United Nation goal: SDG 1 The goal of "End poverty in all its forms everywhere" aims to eliminate absolute poverty and diminish relative poverty by implementing social safety nets, ensuring access to basic services, and bolstering resilience to disasters.

Impact ranking goal: Around 10% of the global population currently resides in extreme poverty, lacking fundamental necessities such as food, healthcare, education, and access to clean water and sanitation. It's imperative for universities to showcase their efforts in combating this issue through their initiatives. As pivotal employers and economic centers, universities play a direct role in poverty reduction within their communities. By providing quality education to individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, they contribute to breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty. (Impact Ranking Methodology: SDG1)

National Agenda: The primary objective of improving the quality of life in Azerbaijan involves enhancing citizens' well-being and elevating their living standards. This can be accomplished by addressing poverty comprehensively, eradicating hunger, establishing a robust social protection system, ensuring accessible and high-quality education and healthcare services, providing essential infrastructure, enhancing cultural development, managing population growth, enriching cultural life, and advancing digital infrastructure. (Azerbaijan 2030: National Priorities for socio-economic development)

United Nation goal: SDG 2 Addressing the goal of 'Ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture' centers on enhancing agriculture production and efficiency, ensuring food and nutritional security, implementing climate-resilient agricultural practices, bolstering livestock resilience, and safeguarding the well-being and livelihoods of farmers.

Impact ranking goal: Sustainable development hinges on the capacity to feed the global population adequately. By effectively managing agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, we can furnish nourishing sustenance for everyone while fostering rural development with a focus on empowering individuals. Universities are urged to showcase their contributions toward eradicating hunger, ensuring food security, enhancing nutrition, and advancing sustainable agricultural practices. (Impact Ranking Methodology: SDG2)

National Agenda: Enhancing the quality of life and elevating the standard of living for Azerbaijani citizens entails various measures. These include combating poverty comprehensively, eradicating hunger, establishing an integrated social protection system, ensuring accessible and high-quality education and healthcare services, providing essential utilities, upgrading infrastructure, enriching cultural life, managing population growth, and advancing digital infrastructure. (Azerbaijan 2030: National Priorities for socio-economic development)

United Nation goal: SDG 3 “Promoting healthy lives and well-being for individuals of all ages entails” preventing diseases and avoidable deaths while enhancing overall health and welfare. This involves enhancing access to healthcare services, advocating for healthy lifestyles, and ensuring a safe and health-supportive environment for everyone.

Impact ranking goal: The pursuit of healthy lives and well-being across all age groups is fundamental to sustainable development. There is an immediate imperative to eradicate a diverse range of diseases and tackle persistent as well as emerging health challenges. We are investigating how universities address specific health conditions and diseases, and how they support their communities. (Impact Ranking Methodology: SDG3)

National Agenda: Enhancing the quality of life and raising the standard of living for Azerbaijani citizens is paramount. This can be achieved through poverty reduction, hunger eradication, implementing comprehensive social protection systems, providing accessible and high-quality education and healthcare services, ensuring access to basic amenities, enhancing infrastructure, enriching cultural life, managing population growth, and advancing digital infrastructure development. (Azerbaijan 2030: National Priorities for socio-economic development)

United Nation goal: SDG 4 'Promoting inclusive and equitable quality education and fostering lifelong learning opportunities for all' centers on enhancing access to education at all levels while ensuring its excellence and its pivotal role in educating future generations about sustainable development and climate change.

Impact ranking goal: Universities should excel in providing high-quality education, serving as crucial pathways to diminish various forms of inequality, particularly those persisting across generations. Beyond enhancing quality of life, inclusive education access can empower individuals to devise innovative solutions to global challenges. SDG 4 emphasizes early childhood education and lifelong learning. We are examining how universities can support early education and lifelong learning, thereby contributing to national progress by ensuring equal access to their resources. (Impact Ranking Methodology: SDG4)

National Agenda: Enhancing the quality of life and elevating the standard of living for Azerbaijani citizens can be achieved through various measures. These include reducing poverty in all its manifestations, eradicating hunger, establishing comprehensive social protection systems, ensuring accessible and high-quality education and healthcare services, providing essential amenities, upgrading infrastructure, enhancing cultural vitality, managing population growth, and advancing digital infrastructure development. (Azerbaijan 2030: National Priorities for socio-economic development)

United Nation goal: SDG 5 The goal of "Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls" is centered around empowering women while also addressing harmful practices and discrimination that hinder gender equality.

