The United Nations implemented “Transforming the World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, setting 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with 169 targets in 2015, with a completion date of 2030, with an aim of creating “a path for the world in which prosperity is shared, societies are inclusive, and the environment is kept safe” (Shervin Ghorbani, 2021). The SDGs cover a wide range of the most relevant and urgent, interrelated challenges, including social justice, poverty, inequality, and climate change.

1. No Poverty

2. Zero Hunger

3. Good Health and Well-being

4. Quality education

5. Gender quality

6. Clean water and sanitation

7. Affordable and clean energy

8. Decent work and economic growth

9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

10. Reduced inequalities

11. Sustainable cities and communities

12. Responsibility consumption and production

13. Climate action

14. Life below water

15. Life on land

16. Peace, justice and strong institutions

17. Partnerships for the goals

They serve as a framework that nations can use to accomplish a common goal and inspire group efforts and collaboration for a better future. However, regardless matter how strong the faith is, we will be able to evaluate the current state of affairs in 2023, seven years before the deadline, to determine whether it will be accomplished in time. In order to avoid obscurity in assessment of the achievability of the second goal, we need to understand what exactly qualifies as hunger. When we depict statistics about worldwide hunger, we refer to chronic hunger or starvation. In this sense, hunger is a state of extreme physiological need for food resulting from lack of essential nutrients over a prolonged period of time.

Now, when we settle the definitions, we are able to evaluate the progress made by taking a comprehensive view in order to examine it objectively. In 2015, when the goal was set, the number of people in hunger was equal to 784 million, in 2016 it increased to 804 million. Then next year, the number grew again to 821 million, and later the significative rose to 822 million. In 2019, the number further has fallen to 690 million. As of today, according to the latest report by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, about 768 million people all around the world are hungry, and unfortunately, this number has risen due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although we can see some fluctuations in the index, we cannot deny that a certain progress has been made throughout the years, including the Zero Hunger Challenge, the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement, and the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program. Additionally, the UN established the Committee on World Food Security, which functions as a framework for governments, NGOs, and others to contribute to common efforts. For the sake of impartiality, it is vital to take each of those attempts into consideration.

Nevertheless, the central question is not the progress done, but rather the feasibility of the achievement of the objective by the deadline. According to Liu Zhenmin, the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, “The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is in grave jeopardy due to multiple, cascading and intersecting crises”. As was mentioned in the most recent report done by the United Nations:

● Progress needs to move four times faster than the current rate to meet 2030 targets for drinking water, sanitation and hygiene.

● The coronavirus pandemic wiped out over four years of progress toward fighting poverty. The number of people living on less than $1.90 per day increased in 2020, following years of declines. While the number of people living in poverty declined in 2022, it remains higher than pre-pandemic rates.

● 99% of people in urban areas globally breathe polluted air, based on World Health Organization guidelines.

In the infographics of the SDGs progress, following data has been given (2022):

● About 1 in 10 people worldwide are suffering from hunger,

● Nearly 1 in 3 people lack regular access

● 149.2 million children under age 5 are stunting and to reduce it by 50% by 2030, annual rate of decline must double (from 2.1 to 3.9% per year)

These highlights are rather related to first, third and sixth Sustainable Development Goals, however all of them are linked in implementations. Thus if one of them lacks some advancement, other goals will also experience stagnation or even aggravation. For instance, the goals of eliminating extreme poverty and achieving no hunger are clearly correlated, due to the fact that once the level of income decreases, less people will be able to afford wealthy in nutritions food. As was mentioned in the report, the indicator of poverty has experienced some deterioration throughout the years due to pandemics, this automatically implies that the level of hunger increases, which is the opposite of the desired outcome. It is vital to understand that in the accomplishment of these goals external factors also played not the least role: Firstly, COVID 19 has triggered an economic crisis, which has severely affected GDPs of countries and increased unemployment. For example, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), India's GDP (Gross Domestic Product) fell by 7.3% in fiscal year 2020-2021. This represented a significant decrease from the previous year's growth rate of 4.0%; Secondly, climate change, which caused floodings leading to rise in displaced people and damaged biodiversity in countries such as Bangladesh, which is located in low-lying coastal areas. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), sea level rise might cause Bangladesh to lose 17% of its land by 2050, displacing millions of people and suffering widespread loss of livelihoods; Thirdly, it’s conflict between Russia and Ukraine that augmented the number of refugees and acted as a stimulus to inflation due to sanctions imposed, which complicated worldwide exchange of goods. As for instance, Germany, whose exports to Russia fell by 22.3%, while imports from Russia fell by 13.1%. Similarly, Germany's exports to Ukraine fell by 17.8%, while imports from Ukraine fell by 9.9% in 2022. These decreases in exports and imports reflect the serious impact of the conflict on Germany's trade links with both countries.

To summarize what has been stated so far, eradicating hunger is a complex challenge that cannot be resolved within a short period of time, thus much efforts persists to be done in the path of their accomplishment to be fully achieved. There has been some progress made towards achieving goals, but if the pace continues at the same rate, we may need to postpone the deadlines. However, it is critical that we continue to consider the SDGs paramount in our policies, programs, and investments, and that we collaborate in an inclusive manner so that we do not disregard anyone in our efforts to create a better world for all. We may face some obstacles in the pathway, but for the sake of the convenient life of the future generations we need to do everything in our power.