South Korea: SDGs win elections

South Korean society is currently experiencing rising economic inequality, against which Government policy has done nothing to stop. The current regime and the ruling party are distancing themselves from the implementation of the SDGs that relate to economic inequality and democracy. Instead, new laws make it easy for chaebol (mega corporations) to accumulate wealth, while weakening fundamental consumer rights and protections and the new Anti-terrorism Act, adopted in March 2016 includes provisions threatening democracy.
Before the legislative election on 13 April 2016, SDG-related policies were included in the manifestos of all three opposition parties. Collectively these parties won more seats than the ruling party, which means that national level implementation of the SDGs might be on the parliamentary agenda in the near future.

Source: South Korea National Report, Social Watch Report 2016.