Asia and the Pacific SDG Progress Report 2026 — SDGCounting Document Briefs

Published: 18 February 2026, by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)
Scope: 117 measurable SDG targets across the Asia-Pacific region, assessed against trend data
This year’s signal: On track to miss 88% of targets by 2030, with several goals now moving backward

At the current pace, Asia and the Pacific will miss 103 of its 117 measurable SDG targets by 2030, close to nine in ten. ESCAP’s annual regional scorecard is the local reading of the same stalled story the global reports tell, with one sharper edge: several goals are no longer merely slow, they are reversing.

The headline

On present trends the region hits only a small fraction of the 2030 targets. Progress is real in places: access to electricity is expanding quickly, mobile coverage is near universal (a bright spot for SDG 9), and maternal, neonatal and under-five mortality keep falling. The alarm is in the goals that have turned negative rather than simply slowed: climate action and rising greenhouse-gas emissions, biodiversity loss, marine conservation, fossil-fuel subsidies, and labour rights and safe working conditions. The report frames the tension bluntly, that the region’s own growth engines are now eroding its future.

Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, Executive Secretary, ESCAP: “The very engines of growth that once lifted millions out of poverty and fuelled rapid industrialization are now undermining our future.”

The counting story

The measurement gap is central, which is where SDGCounting pays closest attention. Only about 55% of the region’s SDG indicators have two or more data points, the minimum needed to judge a trend, and close to a third have no data at all. The thinnest coverage falls on SDG 5 (gender equality) and SDG 16 (peace, justice and institutions), the same goals that are hardest to see everywhere, alongside limited data on whether vulnerable groups can actually reach services. A goal that cannot be measured cannot be managed, and the report is candid that the assessment rests on partial evidence.

Why it matters

The regional commissions feed the global SDG monitoring that governments review at the High-Level Political Forum. This report localizes the headline number the Forum confronts: the world is off track, and in Asia and the Pacific the shortfall now runs to 88% of targets. It also sharpens the through-line of the 2026 reporting season, that stalled progress is compounded by uneven data, so the places furthest behind are often the ones the numbers can least see.

Watch & read

Asia and the Pacific SDG Progress Report 2026, the full report and data (UN ESCAP).
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026, the global stocktake this regional edition tracks against.
HLPF 2026 coverage, where the global and regional data meet the review.

Figures are drawn from the report and ESCAP’s launch materials; some are rounded. Regional indicator coverage and target counts are ESCAP’s own.