Impact ranking goal: Women and girls face discrimination and violence globally, highlighting the urgent need for gender equality as a fundamental human right essential for a peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable world. Equal access to education is crucial in achieving gender equality, but universities also play a significant role in advancing gender equality within their communities. This exploration focuses on how universities are facilitating access and supporting the academic progression of women. (Impact Ranking Methodology: SDG5)

National Agenda: On the national level, there is an agenda aimed at achieving justice through equal rights and opportunities, allocating resources across all regions, rural and urban alike, promoting financial inclusion, empowering women, youth, and individuals with special needs, fostering participation in national development, and strengthening loyalty and a sense of belonging to Azerbaijani identity. (Azerbaijan 2030: National Priorities for socio-economic development)

United Nation goal: SDG 6 The goal of "Ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all" centers on optimizing resource usage, effective water governance, managing water across borders, and providing adequate sanitation services.

Impact ranking goal: Without water, human survival is impossible. Water sustains our agriculture and aquaculture industries. Access to clean water is crucial for our well-being. Unfortunately, millions of people, including children, lose their lives annually due to diseases linked to insufficient water supply, sanitation, and hygiene, often exacerbated by economic challenges or inadequate infrastructure. We are examining how universities can contribute to ensuring universal access to water and sanitation for all. (Impact Ranking Methodology: SDG6)

National Agenda: The Government of Azerbaijan places a high priority on security in its comprehensive sense at the national and regional levels as an imperative necessity to achieve and maintain sustainable development. This includes ensuring food and water security, sustainable energy security, political, economic, social and environmental stability, information (cyber) security, securing borders, and combating terrorism and organized crime. (Azerbaijan 2030: National Priorities for socio-economic development)

United Nation goal: SDG 7 The goal of "Ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all" underscores the fundamental importance of energy as a central pillar of sustainable development.

Impact ranking goal: After water and food, energy stands as one of the primary facilitators of human existence. It plays a central role in addressing almost every significant challenge and opportunity confronting the world today. Universal access to energy is indispensable. However, for future development to be viable, energy must be accessible and affordable to all. Furthermore, it must be environmentally sustainable to ensure that progress is lasting. We are investigating how universities advance and advocate for clean energy, both through research, outreach efforts, and also by exemplifying responsible behavior and usage in their own operations. (Impact Ranking Methodology: SDG7)

National Agenda: We aim to harmonize development and environmental preservation by responsibly managing resources, ensuring the rights of future generations, and fostering a safer and more sustainable future. This involves addressing the impacts of climate change, bolstering the resilience of environmental systems, mitigating risks and natural disasters, promoting the use of renewable energy, and embracing responsible consumption and sustainable production practices. (Azerbaijan 2030: National Priorities for socio-economic development)

United Nation goal: SDG 8 The objective of "Promoting sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all" centers on attaining economic growth, enhancing productivity, and ensuring comprehensive and equitable employment opportunities. Moreover, it emphasizes the imperative of decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation.

Impact ranking goal: Access to decent work in safe and stable conditions is essential for lifting people out of poverty, reducing hunger, and improving health outcomes. However, the emergence of precarious employment, modern slavery, and uneven economic growth pose significant challenges to achieving a sustainable future. Universities, as both employers and educators, have the potential to lead the way in addressing these issues. They can set examples as employers, educate for future needs, and innovate fairer employment practices. We are investigating how universities are meeting these expectations. (Impact Ranking Methodology: SDG8)

National Agenda: Azerbaijan is actively pursuing knowledge-based economic growth and digital transformation to bolster the flexibility and competitiveness of its economy. Efforts are underway to elevate employment rates and create more decent job opportunities while enhancing the business environment and fostering an entrepreneurial culture. Additionally, the country is striving for financial inclusion and integrating environmental and social considerations into its economic development agenda. (Azerbaijan 2030: National Priorities for socio-economic development)

United Nation goal: SDG 9 The goal of "Building resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and fostering innovation" is to develop robust and efficient infrastructures and industries while also encouraging innovation.

Impact ranking goal: Investments in infrastructure such as transportation, irrigation, energy, and information and communication technology are pivotal for achieving sustainable development and empowering communities across numerous countries. We are investigating how universities contribute to innovation through their collaborations with industries. (Impact Ranking Methodology: SDG9)

National Agenda: Azerbaijan regards knowledge, innovation, and scientific research as essential cornerstones of development. The country invests in its people, fosters their creative abilities, promotes innovation, disseminates its cultural heritage, supports scientific research, and integrates it with education and development efforts. (Azerbaijan 2030: National Priorities for socio-economic development)

United Nation goal: SDG 10 The objective of "Reducing inequality within and among countries" centers on promoting social, economic, and political inclusion for all individuals, addressing structural factors that perpetuate inequalities, and tackling disparities at various levels, including between nations.

