Feeding infants well starts a virtuous circle

Some $1 trillion was lost to corruption last year. This is money that was not available for expanding health care, broadening access to education, improving nutrition, or cleaning up the environment. According to Transparency International, 68% of the world’s countries have a serious corruption problem, and no country is completely immune.

It is now a year since the UN set its new Sustainable Development Goals to try to make the world a better place. They include 17 goals and a massive 169 targets on subjects like disease, education and governance. But some people like Bjorn Lomborg are saying that there are just too many and they are too broad, and left like that will never achieve anything. Is he right? Is there a better way to make the world better and stop some countries lagging behind?

The world faces many challenges, between the impacts of inflation and high-interest rates, the lingering impacts of the COVID pandemic, and geopolitical conflicts such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Amid all this, 2023 marks the halftime point for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—the sprawling list of 169 ambitions in which all global leaders have promised everything to everyone.