Ambitious UN global goals may falter in execution

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Financial Institutions ◽  
Millennium Development Goals ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Member States ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Development Goals

Subject An assessment of the prospects for the SDGs Significance UN member states on September 25 ratified a new set of global benchmarks, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), following the expiry of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) this year. The 17 new goals, with 114 outcome targets, have already drawn criticism for being overly ambitious and lacking direction. Impacts The UN's Paris Climate Talks (COP21) later this year will be heavily influenced by the number of climate goals set out in the new SDGs. NGOs will alter policies to align with the SDG agenda, soliciting funds to broaden programmes beyond the MDG-focus of the last 15 years. Governments and NGOs will increasingly ask international businesses and financial institutions to collaborate on achieving the SDGs.

Accountability for the Sustainable Development Goals: A Lost Opportunity?

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Donald ◽  
Sally-Anne Way
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Critical Point ◽  
Millennium Development Goals ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
2030 Agenda ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Lost Opportunity ◽  
Made In

On August 2, 2015, after three long years of intergovernmental negotiations and consultations and some tense final moments, all UN member states finally endorsed the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with a new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2016. The question of accountability—or, more precisely, the question of how governments will be held to account for implementing the commitments made in this new agenda—was a critical point of contention throughout the negotiations, resulting in a significant watering down of initial proposals by the end of the process.

scholarly journals Financial Institutions’ Risk Profile and Contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7738
Author(s):  
Nicolás Gambetta ◽  
Fernando Azcárate-Llanes ◽  
Laura Sierra-García ◽  
María Antonia García-Benau
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Financial Institutions ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Sustainability Reporting ◽  
Risk Profile ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Corporate Reporting ◽  
2030 Agenda ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
The Impact

This study analyses the impact of Spanish financial institutions’ risk profile on their contribution to the 2030 Agenda. Financial institutions play a significant role in ensuring financial inclusion and sustainable economic growth and usually incorporate environmental and social considerations into their risk management systems. The results show that financial institutions with less capital risk, with lower management efficiency and with higher market risk usually make higher contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), according to their sustainability reports. The novel aspect of the present study is that it identifies the risk profile of financial institutions that incorporate sustainability into their business operations and measure the impact generated in the environment and in society. The study findings have important implications for shareholders, investors and analysts, according to the view that sustainability reporting is a vehicle that financial institutions use to express their commitment to the 2030 Agenda and to higher quality corporate reporting.

Reducing corruption and bribery in Africa as a target of the sustainable development goals: applying indicators for assessing performance

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kempe Ronald Hope, Sr.
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Ethical Behaviour ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Illegal Activities

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess African performance for substantially reducing all forms of corruption and bribery on the continent by 2030, through the indicators for achieving Target 16.5 of the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Design/methodology/approach Drawing on the available and accessible relevant data from credible sources, this work quantifies, outlines and analyses the relationship between corruption/bribery and sustainable development as it applies primarily to sub-Saharan Africa; assesses the trends in the region through the official indicators for achieving Target 16.5 of the SDGs; and recommends other indicators for assessing ethical behaviour in African political, administrative and business leadership and institutions for achieving sustainable development and improved ethical performance towards significant reductions in all manifestations of bribery and corruption on the continent by 2030. Findings Corruption and bribery are found to affect all SDG-related sectors, undermining development outcomes and severely compromising efforts to achieve the SDGs in Africa. Consequently, prioritising corruption reduction including from money laundering, bribery and other illegal activities is a necessary requirement for achieving sustainable development, good governance, building effective and inclusive institutions as required by SDG 16, and funding the achievement of the SDGs. Originality/value The main value of the paper is the insights it provides through the very comprehensive compilation of statistical information that quantifies, and with analysis, the corruption/bribery avenues and the resultant deleterious effects on sustainable development in Africa.

Sustainable Development Goal 16 at a Cross-Roads

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-186
Author(s):  
Frauke Lachenmann
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Millennium Development Goals ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Negotiation Process ◽  
Sustainable Development Goal ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Indicator Framework ◽  
Development Goals

The negotiation process of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS) process was extremely ambitious. It sought to remedy all the shortcomings of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS) by ensuring transparency, ownership of the countries of the Global South, strong involvement of civil society groups and stakeholders, and creating a truly transformative set of sustainable development goals. Yet, it did not manage to avoid all the mistakes that were characteristic of the formulation of the MDGS. In addition, it struggled with its very own problems. The article traces the developments and debates that led to the formulation of Goal 16 on the rule of law. It shows that the success of this ambitious goal largely depends on the refinement of the indicator framework and the review mechanism.