Impact ranking goal: Equality serves as a fundamental principle across all aspects of sustainability for the successful realization of the SDGs. While SDG 5 addresses this through the lens of gender, SDG 10 takes a more comprehensive approach by examining the intersectionality of disadvantage. This disadvantage permeates through all other critical issues highlighted by the SDGs. Marginalized groups are not only less likely to benefit from progress but also disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change. We are investigating how universities are addressing inequalities, including those related to economics, health, and international disparities. (Impact Ranking Methodology: SDG10)

National Agenda: The national agenda aims to attain justice through ensuring equality in rights and opportunities for all citizens. This involves distributing resources equitably across all geographical regions, including both rural and urban areas, promoting financial inclusion, empowering women, youth, and individuals with special needs, encouraging the participation of all in the country's development, and fostering a sense of loyalty and belonging to Azerbaijani identity. (Azerbaijan 2030: National Priorities for socio-economic development)

Special privileges for socially vulnerable students and individuals with disabilities at ASOIU

United Nation goal: SDG 11 The goal of "Making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable" aims to enhance the sustainability of urbanization, improve living standards for urban residents, and mitigate the negative impact of cities on the climate.

Impact ranking goal: Cities and communities must prioritize sustainability as the world's population increasingly resides in urban centers, where many universities are also located. While cities offer tremendous potential for innovation and opportunity, they can also harbor significant poverty and inequality. It's crucial for universities to foster a positive interaction with their surrounding communities, both urban and rural, ensuring a lasting impact for generations to come. Additionally, we are investigating how universities serve as guardians of heritage and the environment within their communities, recognizing that sustainable communities require access to their history and culture to flourish. (Impact Ranking Methodology: SDG11)

National Agenda: Enhancing the quality of life and raising the standard of living for Azerbaijani citizens requires comprehensive measures, including poverty reduction, eradication of hunger, establishment of an integrated social protection system, accessibility and enhancement of education and healthcare services, provision of basic amenities, infrastructure development, cultural enrichment, population control, and advancement of digital infrastructure. (Azerbaijan 2030: National Priorities for socio-economic development)

United Nation goal: SDG 12 The goal of "Ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns" is to enhance both production and consumption processes to safeguard natural resources efficiently across all sectors.

Impact ranking goal: A significant portion of the global economy revolves around producing goods for consumption, serving as the driving force behind industrial growth. However, for sustainable development to be achieved, it's crucial to adopt responsible practices at both ends of this cycle. This entails promoting resource and energy efficiency, establishing sustainable infrastructure, and ensuring universal access to basic services. We are investigating how universities are contributing to the efficient use of resources and waste minimization efforts. (Impact Ranking Methodology: SDG12)

National Agenda: Our aim is to harmonize development and environmental preservation by utilizing resources judiciously, thereby safeguarding the rights of future generations and ensuring a safer and more sustainable future. This involves addressing the challenges posed by climate change, bolstering the resilience of environmental systems, mitigating risks associated with natural disasters, promoting the use of renewable energy sources, and embracing responsible consumption and sustainable production practices. (Azerbaijan 2030: National Priorities for socio-economic development)

United Nation goal: SDG 13 "Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts" stands as the sole Sustainable Development Goal directly targeted at addressing climate change. However, it's essential to recognize that climate change issues permeate throughout the entire 2030 Agenda.

Impact ranking goal: Climate change poses a crisis that will impact all facets of society and every nation. Universities play a crucial role in leading efforts to mitigate the impact of climate change, particularly among the most vulnerable populations who will bear the brunt of its effects. We are documenting how universities are taking action to address climate issues through research, adopting low-carbon practices, and incorporating climate education into their programs. (Impact Ranking Methodology: SDG13)

National Agenda: Our objective is to safeguard both development and the environment through the responsible utilization of resources, ensuring the rights of future generations for a safer and more sustainable future. This entails addressing the impacts of climate change, bolstering the adaptability of environmental systems, improving resilience against risks and natural disasters, increasing the utilization of renewable energy sources, and embracing responsible consumption and sustainable production practices. (Azerbaijan 2030: National Priorities for socio-economic development)

United Nation goal: SDG 14 The goal of "Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development" emphasizes the conservation, management, and protection of marine and coastal ecosystems, as well as enhancing the resilience of coastal communities.

