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Dashboard map for 2022 SDG Index Goal #8 ratings. Data source: sdgindex.org

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Adjusted GDP growth (%)

This indicator measures the annual growth of GDP (gross domestic product), the total of everything produced (products and services) within a country.

In 2020, the per capita GDP of the world (or GWP, gross world product) was $17,061, growing from $5,529 in 1990. At the beginning of the MDG period in 2000, this was $7,998 per capita, and in 2015 was $15,137.

Rather than economic growth being a filthy term, we need to take measures to ensure it's coupled with environmental care and social inclusion. Sustainable development aims for economic growth in harmony with ensuring the other two pillars i.e., economic growth which is inclusive and sustainable.

We’re trying to adopt a macroeconomic concept to the scale of the individual reader here. Rather than the average individual having their hands on the levers of economic policymaking at the national level, let’s keep it simple, without putting onerous responsibilities on your shoulders. If you live in a country scoring red for the indicator, aim to increase your annual income by 5%. There will be so many factors at play out of your control, bearing down on you, but aim for 5% annual income growth. Figure out how much income you made in the past year, multiply it by 5%, and aim for this amount in the coming year. Divide the increase by 52 weeks or 12 months, if you think you’ll find it easier to set smaller targets, rather than a big one for year-end. How you go about increasing your income is up to you - the main thing is we set the intention to go out after the goal.

Summary:

For OECD country readers, affirm your annual commitment to give 0.7% of your gross income as aid.

For readers in countries off-track, attempt to increase your annual income by 5% a year.

Victims of modern slavery (per 1,000 population)

It’s unbelievable a practice such as slavery can continue to prevail in the 21st century, least of all ever occurred at all. Treating humans as property takes many forms, including:

• human trafficking for forced labour

• sexual slavery and forced prostitution

• conscription in national military service

• penal labour

• debt bondage

• bride buying

• some conditions experienced by migrant workers

The definition of modern slavery for this indicator counts as forced labour or forced marriage, aiming for elimination by 2030.

The results for this indicator in the 2022 SDG Index are ugly. Due to what we can agree is a heinous practice, even the yellow scores are grotesque. For each of these countries, the reasons for high rates of forced labour and marriage are particular to each society. Some instances of forced labour may even entail state sanction of law, as in the case of conscription. Let’s instead focus on the instance of the individual reader. Rather than imposing responsibility on the victim of slavery, instead it ought to be on the enslaving person, whether ‘employer’, husband in forced matrimony, or parents of a bride in a forced marriage.

Summary: End forced labour and forced marriage by 2030.

Adults with an account at a bank or other financial institution or with a mobile-money-service provider (% of population aged 15 or over)

This indicator aims for 100% of a population, aged 15 and over, to have an account at a bank or other financial institution, either by themselves, or shared with someone else, or to have used mobile payments in the past year. In 2021, 76% of the world population owned such an account.

The beauty of mobile banking is in the unexpected ubiquity of mobile devices in low-income countries. There’s little incentive for a bank to open a branch in a far-flung, rural part of a low-income country. Populations in low-income countries can instead use a mobile app to transact, whether they own a device themselves, or share within a family or community.

Depending on the country and mobile payment service, this could rely on SMS technology, or more advanced mobile apps. Kenya is the success story, due to the success of M-Pesa, which also features a micro-financing function. M-Pesa has since expanded to more countries, but looking at the 2022 scores for this indicator, with unequal success as its native Kenya. When a survey asked respondents why they were yet to open a bank account, the most common answers were a dearth of funds to deposit, as well as cost and distance. If someone has only a couple of dollars to rub together, it’s only going to compound the issue of opening a bank account if this comes with account fees.

Summary: For readers in countries off-track, open an account at a bank, or a mobile-money-service provider, if affordable and available, aiming for all to have such accounts.

Fundamental labour rights are effectively guaranteed (worst 0 - 1 best)

This indicator measures the effective enforcement of fundamental labour rights, including:

• freedom of association

• right to collective bargaining

• absence of discrimination related to employment

• freedom from forced labour and child labour

The data source for this indicator is one of the factors of the World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index. A score of 1 is the best score, with 0 the worst. In the context of this indicator, countries are aiming for a score of 0.85.

Depending on the country you live in, you may be familiar with the presence of trade unions and would have experienced the relationship between employers and employees and contracts. Your national government may have an agency upholding employment standards. In some countries, there’s a very prominent history of labour law in different guises, dating back to the cotton mills and factory systems of northern England at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and in other forms before industrialisation.

What should be the legal price floor for the exchange of payment for work, otherwise known as the minimum wage? What is the threshold of a living wage? What framework exists to ensure occupational health and safety? Are anti-discrimination laws applicable and enforced in workplaces? What are the grounds for unfair dismissal in terminating employment? What prohibitions exist around the use of child labour? Is freedom of association permitted, allowing groups to form a club and take collective action, such as a trade union?

Some countries have developed a tradition of co-determination, a model of corporate governance representing workers among the board of directors. The intention of this is to ease a more harmonious process of collective bargaining in negotiation, mitigating the risk of strike action.

The impacts of globalisation put a lot of pressure upon labour, and the UN has a body to oversee this field, the International Labour Organization, which brokers international labour law - both as it relates to international law, but also the conflict of laws between countries in dispute.

Summary: For readers in countries off-track:

• as an employer:

• ensure freedom of association

• ensure collective bargaining

• desist using forced or child labour

• as employers and colleagues, ensure workplaces are free of discrimination

Fatal work-related accidents embodied in imports (per 100,000 population)

If we cast our minds back to the concept of something being embodied in an import, as we did with the earlier indicator a