Accountability for the Sustainable Development Goals: A Lost Opportunity?

Donald, Kate; Way, Sally-Anne

doi:10.1017/s0892679416000083

Cited by 31 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…Already during post-2015 negotiations, follow-up and review were politically contentious topics (Donald and Way, 2016). This was partly due to MDG experiences, particularly with regard to the lack of monitoring of MDG 8 on the obligations of rich countries.…”

Section: Accountability By Numbersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The AAAA is more elaborated than its predecessors on financing for development with regard to follow-up and review. At the same time, there was resistance among many countries towards global peer review, which watered down the writings on review in the final draft of Transforming Our World (Donald and Way, 2016).…”

Section: Accountability By Numbersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, mechanisms exist, albeit weak, for holding dutybearers accountable. Several of the existing human rights treaty bodies and special procedures issue recommendations based on large amounts of information on issues at the heart of the SDGs (Donald and Way, 2016). Yet, instead of further engagement with international human rights law, the two SDG documents provide in the international realm only for politically based peer accountability.…”

Section: Accountability By Numbersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Chasek et al, 2016;Fejerskov, 2016;Fukuda-Parr, 2016;Vandemoortele, 2014). A nascent literature usefully identifies challenges involved in realising the new goals and future accountability matters (Berensmann et al, 2015;Donald and Way, 2016;Fukuda-Parr and McNeill, 2015;Ocampo and Gómez-Arteaga, 2016;Pogge and Sengupta, 2015). Yet, less attention is paid to what we regard as a necessary prior step in the analysis, namely identifying the principles and obligations that accountability is supposed to be based on.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Responsibility and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals

Bexell

Jönsson

2016

Forum for Development Studies

159

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This article asks what key concerns emerge from the way responsibility is framed in United Nations summit documents on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in 2015. Our conceptual framework serves to make the study of SDG responsibility more systematic by distinguishing three main senses of responsibility: cause, obligation, and accountability. The framework structures our analysis of two SDG summit documents, Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. The article shows, first, that the causal sense of responsibility is hidden between the lines in paragraphs on poverty, debt and environmental issues. As a consequence, root causes of problems might not be appropriately addressed. Second, SDG summit documents deal predominantly with responsibility in the sense of obligation. We raise concerns with repeated consideration for national circumstances and with vague obligations for non-governmental actors. Third, with regard to accountability, we stress that quantitative indicators have unintended steering effects both before and beyond the review phase. The focus on indicators risks shadowing broader obligations, such as international human rights. In all its three senses, responsibility in key SDG documents remains statecentric with great room for state sovereignty, self-regulation and respect for national circumstances. Our framework is useful also in showing that the three senses of responsibility build on each other and that engagement with responsibility provides fruitful ground for further research.

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Section: Accountability By Numbersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Accountability By Numbersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Accountability By Numbersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Responsibility and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals

Bexell

Jönsson

2016

Forum for Development Studies

159

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“…These contributions of the Universal Periodic Review are important because the formal international SDG monitoring arrangements are falling short on human rights 19 . For example, human rights considerations are not consistently reflected in the SDG indicators and thus may be overlooked 20 .…”

Section: Sdg Accountabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring the sustainable development goals through human rights accountability reviews

Mesquita

Thomas

Gauter

et al. 2018

Bull. World Health Organ.

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The Universal Periodic Review is a comprehensive, state-to-state peer-review mechanism of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council. Created in 2006, the mechanism scrutinizes the human rights record of all UN Member States, including their efforts to realize the right to health. However, the mechanism is relatively under-used in global health governance compared to treaty-based procedures, such as those overseen by the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities or the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. We suggest that the Universal Periodic Review could be used to support the monitoring and review processes of the sustainable development goals (SDGs). The review could offer a unique perspective for other actors on how to ensure accountability for the complex and intertwined SDGs, including their commitments for health. This article provides an overview of how health-related rights have been addressed in the Universal Periodic Review process and how the review can contribute to advancing global commitments to health, including those embodied in the SDGs. We present some of the current limitations in the way health is addressed in the Universal Periodic Review. We also consider what role specialized UN agencies, such as the World Health Organization, might play during the Universal Periodic Review process and how this involvement can contribute towards the comprehensive realization of health and wellbeing for all.

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Monitoring and Accountability Frameworks for SDG 6

Fonseca

Lande

2021

Water, Climate Change, and Sustainability

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Accountability for the Sustainable Development Goals: A Lost Opportunity?

Cited by 31 publications

References 1 publication

Responsibility and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals

Responsibility and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals

Monitoring the sustainable development goals through human rights accountability reviews

Monitoring and Accountability Frameworks for SDG 6

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