ALMATY – Kazakhstan climbed three positions to 67th place among 169 countries in the 2026 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Index, while experts say the country’s long-term competitiveness will depend on strengthening resilience in an increasingly volatile global economy.
Astana. Photo credit: The Astana Times.
Published by the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), the annual index evaluates countries’ progress toward achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Kazakhstan’s overall score improved from 71.5 to 72 compared to last year, placing it ahead of several G20 economies, including Indonesia, Mexico, Türkiye, India, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.
Among Central Asian countries, Kazakhstan ranked above Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, while trailing the Kyrgyz Republic and Uzbekistan.
Progress in poverty reduction, infrastructure and innovation
According to the report, Kazakhstan continues to make steady progress in several SDGs. The country is considered to be on track to eradicate poverty, while improvements were also recorded in food security, clean energy, water and sanitation, infrastructure, and innovation.
On SDG 1 (No Poverty), only 0.8% of the population lives on less than $3 per day, a level comparable to several OECD countries. Under SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), exports of hazardous pesticides declined from 3.8 to 3.5 tons per one million people. Child mortality under the age of five fell from 9.6 to 9.4 per 1,000 live births.
Access to basic drinking water services increased from 95.4% to 97.8%, while freshwater withdrawals and the country’s imported water footprint both declined.
Kazakhstan also recorded notable gains in innovation and digital infrastructure. Mobile broadband subscriptions rose from 91.6 to 119 per 100 people, the average performance of Kazakh universities in the Times Higher Education ranking improved from 30.1 to 32.1 points, and patent applications increased from 79.7 to 82.1 per one million people.
According to the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Kazakhstan now has 303 research laboratories and 62 commercialization centers, while an endowment fund established to support science has already attracted two billion tenge (US$3.7 million), with plans to increase its capital to 10 billion tenge (US$18.7 million).
Kazakhstan has also implemented several long-term policy initiatives supporting sustainable development, including the Carbon Neutrality Strategy to 2060, the National Income Growth Program to 2029, and the National Fund for Children initiative.
Areas requiring further improvement
Despite overall progress, the SDSN report identifies several areas where Kazakhstan continues to face significant or serious challenges.
Education indicators deteriorated compared to last year, while progress has largely stagnated in justice and institutional effectiveness. The report also highlights the importance of additional efforts in gender equality, clean energy, responsible consumption and production, reducing inequality, climate action, and protecting terrestrial ecosystems.
The SDSN emphasizes that with less than five years remaining until the 2030 Agenda deadline, governments should increasingly focus on practical implementation mechanisms rather than solely setting policy targets.
Kazakhstan scores highly on multilateral cooperation
The report also includes the UN Multilateralism Index (UN-Mi), which measures countries’ support for the UN system through indicators such as treaty ratification, UN voting patterns, participation in international organizations, military spending, unilateral sanctions and financial contributions to the UN.
Kazakhstan ranked 31st out of 193 UN member states with a score of 77.4, placing it among countries with a very high level of support for multilateral cooperation.
In addition, Kazakhstan became the only Central Asian country included in a new SDSN expert survey evaluating how governments integrate the SDGs into national governance. The country received positive assessments in five of the seven evaluated areas, including strategic planning, policy integration and coordination mechanisms.
Resilience becoming the new economic priority
According to the Economic Research Institute (ERI), Ramazan Yessengaziyev, a senior expert at the ERI Macroeconomic Research and Quality of Life Center, said the global economy is entering an era where resilience is becoming more important than maximum efficiency, commenting on the findings.
“The experience of recent years has shown that in conditions of close trade and economic ties, crises rarely remain local. Changes in the economic situation of major trading partners are quickly transmitted to Kazakhstan through foreign trade, the exchange rate, imports and inflation,” he said.
According to Yessengaziyev, climate change is becoming another long-term challenge, with rising temperatures, water shortages and Kazakhstan’s dependence on transboundary river basins creating additional risks for agriculture, energy and water security.
At the same time, he noted that the restructuring of the global economy presents new opportunities for Kazakhstan.
“As global supply chains diversify, the importance of alternative transport routes is increasing. Through international cooperation and partnerships, Kazakhstan aims to build joint value chains with deeper processing. Thanks to its geographical location, the country can strengthen its role as a transport and logistics hub connecting Europe and Asia,” he said.
