The governments of the world have just announced through the United Nations their new Global Goals – a set of ambitions we can all support, including ending extreme poverty and achieving gender equality by 2030. It will require action by all of us-governments, civil society, and business, to transform our world and reach these goals. But how much work really needs to get done?

Global Citizen has just launched our new ‘People’s Report Card’ which gives the world its first grade on the Global Goals. As of 2015, we only score a C-. To achieve the Global Goals, and for the countries of the world to honor their new commitments, humanity needs to get the world to an A by 2030.

How did the world end up with just a C- grade?

This TED Talk of Michael Green, creator of the Social Progress Index can help explain.

Global Citizen teamed up with the creators of the Social Progress Index to look at thousands of pieces of data on how we’re doing right now on issues that matter in our day-to-day lives, and how far the world has to go to meet the Global Goals. For example, Global Goal 6 says that by 2030 we should achieve “adequate and equitable sanitation for all.” So Global Citizen and Social Progress Index compared the goal of universal access to how well the world is doing on things like people being able to find toilets to use.

To meet Global Goal 3: Good health and well being, the world needs to significantly reduce “maternal mortality.” So Social Progress Index compared the goal of only losing 70 mothers per 100,000 live births to how many women needlessly die each year trying to bring new life into the world. And boiled that information down into three indicators that show how quickly we are moving to meet the goals of being safe, free, and healthy – and it’s C’s across the board. (Full details of the methodology are available on the Social Progress Imperative website here.) Also check out Social Progress Imperative on YouTube here for more information on the importance of the Social Progress Index.

This is not just a one-off, something that Global Citizen is launching today and forgetting about tomorrow. This is just the beginning. Our plan is to launch People’s Report Cards for every country we can in 2016. When the United Nations refines its specific indicators for the Global Goals in March 2016, the People’s Report Card will be refined along with it.

Because it's one thing to know how the world is doing as a global community, but it’s at the national level that governments, businesses and community groups need to know how they are performing. As citizens of different countries and as global citizens, we all need a guide to help us focus on the areas where we are falling short.

Here at Global Citizen we’re all passionate about this project and we’re committed to ensuring that everyone can find out exactly how the world and their country is doing and how much more progress is needed to get us from today’s C- to that A grade. Any student and any parent will realize that the hard work for all global citizens starts now.

Go to TAKE ACTION NOW and Tweet now to share the People's Report Card, and spread the word: we can and must do better.