Only 15% of UN Sustainable Development Goal targets are on track and IRC report finds that countries affected by conflict are falling furthest behind.
Poverty is concentrated in conflict zones. More than a third of the world’s poor and a quarter of its malnourished children live in the 20 countries on the IRC’s Emergency Watchlist.
IRC calls for a new global framework built around conflict, with crisis financing committed upfront.
As part of this, the EU must ensure that its response to conflict and fragility drives its external financing architecture.
Brussels, Belgium, 22 September 2026 — As EU leaders gather in New York for the UN General Assembly, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) warns that the institution’s goals to end poverty, hunger and disease are failing– because they were not built for an era of sustained conflict.
The warning comes amid a worsening Ebola outbreak, escalating conflict in Yemen, disrupted Black Sea grain exports, and a food and fertilizer crisis tied to the Strait of Hormuz — set against a world experiencing more active conflicts than at any point since World War II.
It also arrives at a pivotal moment for the European Union, with negotiations underway on the next EU long-term budget (2028–2034) and on a new Global Europe instrument that would combine humanitarian and development aid.
“Conflict and fragility determine whether any development goal succeeds or fails," said David Miliband, IRC President and CEO. "The human cost is catastrophic human suffering that could have been prevented. The task now is to use the four years we have left before the 2030 deadline to make progress, prove what works, and design the next set of goals around the reality of conflict from day one — not as an afterthought. If the goals work in the world's hardest places, they can work anywhere."
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by UN member states in 2015, set a 2030 deadline to end extreme poverty, hunger and preventable disease worldwide. A new IRC report, Global Goals for a World in Conflict, finds that progress towards those goals is falling behind in countries affected by conflict. Only 15% of SDG targets are on track or met.
Conflict undermines the systems that development goals depend on, cuts off humanitarian access to the people who need it most, and drives displacement that severs families from healthcare, schools and jobs.
"As the EU works to advance prosperity and sustainable development by 2030 and beyond, it must rise to the moment: conflict and fragility response should be a key driver of its external financing instruments in the next multi-year EU budget, turning the promise of ending poverty into real action," added Marta Welander, EU Advocacy Director.
Conflict-affected countries rank the lowest in progress towards the SDGs. More than half of the world’s extreme poor will live in the 20 countries of the IRC’s Emergency Watchlist by 2030. Almost a quarter of the world’s acutely malnourished children live in those countries, where the average wasting rate is more than twice that of other countries. As of 2021, armed conflict slowed global progress toward the SDGs by the equivalent of 18 years, and many fragile and conflict-affected states now sit at the bottom of the SDG index.
This is solvable. First by investing now in what’s already proven to work in crises: cash assistance that helps families survive and rebuild, a simplified approach to malnutrition treatment that cuts costs by 20%, and flexible education models that could reach 5 million children by 2030 for as little as $4 each. Where governments can’t or won’t reach their own people, humanitarian groups and local organizations are already filling the gap–but the current system isn’t built to fund them properly.
Second, the IRC is calling for a new post-2030 framework that puts conflict at the center. This framework goes hand in hand with the EU's commitment to an efficient multilateral system, a stronger global peace architecture, and efforts to advance prosperity in fragile and conflict-affected states.
IRC’s report lays out proposed targets for 2035 including:
- Halve extreme poverty among people affected by fragility, conflict, displacement and crisis, including by extending social protection and humanitarian cash assistance.
- Reach 80% of children suffering from acute malnutrition in fragile and conflict settings with effective treatment.
- Close the immunization gap for children in conflict zones by raising coverage of DPT3 (diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis vaccine) to match national averages.
- Enable children to continue learning through war and displacement, whether in classrooms, informal community spaces or remotely.
- Give women and girls affected by conflict a voice in decisions that shape their lives.
- Substantially reduce attacks on hospitals and health care workers.
