Global Sustainable Development priorities 500 y after Luther: Sola schola et sanitate

Significance In 2015, all countries of the world agreed to an ambitious set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals, including 169 specific targets. Whether these goals will be achieved and lead to the desired sustainability transition will depend on the degree to which they can energize and mobilize policy makers, donors, nongovernmental organizations, private industry, and the public. There is a fear that this rather technocratic set of 169 overlapping and partly contradictory targets lacks the sense of clear priority that is needed. This paper proposes a clear priority focus on human capital (education and health) as a root cause of development that, together with maintaining natural capital, is prerequisite for all other Sustainable Development Goals, offering a vision for an achievable and sustainable future.