the existing and further international cooperation;
• Lack of programmes on further education and professional development in theory, practice, innovation and sustainable development technologies for specialists, management personnel and officials;
• Insufficient knowledge of English and other foreign languages among specialists and officials hinders international cooperation, technology and innovation exchange.

SDG Priorities 

• Creating and implementing programmes to develop cross-sector partnerships in the regions, at the federal level, within the framework of UN programmes and projects with foreign companies and foreign organizations;
• Developing cooperation within the framework of Russia-UNDP Trust Fund for Development, aimed at building capacity of partner countries in the sphere of sustainable development;
• Developing cooperation within the framework of UNIDO Country Partnership Programme with the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Armenia and Belarus;
• Developing cooperation within the framework of the Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development (EFSD), New BRICS Development Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank;
• Developing, implementing, monitoring and publishing of data on sustainable development goals.