Background paper
This paper explores the costs required to achieve two of the SDGs and ensure no one is left behind:
- SDG 3 – ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.
- SDG 4 – ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
The majority of the paper provides an analysis of four existing costings – two for each of the SDGs – and highlights the most important gaps in these estimates. It proposes that current costings do not adequately incorporate “leave no one behind” considerations –such as the additional cost of reaching the poorest and most marginalised people (the very people that Agenda 2030 commits us to reach first). The paper concludes that more comprehensive estimates of health and education costs are important in helping decision-makers to further optimise financing allocations, including official development assistance (ODA), during the last crucial decade of the SDG agenda.