Malta’s progress in reaching its United Nations Sustainable Development Goal targets deteriorated with its ranking plummeting eight places, according to a global report.
The data, produced in this year’s SDG Index and Dashboard report, published by Bertelmann Stiftung and economist Jeffrey Sachs’s Sustainable Development Solutions Network, puts Malta in the 30th place, down from 22nd last year.
There were 156 countries studied, with public consultations held earlier in 2018, between April 30 and May 11.
Each country was awarded a score out of 100, with Malta managing 74.2, down from 77 in 2017, sitting behind Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Hungary and other member states.
Malta ranked just ahead of Slovakia and Croatia last year. This time, the performance of both eastern European countries improved, getting a higher score and a better rank than Malta’s.
With a score of 85, Sweden secured the top spot while the Central African Republic, which only obtained a mere 37.7, was bottom of the list.
The SDGs are a set of targets UN countries agreed to reach by 2030. They follow the Millennium Development Goals, a set of eight targets for improving the lives of the world’s poorest…
