‘Leave no one behind’ is a principle central to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This policy briefing, based on five years’ research by the PRISE project, puts forward the view that governments, development partners and investors must prioritise investments to tackle poverty and climate vulnerability in dryland areas to ensure that no one is left behind and achieve multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The briefing adds that public policies and investments by national governments and development partners which recognise the seasonality, mobility and informality of dryland economies as strengths, and create an enabling environment for private actors in these regions, hold real potential to spur progress towards sustainable achievement of the SDGs, leave no one behind and the global goals on climate adaptation.