By Samia Khalid ISLAMABAD, Feb. 24 (INP-WealthPK): Pakistan has prioritised Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in order to join the upper middle-income countries by 2030. It is a widely recognised fact that economic growth is no measure of social and human development. Therefore, without social development, the potential for higher, sustainable and inclusive economic growth cannot be realised. Pakistan was the first country to embrace the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by a unanimous vote in the Parliament. The government held discussions with all stakeholders in order to coordinate and improve efforts at the federal and provincial levels to meet long-term development and poverty reduction goals in Pakistan, WealthPK reported. The SDGs are fully aligned with the seven pillars of Vision 2025 of Pakistan and provide a coherent long-term plan for attaining equitable growth and sustainable development. According to the Sustainable Development Report 2021, the overall SDG index rank of Pakistan is 129, with an SDG index score of 57.7. Despite the COVID-19 global pushback, Pakistan has improved by five ranks from 134 in 2020. This indicates that Pakistan is on track to achieve the greatest possible outcome in each of the 17 SDGs by 57.7% on average. As compared with the year 2020, the score has improved by 1.5% points. However, the performance of Pakistan has improved by 3% in the region. Pakistan has shown impressive performance by achieving a score of 99.68 in the spillover ranking. There is a moderate improvement in achieving the goals of poverty, health and wellbeing, water and sanitation, peace and justice, and partnership. On the other hand, achieving zero hunger, quality education, gender equality, clean energy, innovation, sustainable cities and communities, and life below water remain stagnant. In order to accomplish the SDGs, Pakistan, like other developing countries, faces huge economic hurdles. The Sustainability Report 2021 acknowledges this as well. According to a study conducted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2021 on the cost of SDGs related to education, health, and physical capital (electricity, roads, and water and sanitation), additional public and private sector spending of approximately 16% of gross domestic product (GDP) will be required to help achieve these SDGs until 2030. In Pakistan, progress in SDGs implementation, as identified by monitoring reports, has been hamstrung by resource constraints, weak institutional coordination, and a lack of capacity to perform. Therefore, these hurdles need to be removed. Recently, the 2^nd sub-committee of the National Economic Council (NEC) on SDGs was chaired by Federal Minister for Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives Asad Umar. Progress on the core SDGs on poverty, unemployment, health, education, and environment were discussed in detail during the meeting. It was decided that the SDGs status report should be presented to the NEC. The improvement of SDGs indicators will help in the development of a budget that is in line with the goals related to SDGs. Moreover, it was decided to provide all the necessary resources to the most vulnerable and deprived members of society. The NEC will soon review the progress that has been made to meet the SDGs 2030, and the objectives for the next three years. In the light of progress report, a framework will be planned to achieve the proposed SDGs.