Modern Slavery and SDG Connections

This figure shows the percentage of Targets within each Sustainable Development Goal that, if achieved, would also likely directly contribute to ending modern slavery. This suggests that, of the 17 SDGs, work in the areas of Goals 1 (Ending Poverty), 4 (Quality Education), 8 (Decent Work), 13 (Climate Action) and 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions) is likely to be especially aligned with anti-slavery efforts. The connection to Climate Action lies particularly in the fact that climate change exacerbates numerous factors that increase vulnerability to modern slavery – such as conflict onset, disaster risk and risk of forced migration, but also runs in the other causal direction: reducing slavery may itself help reduce various negative environmental impacts. 

Proportion of SDG Targets that, if achieved, would contribute to ending modern slavery (Figure 2)

Data source: Developing Freedom, UNU

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