Using an artificial neural network for estimating sustainable development goals index

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 1023-1037 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seyed-Hadi Mirghaderi
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Neural Networks ◽  
Artificial Neural Network ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Artificial Neural Networks ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Artificial Neural

PurposeThis paper aims to develop a simple model for estimating sustainable development goals index using the capabilities of artificial neural networks.Design/methodology/approachSustainable development has three pillars, including social, economic and environmental pillars. Three clusters corresponding to the three pillars were created by extracting sub-indices of three 2018 global reports and performing cluster analysis on the correlation matrix of sub-indices. By setting the sustainable development goals index as the target variable and selecting one indicator from each cluster as input variables, 20 artificial neural networks were run 30 times.FindingsArtificial neural networks with seven nodes in one hidden layer can estimate sustainable development goals index by using just three inputs, including ecosystem vitality, human capital and gross national income per capita. There is an excellent similarity (>95%) between the results of the artificial neural network and the sustainable development goals index.Practical implicationsInstead of calculating 232 indicators for determining the value of sustainable development goals index, it is possible to use only three sub-indices, but missing 5% of precision, by using the proposed artificial neural network model.Originality/valueThe study provides additional information on the estimating of sustainable development and proposes a new simple method for estimating the sustainable development goals index. It just uses three sub-indices, which can be retrieved from three global reports.

scholarly journals How Is Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals Measured? Comparing Four Approaches for the EU

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (18) ◽  
pp. 7675
Author(s):  
Guillaume Lafortune ◽  
Grayson Fuller ◽  
Guido Schmidt-Traub ◽  
Christian Kroll
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Methodological Choices ◽  
Data Gaps ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
The Eu

Evidence-based policymaking must be rooted in sound data to inform policy priorities, budget allocations, and tracking of progress. This is especially true in the case of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as they provide the policy framework that all 193 UN member states have pledged to achieve by 2030. Good data and clear metrics are critical for each country to take stock of where it stands, devise pathways for achieving the goals, and track progress. Current assessments of the EU’s performance on the SDGs, however, tend to reach different findings and policy conclusions on where the priorities for further action lie, which can be confusing for researchers and policymakers. In order to demystify the drivers of such differences and make them transparent, this paper compares and contrasts the results obtained by four SDG monitoring approaches. We identify three main elements that are responsible for most of the differences: (i) the use of pre-defined targets for calculating baseline assessments and countries’ trajectories; (ii) the inclusion of measures that track not only domestic performance, but also the EU’s transboundary impacts on the rest of the world; and (iii) the use of non-official statistics to bridge data gaps, especially for biodiversity goals. This paper concludes that there is not one “correct” way of providing an assessment of whether the EU and EU member states are on track to achieve the goals, but we illustrate how the different results are the outcomes of certain methodological choices. More “forward-looking” policy trackers are needed to assess implementation efforts on key SDG transformations.

scholarly journals Utilizing Zakat for Attaining Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Nigeria

2020 ◽  
pp. 231-242
Author(s):  
Rafiu Ibrahim Adebayo
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Millennium Development Goals ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Expiry Date ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Year 2000

At the United Nations Conference in Stockholm in the early 1970s, the idea of sustainable development was mooted. It became a global phenomenon in the year 2000 when the United Nations (UN) declared the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with over one hundred and eighty-nine member states and about twenty-three international organizations. With the expiry date of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) came in vogue. The SDGs as a global project could only be attained through joint efforts of all sectors of human life, religion being one. In human history, religion plays significant developmental roles, hence a strong factor in attaining developmental goals. Islam in particular could not be left out in any developmental project, as it is not only a religion and but also a way of life. Indeed, the maqasid ash-shari’ah are meant for all-round development and protection of human life – religion (Din), life (Hayat), procreation (Nasl), Property (Māl) and Intellect (cAql). This study is designed to specifically relate the institution of zakat in Islam to attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with particular reference to Nigeria as a country. Historical, descriptive and exegetical methods are adopted for this purpose. The paper therefore concludes that zakat can be a veritable tool for achieving the SDGs if properly harnessed, monitored and utilized for the purpose it is meant.

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