WORLD - With only four years remaining until 2030, the Sustainable Development Goals have entered a decisive final stretch. The figures highlighted around the 2026 SDG Moment are sobering: of the 139 SDG targets for which trend data are available, only 36 per cent are on track or making moderate progress. Forty-nine per cent are progressing too slowly, while 15 per cent have fallen below their 2015 baseline.
These figures make the case for acceleration clear. But they also invite a deeper question: after more than a decade of SDG implementation, what kind of development capacity is needed to turn global commitments into progress that can be sustained?
The evolution of the global development agenda itself reflects a widening understanding of what development requires. The Millennium Development Goals concentrated international attention on meeting urgent human needs. The Sustainable Development Goals went further, recognizing that poverty, education, inequality, climate, institutions and peace are interconnected, and that development is a universal responsibility.
More recently, the conversation has expanded again. The Pact for the Future and the Global Digital Compact have brought future generations, technology, data and governance more firmly into the development agenda, while the Sevilla Commitment and Doha Political Declaration have renewed attention to financing, institutional capacity, decent work and social inclusion.
Seen as a continuum rather than a succession of frameworks, this evolution points to a deeper shift: from asking what development should deliver to asking what capabilities people and societies need to achieve, sustain and ultimately shape it.
Access remains essential, but it is no longer sufficient. People need education, health services, infrastructure, finance, digital connectivity and technology. Yet access on its own does not necessarily create the ability to make choices, influence decisions or generate value. A country may gain widespread access to advanced technologies while remaining dependent on knowledge and systems developed elsewhere. A public institution may adopt artificial intelligence without the data, skills or governance needed to use it effectively. A university may use sophisticated technologies without having the research capacity to contribute to their development.
This is where agency becomes central. Agency is the ability not only to use the systems shaping our future, but to understand them, adapt them, govern them and participate in shaping them. In development terms, it means strengthening the capacity of people, institutions and countries to define priorities, generate knowledge and make informed choices about their own trajectories.
This perspective also changes how we think about development cooperation. The question should not only be how many projects are financed, services delivered or people reached, but what remains when an intervention ends. Has institutional capacity been strengthened? Has knowledge been generated locally? Can communities participate more meaningfully in decisions? Are countries better able to mobilize resources and determine their own priorities?
It also resonates strongly with the Declaration on the Right to Development, now marking its fortieth anniversary. The Declaration places people not simply as beneficiaries of development, but as participants and contributors to it. In a world increasingly shaped by knowledge, technology and data, that principle has renewed significance. Meaningful participation requires the capacity to influence the conditions under which opportunities are created.
As the international community moves toward the 2027 SDG Summit and begins looking beyond 2030, several questions deserve greater attention. Are development interventions creating lasting capabilities? Are countries strengthening their ability to research, adapt and create, or primarily consuming knowledge and technologies produced elsewhere? And are people being included in development, or gaining a greater role in directing it?
The urgency surrounding the SDGs should make these questions more important, not less. Accelerating progress remains essential. But lasting progress will depend on what societies can sustain, adapt and build for themselves.
The next phase of the development agenda should therefore be judged not only by how widely opportunities are extended, but by whether people, institutions and countries gain the agency to turn access into lasting development capacity.
