As 2026 begins, many of us have been taking stock of the year behind us and setting intentions for the one ahead.

For the world’s poorest, this was the year when the United Nations’ over-ambitious plan to solve every pressing global problem fell apart.

We should vow to be smarter, and do better, this year.

Back in 2015, the UN set sweeping targets to eradicate poverty, hunger, disease, inequality, climate threats and even conflict by 2030 with its 169 Sustainable Development Goals. 

Governments worldwide essentially promised every good thing imaginable, including organic apples and community gardens for everyone.

But when everything is a priority, nothing is. With 169 targets, it’s no surprise that progress toward many important goals has slipped. 

The latest scorecard shows only 18% of UN targets are on track, while one-third are stalled or going backward. 

Nations and aid organizations lack resources to fund this overambitious wish list.

The total shortfall to achieve all goals is likely a spectacular $10 trillion to $15 trillion each year.

Meanwhile, wealthier countries — grappling with serious geopolitical tensions — have slashed aid budgets.

After a 9% cut in 2024, the total drop in 2025 will likely end up as another 9% to 17% drop, cutting help for the neediest nations by as much as a quarter in two years.

Worse, the world’s big development banks are funneling over $85 billion of their scarce funds into trendy climate virtue-signaling initiatives, starving real basics like health and education.

The harsh reality heading into 2026: There are even fewer bucks to make a real difference.

We can’t keep pretending we’ll fix 169 pie-in-the-sky promises at once, and we can’t afford to keep wasting money on feel-good climate projects instead of the most urgent challenges facing the world’s worst-off.

Yet we can do immense good with what we have.

My think tank, the Copenhagen Consensus, has spent years working with more than 100 top economists and several Nobel laureates to answer a simple question: Given money is tight, where can each scarce dollar do the most good?

Our peer-reviewed research, available free and published with Cambridge University Press, points to 12 phenomenal policies that deliver astonishing returns.

Take nutrition. While more than 8% of the global population remains undernourished, we know helping children in the first 1,000 days of their lives — in the womb and in their first years — can do phenomenal good for little money.

For about $2.50, we can supply mothers with multiple micronutrient supplements across their pregnancy.

This will help avoid the baby becoming stunted and reduce irreversible cognitive damage, making the child more likely to become stronger, smarter and more productive in adult life.

Research shows every dollar delivers around $40 in lifetime economic benefits — better than most policies today.

Or consider the learning crisis, where research has identified simple, proven fixes.

Putting children in front of cheap tablets with educational software one hour a day can help each pupil learn at their own level and speed.

Structured plans for every class can help teachers teach better.

These policies cost just $10 to $30 per child per year, but they can double or triple a school’s overall efficiency.

In an era of shrinking education budgets, these interventions return $65 to $80 per dollar invested.

Instead of condemning another generation to illiteracy and low productivity, these solutions offer hope.

The fight against tuberculosis and malaria is losing momentum. Yet scaling up diagnoses, six-month TB treatment courses and insecticide-treated bed nets are among the very best buys in global health, delivering $46 to $48 of social benefits for every dollar spent.

Altogether, our 12 policies would cost about $35 billion a year — chicken feed compared to the more than $10 trillion needed to deliver the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

That $35 billion would save 4 million lives annually and provide benefits to the bottom half of the world worth a trillion bucks — generating jobs, stability and a safer planet.

That’s a bang for the buck worth more than $50 per dollar.

The UN and national governments need to ditch their fanciful Sustainable Development Goal wish list and focus on these winning strategies first.

Philanthropists — and the rest of us — can direct support toward charities making a meaningful impact in these 12 areas through practical solutions like bed nets, vitamins, TB cures and improved teaching.

This would deliver 100 times more bang for the buck than feel-good, do-nothing policies.

Spend smart and save lives. That’s the message that can set the tone for the new year and make a real difference for those who need it most.

Bjorn Lomborg is president of the Copenhagen Consensus, visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and author of “Best Things First.”