Governing through Goals

A revised version of this working paper has been published as: Biermann, Frank. 2012. Greening the United Nations Charter: World Politics in the Anthropocene. Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development. May / June 2012. A constitutional turn is needed to bring the UN system in line with the urgent needs of planetary stewardship and earth system governance in the 21st century. Yet how this could be organized in practice remains a challenge and subject to political and scholarly debate. This paper contributes to this debate by outlining four reforms of the UN system that would advance global decision-making by addressing major shortcomings in the current system: Lack of integration of economic and environmental policies in the UN system; institutional fragmentation and weakness of the environmental pillar of sustainable development; lack of high-level regulatory competence and oversight regarding areas beyond national jurisdiction; and insufficient integration of scientific insights into political decision-making. The reforms proposed would together create an Earth Alliance in the UN system, consisting of a high-level UN Sustainable Development Council, a World Environment Organization, a UN Trusteeship Council for Areas beyond National Jurisdiction, and an UN Global Environmental Assessment Commission.

Women are the key to sustainable development

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals Requires Transdisciplinary Innovation at the Local Scale

The authors examined the document resulting from the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), known as Rio+20, that was held in June 2012. They analyzed the role of green economy in the process of development and poverty eradication and the requirements for balanced governance of the environmental, economic, and social dimensions. The final document from the UNCSD, which is titled “The Future We Want”, advocates an inclusive multilateral system. It also proposes establishing a high-level intergovernmental political forum from the Commission on Sustainable Development and strengthening the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), highlighting the need for a broad participation of the programs, funds, and agencies from the United Nations, including financial institutions. The document recognizes health as a precondition and the result of the three dimensions of sustainable development, and it highlights the importance of setting coherent goals that are integrated with the post-2015 UN Development Agenda and the three health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The member states insisted on fulfilling the commitments related to the Official Development Assistance (ODA), including dedicating 0.7% of the gross domestic product (GDP) from developed countries to support developing countries. These member states emphasize the possibility of obtaining additional resources through the South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation as an expression of solidarity between countries. They also highlight the importance of flexibility in the TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement to better use the technology needed for development. Finally, the member states approved the establishment of a working group (WG) to develop a proposal for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which will be incorporated into the post-2015 development agenda and should have technical support from all UN agencies (World Bank [WB], the International Monetary Fund [IMF], and the World Trade Organization [WTO], including social agencies such as the World Health Organization [WHO], among others). The result of this effort will be presented to the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in 2013, which allows time to influence the formulation of the post-2015 MDGs and to improve human health conditions, in particular.

At the 70th Summit of UN in September 2015, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with 17 goals and 169 targets at its core called Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was adopted by the 193 Member states. Further to that, an initial set of 232 global indicators was adopted by the UN General Assembly in July 2017. The 2030 Agenda provided flexibility to the countries to evolve their own set of indicators relevant in the local circumstances to complement global set of indicators. In India, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) is tasked with the responsibility regarding national indicators, while NITI Aayog oversees the implementation of SDGs. MoSPI had evolved a draft set of national indicators and placed it in the public domain, which has since been finalized and comprises of 306 indicators which is larger than even the huge 232 global indicator set approved by the UN General Assembly in July 2017. Management of a large number of indicators poses a challenge due to its associated cost of collection, processing and dissemination of data. As per the estimates arrived at by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), there will be a requirement of USD 1 billion per annum to make the national statistical systems of IDA-eligible countries capable of monitoring the SDGs. This paper proposes a set of 50 indicators, which are mainly outcome/output based indicators, named as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), to capture the essence and to effectively monitor and facilitate timely achievement of SDGs and associated targets.

The Lancet NCDI Poverty Commission: bridging a gap in universal health coverage for the poorest billion

The current education system is still «teaching» society the tasks and goals of sustainable development on a small and insufficient scale. However, the official program document (Resolution) of the UN General Assembly formulates an appropriate global strategy «Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development». Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the key areas for implementing this global integrated multi-level strategy for social, governmental and institutional sustainable development. Education is one of the crucial prerequisites for the implementation of the UN global strategy «Agenda 2030». Therefore, education has a key role to play in seeing a just, peaceful and sustainable society (both global, continental, regional and national). International and European integrated strategy for sustainable social development «Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development» – at the global level of education and science offers a mechanism for achieving and providing inclusive, equitable and quality education and training, promoting all opportunities for education and lifelong learning. The strategy envisages providing and allowing everyone to receive and complete free, fair and quality primary, secondary and higher education, which will lead to appropriate and effective results of sustainable social development of both individual states and the global system. It is also necessary to create preconditions for ensuring access of all, regardless of social, sexual, racial, ethnic origin to quality education at all levels, and to create appropriate conditions for this by 2030, which will allow them to successfully move to the next educational levels and carry out lifelong learning. To do this, all levels, models and systems of education (through the model of «education for sustainable development») must be transformed - to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary for sustainable development: sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promoting a culture of peace and non-violence, through global civic education and the recognition of cultural diversity and the contribution of culture to sustainable development. Thus, Agenda 2030 sets practical challenges for governments to ensure, through the transformation of the education system («education for sustainable development»), the maximum conditions for all people to participate (through the acquisition of quality knowledge and skills through education) in society, state and economic and political development.

