Never More Urgent: A Preliminary Review of How the U.S. is Leaving Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous Communities Behind

This report examines how well the United States, and US states in particular, serve communities of color by using the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a tool for evaluating performance.  

SDSN USA is pleased to share their newest project in conjunction with the National Center for Faith Based Initiatives and Howard University: Never More Urgent: A Preliminary Review of How the U.S. is Leaving Black, Hispanic and Indigenous Communities Behind. This report examines how well the United States, and US states in particular, serve communities of color by using the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a tool for evaluating performance. In doing so we affirm the potential of these communities as a driver for sustainable development, through the specific contributions that they can make throughout society.
Using the SDGs, the report evaluates gaps in how well Black, Hispanic and Indigenous communities are served compared with how well white communities are served. We used disaggregated data from 37 topics across ten Goals to find the biggest disparities, and found they were spread across five main areas: Justice, Food and Housing Security, Education, Economic Security, and Health. These indicators and others will contribute to a forthcoming racially disaggregated data dashboard depicting how well the US delivers the SDGs to these communities.

This report has been produced at the request of the National Center for Faith Based Initiatives (NCFBI) via a collaboration between researchers from SDSN USA (Alainna Lynch and Caroline Fox), and Howard University (Dr. Helen Bond and Dr. Clarence Lusane) with Earl Hamilton (NCFBI).