Regional disparities in SDGs achievement across Africa: An analysis using SDG dashboards

Abstract

Africa’s progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) remains highly uneven, with persistent regional disparities undermining the continent’s collective advancement toward Agenda 2030. Despite ongoing national and regional efforts, there is little comparative evidence showing exactly how each SDG performance differs between African regions, hindering targeted policy interventions. This study examines regional disparities in the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across Africa, utilizing the SDG Dashboards from the 2025 Sustainable Development Report Database. The study was grounded in the Sustainable Development Theory, which posits that disparities in SDG achievement across African regions stem from imbalances among the economic, social, and environmental pillars, which ultimately disrupt overall SDG countries' dashboards' performance. Data from 54 African countries were analyzed through descriptive statistics, the Kruskal-Wallis test, and post-hoc comparisons by Dunn’s pairwise comparison test with Bonferroni correction to assess inter-regional variations. The results demonstrate statistically significant differences across 12 SDGs, with Northern Africa consistently outperforming other regions. Eastern and Western Africa show different results. They are making some progress on SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) and SDG 13 (Climate Action), but not on SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being), and SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities). Central and Southern Africa display markedly lower achievement across most goals. These findings indicate that Africa’s progress toward Agenda 2030 remains uneven and structurally fragmented, with persistent challenges in SDGs 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 11, 14, and 16. The observed disparities in SDG achievement across African regions are structurally determined, reflecting variations in economic capacity, governance, infrastructure, and institutional capacity. The progress is relatively stronger in Northern Africa. Eastern and Western Africa demonstrate mixed outcomes, while Southern and Central Africa lag behind, highlighting the necessity of strengthening regional knowledge-sharing, mobilizing targeted resources, and enhancing institutional capacity to reduce disparities and accelerate sustainable development across the continent.