This article explores the implications for international environmental law of the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which occurred at the 2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Summit. Following a summary of the main outcomes of the Summit, the paper evaluates the process and vision of the SDGs against both the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the past efforts of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in the field of sustainable development. The paper then examines how the environmental dimension of the SDGs is integrated into the general framework of the post-2015 development agenda and addresses two important questions which will most likely prove instrumental in the achievement of the Goals themselves. First, it the light of UN General Assembly Resolution 70/1, it discusses the normative value of the environmental obligations of States enshrined in the SDGs. Secondly, it deals with problems of implementation of the outcomes of the Summit, and accordingly attempts to identify the main legal challenges for the operationalization of the environmental component of the SDGs, in the wider context of the Agenda and taking the recent developments under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) into account.

The concept of sustainable development has emerged as a global consensus, forged in response to environmental constraints and critical reflection on conventional growth-oriented paradigms. It now serves as the overarching framework for addressing climate, ecological, and socio-economic crises. In the period after the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2016, there was an observable trend of increased integration of these objectives into the strategic frameworks of national and subnational entities. However, global assessments have indicated a divergence between the progress achieved and the trajectory delineated by the SDGs. The Earth system is demonstrating signs of decreased resilience, with widening inequalities and the emergence of multiple crises, thereby hindering the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. As the 2030 deadline approaches, a fundamental question arises for global development governance: what should be the future of the SDGs beyond 2030? While insufficient progress has prompted debates over the adequacy of the SDG framework, fundamentally revising or replacing the SDGs would risk undermining a hard-won international consensus forged through decades of negotiation and institutional investment. Based on a comprehensive review of the historical evolution of the sustainable development concept, this study argues that the SDGs represent a rare and fragile achievement in global governance. While insufficient progress has sparked debates about their effectiveness, fundamentally revising or replacing the SDGs would jeopardize the hard-won international consensus forged through decades of negotiations and institutional investments. This study further analyzes the latest progress on the SDGs and identifies emerging risks, aiming to explore how to accelerate and optimize sustainable development pathways within the existing SDG framework rather than propose a new global goal system. Based on both global experience and practice in China, four interconnected strategic priorities—namely, economic reform, social equity, environmental justice, and technology sharing—are proposed as a comprehensive framework to accelerate SDG implementation and guide the transformation of development pathways towards a more just, low-carbon, and resilient future.

Co-development of East African regional water scenarios for 2050

The article is devoted to the role of forecasting studies in the planning, monitoring and achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and specific targets, put together in the UN General Assembly resolution “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. Forecasting and exploring potential development scenarios have been used as a basis for the SDGs development; as an instrument for strategic planning and providing recommendations to national governments; and also as a communication tool, aimed at attracting public attention to potential risks and mobilizing resources and funding. The author also focuses on the enhancement of the system of indicators used for monitoring progress in reaching SDGs and the influence that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and later SDSs are having on the development of tools and methodology for monitoring and forecasting. Violent conflicts remain one of the most critical obstacles in moving towards SDGs, not only causing human deaths and suffering, but also ruining health and education facilities, economies and infrastructure and reversing development trends. Conflicts also are difficult to forecast, though different initiatives aimed and predicting, and ultimately preventing violent conflicts are being developed. Because of violence, data for monitoring and forecasting becomes either difficult to access or not available at all. This creates a risk of overlooking the needs of people affected by conflict due to the lack of reliable data. The article also examines an initiative aimed at forecasting long-term effects of violent conflict on development. There are different dimensions in terms of forecasting initiatives connected to the SDGs. The goals and respective targets themselves are based on the analysis of current trends and identifying possible scenarios of development by 2030. Both optimistic and pessimistic forecasts are used for communication with general public and national governments. Data from different countries can be used for identifying good practices and projecting similar trends on other regions. At the same time, the scale of activities connected to SDGs allows to enhance and streamline collection of data globally, thus providing a basis for future forecasting efforts. About the author: Elena M. Kharitonova, Cand. Sci. (Polit.), Senior Researcher, Sector of International Organizations and Global Political Governance, Department of International Political Problems.

