The role of the Sustainable Development Goals for digital development professionals: lessons for the post-2030 development goals

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are meant to transform the work of anyone working in international development, throughout a vast ecosystem spanning the private and public sectors and beyond. However, little is known about how the SDGs are used in practice by these various change agents. As the SDGs approach their expiration date in 2030, it is crucial to understand how they affect the stakeholders they aim to guide. Such an understanding will be vital to discussions around the post-2030 goals that might succeed them. Focusing on the field of digital development, this article takes a situated approach to understand how different actors in this sector engage with the SDGs in practice. Through expert interviews with experts from UN organisations, non-profit organisations, the public sector, and private sector, we demonstrate how the SDGs are currently used and what drives and confines this engagement. The results show a plurality of motivations and purposes of using the SDGs, as well as a large spectrum of engagement. If the Post-2030 SDGs want to truly unleash their transformative potential, they should take into account the different contexts in which change agents use them, and actively cater to the different needs and motivations at play.