Impact ranking goal: The two Sustainable Development Goals that address the broader ecosystem are divided into "Life Below Water" and "Life on Land." The oceans, along with rivers and watersheds connected to them, constitute the largest part of our ecosystem. With 40% of the world's population residing within 100 kilometers of the coast, we all rely on the sea, either directly or indirectly. We are documenting how universities are actively engaged in protecting and enhancing aquatic ecosystems, including lakes, ponds, streams, wetlands, rivers, estuaries, and the open ocean. (Impact Ranking Methodology: SDG14)

National Agenda: Our goal is to ensure the preservation of both development and the environment through the responsible management of resources, thus safeguarding the rights of future generations for a safer and more sustainable future. This entails addressing the impacts of climate change, strengthening the adaptability of environmental systems, enhancing resilience against risks and natural disasters, promoting reliance on renewable energy sources, and embracing responsible consumption and sustainable production practices. (Azerbaijan 2030: National Priorities for socio-economic development)

United Nation goal: SDG 15 The objective of "Protect, restore, and promote the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, and halt biodiversity loss" is to advocate for the preservation, restoration, and responsible utilization of terrestrial ecosystems.

Impact ranking goal: This marks the second of two Sustainable Development Goals that address the broader ecosystem, complementing SDG 14: Life Below Water. Preserving life on land is imperative as it is a valuable resource that we must ensure is passed on to future generations, especially given the growing concern over biodiversity loss. While universities may oversee diverse landscapes and the life within them, they all share a responsibility as stewards of their environment. We are investigating how universities contribute to the sustainable management of forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, and halt biodiversity loss. (Impact Ranking Methodology: SDG15)

National Agenda: Our goal is to ensure the preservation of both development and the environment through the prudent utilization of resources, thereby safeguarding the rights of future generations for a safer and more sustainable future. This is accomplished by addressing the impacts of climate change, bolstering the adaptability of environmental systems, enhancing resilience against risks and natural disasters, promoting reliance on renewable energy sources, and embracing responsible consumption and sustainable production practices. (Azerbaijan 2030: National Priorities for socio-economic development)

United Nation goal: SDG 16 The goal of "Promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, providing access to justice for all, and building effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels" centers on enhancing institutions and governance to safeguard the rights of individuals.

Impact ranking goal: SDG 16 and 17 delve into the foundational elements required to achieve the other SDGs. Peace and justice are interdependent and crucial for fostering equity among individuals and nations. Strong institutions are essential for maintaining focus on SDG delivery, spanning from addressing individual injustices like eradicating modern slavery and human trafficking, to ensuring countries are equipped with the necessary evidence to respond effectively to crises. We are examining how universities can serve as and support strong institutions within their countries, promoting peace and justice. This involves exploring universities' research in law and international relations, their advisory roles in government, and their policies regarding academic freedom. (Impact Ranking Methodology: SDG16)

National Agenda: The governance of institutions in Azerbaijan prioritizes efficiency and effectiveness across governmental, private, and civil sectors. Azerbaijan's vision for the future emphasizes placing institutional governance, adherence to laws, rules, and procedures under the rule of law and an institutional framework. This is seen as essential for achieving transparency, accountability, and combating corruption. (Azerbaijan 2030: National Priorities for socio-economic development)

United Nation goal: SDG 17 The goal of "Strengthening the means of implementation and revitalizing the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development" focuses on enhancing the mechanisms for implementing the Sustainable Development Goals, with particular emphasis on fostering global partnerships to advance sustainable development.

Impact ranking goal: Sustainable development is a shared responsibility that involves every sector of society worldwide. Achieving it requires interconnectedness not only among the various Sustainable Development Goals but also among institutions, governments, businesses, NGOs, and individuals. We are examining how universities contribute to the SDGs by collaborating with other countries, promoting best practices, and disseminating data and evidence. Without collaborative efforts from all stakeholders, the SDGs cannot be achieved. Additionally, SDG 17 is the only mandatory SDG for inclusion in overall rankings, although it contributes a smaller proportion to the final score in the overall table. (Impact Ranking Methodology: SDG17)

National Agenda: Following the achievement of stability restoration, strengthening Azerbaijan's position and leadership at regional and international levels has become imperative to drive comprehensive development forward. This objective is pursued through various mechanisms, including supporting and bolstering partnerships regionally and internationally. (Azerbaijan 2030: National Priorities for socio-economic development)