Translating the sustainable development goals in national development planning: the case of Mozambique\u2019s energy for all programme

Eléusio Viegas Filipe,Kei Otsuki,Jochen Monstadt

doi:10.1007/s11625-021-01020-y

Eléusio Viegas Filipe, Kei Otsuki + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-021-01020-y

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Abstract

The international community has emphasised the importance of governments adapting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to national policy priorities. Whilst sustainability assessment frameworks and indicators are meant to facilitate adaptation, their assumption of high institutional capacity based on Global North contexts is a shorthand for Global South contexts. In particular, limited institutional capacity means that electricity utilities in the Global South struggle with meeting national and international demands to universalise access to basic services for the entire population as well as in ensuring financial sustainability. Based on a case study of the Mozambique government’s National Energy for All Programme, this paper analyses the ways the public electricity company Electricity of Mozambique (known as EDM) has been translating SDG 7.1 on ‘ensuring universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services’ into its national political context given the conditionalities of international donors and investors. One outcome of this translation, a compartmentalisation of EDM’s organisational structure, is counterproductive to the integrative and autonomous approach of the SDGs for sustainable development at the national level. To reduce organisational fragmentation and dependency of national project implementers such as EDM on donor interventions, the international community needs to tailor and better align SDG-oriented interventions with the conditions of Southern institutional frameworks and their political contexts.

Highlights

The Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations (SDGs) are increasingly incorporated into national-level development policy planning (Chimhowu et al 2019; Alcamo et al 2020; Siegel and Bastos-Lima 2020)
How do governments cope with the conditionality attached to international financial and technological interventions which are promoted under the banner of establishing Global Partnerships (SDG17)? We address these questions by examining the experience of Mozambique, one of the 20 least-electrified countries in the world with a 31 per cent electrification rate in 2018 (World Bank 2020)
We examine the translation process of SDG7.1 through our case study on electrification projects implemented under the National Energy for All Programme in Mozambique

Summary

Introduction

The Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations (SDGs) are increasingly incorporated into national-level development policy planning (Chimhowu et al 2019; Alcamo et al 2020; Siegel and Bastos-Lima 2020). According to Tracking SDG 7: The Energy Progress Report (World Bank 2020), a mere 47 per cent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa was able to access conventional electricity grids in 2018 and the world’s 20 least-electrified countries were all located in this region. After Mozambique became independent from Portugal on 25 June 1975, the FRELIMO party led the national government and nationalised the majority of private companies. Future development was to be achieved through socialism and a centrally planned economy that included state companies such as EDM, cooperatives, and communal villages. Mozambique has been dealing with multiple donors and private sector actors for national development planning whilst maintaining the strong, largely authoritarian presence of FRELIMO (Sumich 2010)

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