SDGs: A level playing field?
The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals have become a byword for the key challenges our world faces. But are developing countries facing an additional challenge, by not being recognized equally for the impact their research is having? Simon Linacre looks at a new white paper that shows more can be done to raise up funding and research recognition for the developing world. When the UN adopted the SDGs in 2015 to focus attention on the major challenges facing the world, it did so seeking to recognise all 193 signatory countries equally. It has always been apparent that some of the worst problems facing humanity are felt much more keenly in developing countries, however the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was an opportunity to right the wrongs of the past and even out inequalities. However, there has been a nagging doubt, to paraphrase George Orwell, that ‘all countries are equal, but some countries are more equal than others’. This fear has been realized in a la