SDG implementation at the regional level: experience of Kazakhstan and Russia

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals, adopted at the UN General Assembly on 25 September 2015 under Resolution 70/1 cover a wide range of challenges faced by both developing and developed countries. Therefore, identification and generalisation of national approaches to SDG implementation at the regional level in two post-Soviet countries - Kazakhstan and Russia, which are characterised by the presence of a significant public sector and the active use of direct administrative methods of economic regulation, is of particular importance. The aim of the research is to conduct a comparative analysis of the used approaches to SDG implementation at the regional level. In the course of the research, criteria for characterising state participation in the processes of SDG implementation at the national and regional levels were proposed, approaches to SDG institutionalisation within the framework of national policy were compared, substantive priorities of central governments and regional authorities were compared, and specifics of SDG localisation and implementation at the regional level were revealed. As a result, differences in the formal institutional practices and structures used, the choice of priority SDGs for localisation and implementation, and the possibilities of resource support for managerial decisions made at the national and regional levels were revealed. Since the countries under study are at the initial stage of the process of localisation and implementation of the SDGs at the regional level, the conclusions obtained by the authors may be useful for improving the effectiveness of the work in this direction.