The Global Goals
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals, explained for kids
In 2015, every country in the United Nations agreed on 17 goals for the year 2030: end poverty and hunger, give every child a good school, protect the climate, the oceans and the land, and leave nobody behind. They are called the Sustainable Development Goals, the SDGs, or simply the Global Goals.
This page explains each goal the way you might explain it to a nine-year-old: what it asks for, why it matters, and the one story that brings it to life. Every goal has its own Eco Heroes picture book, fully illustrated, with a reading guide you can use at home or in class.
The goal pages linked below are open to everyone, with the real UN target and the latest figures. The 17 books are part of the Eco Heroes library for families and schools.
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Goal 1 · No Poverty
End poverty in all its forms everywhere
Poverty means not having enough for the basics: food, a safe home, a doctor, a school. About one person in ten still lives on less than three dollars a day. Goal 1 asks the world to end extreme poverty by 2030. In The Tree Woman, one woman changes her village one tree at a time.
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Goal 2 · Zero Hunger
End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
Enough food for everyone, every day, grown in ways that keep the soil healthy. Hundreds of millions of people still go to bed hungry, often not because there is no food but because they cannot afford it. The Banker to the Poor tells how Muhammad Yunus trusted the poorest women in Bangladesh with tiny loans.
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Goal 3 · Good Health
Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
Healthy lives for all ages: vaccines, clean hospitals, doctors and nurses who treat everyone with care. Millions of children still receive no vaccinations at all. In The House of Hope, Elisabeth Eidenbenz opens a home in Elna for refugee mothers.
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Goal 4 · Quality Education
Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
Every child in school, learning things that matter, from the first day to the last. Hundreds of millions of children and young people are still out of school. The Children's House follows Maria Montessori, who believed children learn best when they are free to explore and are treated as capable and curious.
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Goal 5 · Gender Equality
Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
Girls and boys, women and men, with the same rights, the same chances and the same say. Women hold barely a quarter of the seats in the world's parliaments. Isabel's Bright Ideas is about Isabel, who is told to be quiet and small, and whose ideas change everything around her.
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Goal 6 · Clean Water
Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
Safe water to drink and a clean toilet for everyone, and rivers and lakes that stay healthy. About one person in four still lacks safely managed drinking water. In The Water Man, Rajendra Singh arrives in Kishori, an Indian village where the rivers have been dry for decades.
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Goal 7 · Clean Energy
Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
Electricity and heat for everyone, made from sun, wind and water instead of fuels that warm the planet. Hundreds of millions of people still live without electricity. In A Furrowed Brow, Greta, eleven, speaks up at last when she finds lights, taps and heating left running at home.
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Goal 8 · Decent Work
Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
A fair job, fair pay and safe conditions for every adult, and no child made to work instead of going to school. Millions of children are still in child labour. In His Mother's Gaze, Nelson Mandela remembers his mother's gaze in his cell on Robben Island.
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Goal 9 · Innovation & Infrastructure
Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
Roads, bridges, internet and factories that work for everyone, and new ideas that solve old problems. Most of the world is now covered by mobile broadband, but not everyone can use it. In The Maths Game, Abril and young Katherine Johnson write Katherine's future in a notebook, one half-sentence at a time.
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Goal 10 · Reduced Inequalities
Reduce inequality within and among countries
Fairness between people and between countries: nobody treated as less because of where they were born, how they look or how much they have. One person in five faced discrimination in the past year. In The Sower of Dreams, Alberto runs away from a violent stepfather and is taken in by José Antonio Abreu.
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Goal 11 · Sustainable Cities
Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
Towns and cities with clean air, safe streets, parks, buses and homes everyone can afford. More than a billion people live in slums or informal settlements. In The Dog that Said Woof, Abril has a new puppy, and young Majora Carter wonders where the dogs of the Bronx disappear to.
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Goal 12 · Responsible Consumption
Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
Use what we need, waste less, and make things in ways that do not harm people or the planet. More than a billion tonnes of food are wasted by consumers every year. In A Chicken Thigh, Marilyn leaves a bit of chicken thigh on her plate at Grandma Dorothy's, and strange things begin.
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Goal 13 · Climate Action
Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
Stop the planet heating up, and get ready for the storms, floods and heatwaves that are already here. The Earth is already about 1.4°C warmer than before factories and cars. In His Name is Murphy!, Murphy is Abril's beetle, and young Xiuhtezcatl Martínez gets ready to fight for the future.
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Goal 14 · Life Below Water
Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
Clean oceans, living coral reefs and fish that are caught no faster than they can grow back. More than a third of fish stocks are overfished. Glasses to Another World puts on a pair of diving glasses and enters a silent, blue, fragile world: to protect it, we must first see it.
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Goal 15 · Life on Land
Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
Forests, animals, insects and soil protected, so that no species disappears forever. Since 2015 the world has lost 41 million hectares of forest. In Exodus, Abril watches a documentary in which two robots from the spacecraft EXODUS land on a planet called THREE.
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Goal 16 · Peace & Justice
Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
Safety from violence, fair laws, honest courts and leaders, and a voice for everyone. More than a hundred million people have been forced from their homes. In The Torch of Peace, Rigoberta Menchú remembers picking cotton as a child on a plantation in Guatemala.
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Goal 17 · Partnerships
Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development
Countries, companies, schools and families working together, because no goal can be reached alone. Richer countries promised help to poorer ones, and the goals need all of us. In A Huge Problem, António Guterres, still a schoolboy, and his class must plan a trip that every pupil can afford.
Frequently asked questions
What are the Sustainable Development Goals?
Seventeen goals for the year 2030 that all 193 United Nations member states adopted in September 2015, as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. They cover poverty, hunger, health, education, equality, water, energy, work, cities, climate, nature, peace and partnership, with 169 specific targets underneath them.
Why are they also called the Global Goals or the SDGs?
SDGs is the short form of Sustainable Development Goals. Global Goals is the plain name used in campaigns and in many schools, because the goals apply to every country, rich or poor, not only to developing ones.
How do I explain the goals to a six-year-old?
Pick one goal, not seventeen. Start with something the child already knows, such as water from the tap or a visit to the doctor, then ask who does not have it and why. The short text next to each goal above is written to be read aloud, and each book turns the goal into one character and one place.
What age are the Eco Heroes books and goal pages for?
The picture books are illustrated stories that work as a read-aloud from about age 6 and as independent reading up to about 14. The goal pages are written for the adult who is reading with a child.
Do I need an account to read the goal pages?
No. Every goal page is open to everyone, as are the Goal 1 videos, the first game chapter and the Goal 1 trivia. The 17 illustrated books, the other videos and the lesson plans are for members with a family or school plan.
In which languages are the books and the goal pages?
The picture books are published in eight languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Catalan and Danish. The goal pages, games, trivia, videos and lesson plans are in thirteen, adding Dutch, Arabic, Japanese, Korean and Chinese.