Situation and Challenges of Sustainability in Africa

The paper addresses the situation and trends of African countries to achieve the SDGs of the United Nations 2030 Agenda. Africa has the most significant development challenges and the additional difficulty of addressing this process with remarkably expansive demographic dynamics that will double its population in the coming decades. The paper's objective is to assess the situation of African countries to achieve the SDGs and group them to identify similar situations and prospects to meet economic, social, environmental and institutional challenges implicit in them. Starting from a general analysis of the continent's situation and considering economic, social and environmental elements, the work delves into the state of each country regarding the achievement of the SDGs, taking for this the levels of progress achieved and the tendency towards the achievement of goals. With these variables, the analysis applies cluster analysis to assess which countries and regions of the continent are in a more and less favourable position concerning the achievement of the SDGs. Based on the analysis, it is possible to conclude that most countries with the best prospects are in North Africa. In general, the North and South of the continent have a favourable position for achieving the SDGs with a social and economic nature. Concerning the environmental SDGs, the Central African countries have the best prospects, although the economic and social situation is, in general, particularly unfavourable.