Can goals change the world? In September 2015, the United Nations (UN) unanimously adopted the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to "transform our world" by 2030. With these highly ambitious goals, world leaders pledged to "end hunger", "achieve gender equality", "protect life on land", and much more. Importantly, the SDGs emphasise the need for more collaboration, the breakdown of 'silos' in global governance, and to achieve the SDGs in a balanced and integrated manner. This call for both institutional and policy integration in global governance is long-standing, but remains highly challenging. The SDGs - as the most central and ambitious global agenda so far - have given a renewed impetus to this call. Yet, empirically, we know very little about the effects of global goals. Can non-binding, highly ambitious goals really steer global governance? In this thesis, I investigate the steering effects of the SDGs on international organisations. Specifically, I assess whether - since the advent of the SDGs - institutional integration among and policy integration within international organisations has increased. My methods are both quantitative and qualitative. I rely primarily on a large dataset of scraped websites of 276 international organisations, and assess the contents of and hyperlinks between websites. To complement this data, I also conduct a discourse analysis and analysis on Twitter data. My findings can be summarised in four key points. First, while many international organisations use the SDGs on their websites, the SDGs are not yet a fully global framework. Many international organisations use the SDGs on their websites, and this increases over time. However, the SDGs are mainly used by the larger organisations and by UN entities, while many of the smaller and more regional organisations do not or barely use the SDGs. Second, policy integration overall is increasing, but the integration of environmental topics with socio-economic topics is lagging behind. As mentioned, the call for more policy integration is long-standing, and indeed an increase in policy integration is observed in my study. However, mainly socio-economic topics (ending poverty, decent work, innovation and infrastructure) are integrated with one another, while the integration of environmental with socio-economic topics occurs much less frequent. Third, while policy integration is overall increasing, the SDGs appear not to be an influencing factor. The international organisations that use the SDGs more, do not subsequently show an increase in policy integration. It is rather the other way around: those international organisations that already showed higher levels of policy integration, also use the SDGs more. Thus, the SDGs are used to frame efforts towards policy integration, but do not spur it. Fourth, the SDGs facilitate institutional integration within policy domains. This also means, conversely, that institutional integration between policy domains has decreased. Thus, contrary to political expectations of the SDGS to "break down silos", silos around the 17 issue areas of the SDGs and around the economic, social and environmental dimension of sustainability have strengthened.

The history of the millennium development goals (MDGs), the achievement of which experienced a major setback with the outbreak of the 2008 global economic and financial crisis, may provide some useful insights on the global partnership for the sustainable development goals (SDGs). There is a vast literature devoted to the MDGs. Most of the analysis is focused on the implementation and progress made toward achieving the MDGs. Fewer authors explore reasons for shortfalls or describe intrinsic limitations to the MDG framework, including limitations in the development, formulation and content of the MDGs themselves. This article reviews cooperation on the MDGs, exploring the priorities of different stakeholders and the challenges to progress inthe broader context of development and global governance.The review focuses on MDG 8, developing a global partnership for development. Added to the MDGs due to Kofi Annan’s leadership, MDG 8 helped to attract support from developing countries which viewed the MDGs as reflecting a one-sided deal favouring the interests of rich countries. Inclusion of the goal to reform the international economic system appeased some critics of the international development goals that were put forward by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and taken as the basis for the MDGs. This article argues that despite the endeavour by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly to steer the development of global partnerships, extrinsic barriers such as lack of political will on the part of the key stakeholders, the financial crisis, and vested interests prevented deliveryon MDG 8’s key target ofdeveloping an open, predictable, rule-based, non-discriminatory trading and economic system. Achievement of this goal is necessary in order to create the equitable and inclusive international order demanded by developing countries for decades. Most markedly, a lack of progress on MDG 8’s goal of addressing systemic issues of global economic governance became the greatest challenge to achieving the MDGs, and the greatest disappointment. Systemic problems were inherited by the SDGs, the achievement of which requires a truly global partnership able to build a new economic order as a foundation for inclusive and sustainable development. This review draws on content analysis of General Assembly resolutions and the official records of its 55th to 70th sessions, documents from the three conferences on financing for development, the crisis summit, reports on MDG results, and public statements and analytical narratives about the MDGs

The Sustainable DevelopmentSustainable development GoalsWell-being (SDGs) are a universalHealth call to action to end povertyPoverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030, which were adopted by 193 United NationsUnited Nations Member States at the UN General Assembly Summit in 2015. The third goal of the 17 SDGs is ‘good healthHealth and well-beingWell-being: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages’, accomplishing which is crucial for the very existence of humankind. Although many studies in the Indian context on SDGs have been conducted, none has particularly focused on how far or how close Northeast Indian states have been able to achieve the targets of the Sustainable DevelopmentSustainable development Goals Agenda, especially in the context of SDG 3SDG Goal 3. This study is an attempt to carry out a data-based assessment of how far India and its northeastern statesNorth Eastern states in particular have been able to achieve the targets set under Goal 3 of the SDGs to be achieved by 2030 with respect to some of the health and well-being indicators such as family planningFamily planning services, child immunizationChild Immunization and nutritional statusNutritional status of children and adults, maternity care and delivery care services available, tobaccoTobacco use and consumption among adults, Under-five Mortality RateUnder-five Mortality Rate (U5MR), Infant Mortality RateInfant Mortality Rate (IMR), Maternal Mortality RatioMaternal Mortality Ratio (MMR), Neo-natal Mortality Rate (NNMR). It is expected that this study will bring forth the gaps in the healthHealth sector which needs to be addressed for realizing SDG 3SDG Goal 3 for India and its northeastern region in particular.

Decent Work, Human Rights and the Sustainable Development Goals