The SDG Target Selector™ - A Closer Look
What are your options?
The SDG Target Selector™ gives you a simple way to match your institution to one SDG Target, using themes, filters, and ready-made snapshots.
Thirteen controls.Five targets. Under a minute.
The Selector reads all 169 targets against thirteen things you tell it about your organisation, then returns the five you are best placed to carry. Each control is a statement about your real situation, so the answer narrows as you go.
Part one
The thirteen controls
Nothing here asks you to be aspirational. Every control asks what is true today: who you are, what you have, what is in your way, and how fast you need to see something. The tool works with the answer you give it rather than the answer you would prefer to give.
Three of the thirteen run deeper than the rest. Available Resources, Impact Preference and Constraints and Barriers each carry thirty identifiers, so the options shown on those cards are examples rather than the full list.
Choose what kind of targets you want the tool to prioritise.
Sets the overall direction of the recommendations.
Choose which SDG theme matters most to you.
Filters targets that match your core mission.
Set how strict or loose the filter should be.
Strict mode narrows your results. Loose mode widens them.
Tell the tool who you are.
Removes targets unsuitable for your sector.
Choose the most realistic resource you have today.
Matches the recommendations to the capability you can actually draw on.
Select the type of impact you care about most.
Narrows the results towards the kind of outcome you most want to produce.
Identify your biggest obstacle.
Removes targets that cannot succeed under that constraint.
Select the level of difficulty you are willing to take on.
Keeps the recommendations inside your capacity.
Decide how quickly you need results.
Short-term targets offer immediate progress. Long-term targets shape system change.
Choose how measurable you want your target to be.
Removes targets that do not match your monitoring needs.
Select the level of cost you are prepared to manage.
Keeps your top five financially realistic.
Choose how widely you want to expand your work.
Useful for organisations that need replicable actions.
Decide whether to include harder, low-feasibility blindspot targets.
Choose Blindspots only when exploring system-level or high-impact reforms.
Part two
What happens next
Once all thirteen controls are set, the Selector analyses the SDG Target Matrix and produces your Top Five SDG Targets, ranked from one to five. These are the most suitable options based on your choices, so a different set of answers produces a different five.
The output is five targets, not one hundred and sixty-nine. That is the entire point of the instrument.
Each of the five opens into a Target Impact Snapshot. There are 163 of them covering all 169 targets, the last one grouping 17.13 to 17.19 together. Every snapshot carries the same five sections, and none of them runs longer than a page.
The commitment in plain English, stripped of treaty language. Two or three sentences, no more.
Six or seven concrete actions, split across two audience tracks so nobody reads advice written for somebody else.
One countable measure, usually a percentage of the people you already have on your books. If you cannot produce the number, you have not done the target.
The scale of the problem you are stepping into, in one line. This is the section that answers why this target and not an easier one.
A single question, aimed at your own situation rather than the world’s. Harder to answer than it looks.
The two tracks inside What You Can Do are the same audiences you set at control 04, so the answer you gave the Selector decides which half of the snapshot is written for you.
For SMEs and NGO Teams
Actions that sit inside employment terms, procurement, benefits and community spend. Things a business or a small organisation controls directly.
For Schools, Colleges, Universities and Youth Ambassadors
Actions that sit inside curriculum, pastoral support, partnerships and student projects. Things an education setting controls directly.
Worked example · one snapshot in full
Eradicate Extreme Poverty
End the most severe poverty, where people live on less than $2.15 a day, ensuring everyone can meet basic needs like food, housing and healthcare.
For SMEs and NGO Teams
- Pay living wages, not just minimum wage
- Hire locally in underserved areas
- Offer emergency wage advances or micro-loans
- Support charities tackling homelessness or hunger
For Schools, Colleges, Universities and Youth Ambassadors
- Teach what extreme poverty means using relatable examples
- Run school-supported fundraising for local aid programmes
- Create empathy-based workshops and storytelling exercises
Percentage of staff, learners or families above the extreme poverty threshold.
Extreme poverty traps over 600 million people, many already working full-time.
Who in your community is closest to this line, and how could you shift just one life?
Part three
What you can do with it
The same five results serve several different jobs, because the thing that was missing was never information about the SDGs. It was a defensible reason to pick one.
Find one target that matches your aim and your resources, instead of adopting a goal and hoping.
Narrow by urgency, feasibility or blindspot awareness, depending on which question you are actually facing.
Align the result with ESG and CSRD reporting or with institutional planning cycles.
Set up monthly SDG activation challenges for a team, a cohort or a whole institution.
Connect the action to badge credentials and portfolios, so what you did leaves a record.
Part four
Questions
What is an SDG Primary Theme?
It is one of eight major focus areas that help you navigate and sort all 169 SDG targets. Each target is aligned to one of these themes to make action more strategic.
Do I need to apply filters after choosing a theme?
No, though you can. Filters help narrow your choices based on feasibility, cost and context.
What is Blindspots Mode?
It shows you under-addressed SDG targets, which is useful for equity-driven work or for reaching beyond the obvious.
Is this just for educators?
Not at all. The toolkit is used by community leaders, businesses, students and NGOs around the world.
169to1 is independent of the United Nations. Target numbering is reproduced for reference. The thirteen control categories, the SDG Target Matrix, all plain-English target renderings, sample actions, performance indicators and reflections are 169to1’s own editorial work and carry no UN endorsement.
© 2026 169to1® – Originally developed by Hudson Consultancy Online. Licensed for internal use. Redistribution or resale prohibited.
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