The current crises that Africa face in 2025 are not merely humanitarian challenges, but a representation of a reversal of development gained over the last decade. Compared to the optimism of 2015, when the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were launched, the continent is significantly worse off, with more crises escalating and international safety nets crucial to achieving goals being dismantled.
The world is actively taking steps backwards, confirming the onset of an “Age of Abandonment” in Africa, where millions will face consequences.
The United Nations reports published this year confirm that only 35% of all SDGs worldwide are on track to reach their target by 2030, and alarmingly, 18% are in reverse. Africa is bearing the brunt of this failure, particularly in terms of water and food scarcity, as well as armed conflict.
The evidence of reversal on the continent since 2015 is overwhelming. The number of Africans facing food insecurity has increased by approximately 78% since 2015, rising to over 236 million by 2023 and continuing to worsen in 2025. This terrible trajectory, seen with 120 million people facing crisis-level acute hunger across 26 countries, threatens to derail the goal of Zero Hunger (SDG 2).
The number of people displaced by violence in Africa has tripled in the last decade, soaring to 34 million in 2025. This increase, particularly across the Sahel and in Sudan, stands in direct opposition to the goal of Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions (SDG 16). The persistent instability means resources are diverted to security instead of development.
It is also worth mentioning both the debt and climate crises that the continent faces. Regarding climate, extreme weather events brought on by climate change have accelerated the continent’s vulnerability.
From extreme droughts in the Horn of Africa and the Sahel that displace farmers and destroy their livelihoods, to massive climate-induced flooding in countries like Mozambique and Nigeria, these events are directly responsible for increased food insecurity, mass displacement, and the depletion of national resources.
This environmental stress is compounded by economic disaster. The number of sub-Saharan African countries at high risk of debt has nearly tripled since 2014. This external debt has stripped governments of the fiscal space needed to adapt to climate change and invest in essential public services for Good Health (SDG 3) and Quality Education (SDG 4).
The combination of environmental, economic, social, and political destruction has made achieving the 2015 SDGs virtually impossible.
To make matters worse, the collapse of these goals has been exacerbated by the West’s reduction in its aid budgets, with the United Kingdom being one of the key drivers of this change. This year, the UK’s commitment to the Global Partnership (SDG 17) has become merely an illusion, as the government has abandoned the 0.7% aid target in favour of a reduced 0.3% of GNI (Gross National Income) going towards foreign development.
However, matters are made worse due to the fact that “in donor refugee costs” (although an essential use of money in its own right) also contributes to the 0.3% budget. Therefore, the reality is that while the government claims 0.3% of GNI is going to foreign aid and development, up to 0.2% of GNI is now spent domestically on Home Office costs, leaving only 0.1% for the essential humanitarian and development assistance needed overseas.
This trend is happening all across the Western world, ensuring that the mass suffering in all areas of Africa escalates unchallenged, actively undoing the progress of a decade and confirming that the world is taking steps backward from the promising targets set in 2015.
In conclusion, the trajectory of the African continent in 2025 is a global tragedy. After a decade of promising a more sustainable and equal future, the continent is experiencing a huge reversal marked by instability, famine, and debt.
This, combined with the UK and other Western countries’ failure to meet the Global Partnership goal, means the situation is in no place to improve. The responsibility of this disaster should be placed on the countries whose histories created it and whose present has the means to solve it.
