Beyond Agenda 2030: Future-Oriented Mechanisms in Localising the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Abstract

Given the complex nature of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there are increasing calls for new inclusive and bottom-up governance mechanisms in building a relationship between governments and their citizens, in particular, the youth, to localise the 2030 Agenda. But such successful bottom-up multi-stakeholder engagement tools have yet to emerge in practice. Hence, of specific interest in this study is exploring bottom-up approaches useful for localising the SDGs and harnessing real transformative change to leave no one behind by 2030. Using a case study from the UK, we present a novel integrated mechanism to achieve this. An integrated Social Innovation (SI) and Scenarios Thinking (ST) mechanism remains a valuable bottom-up tool capable of empowering citizens, including the youth and decision-makers in delivering coherent SDGs plans, policies, and programmes. The study reveals that although the SDGs are distinct, they are also interconnected. A scenario development workshop with youth with no prior knowledge of the SDGs showed a common thread of policy measures for different SDG future images. Standard policy measures amongst different SDGs call for an equitable society at all levels; that all energy sources be from clean and renewable sources; investment in low-carbon technologies and research; and financial support for promoting sustainable transportation and consumption measures. This study highlights that we need to change how we think and talk about SDGs and recommends socially innovative steps to embrace cross-sectoral and nexus thinking as the backdrop of the citizen science concept. We conclude that the SDGs should not become a performative exercise or failed social experiment. And any practical localisation from the UN’s Member States across the northern and southern hemispheres will require robust measures addressing future-oriented systemic thinking, inclusivity and good governance, together with standards for community resilience and sustainability.

Systematic Literature Review: Inter-Reletedness of Innovation, Resilience and Sustainability - Major, Emerging Themes and Future Research Directions

“…We review the papers that were published in one year before data collection. The results show that literature reviews [ 8 , 16 , 25 , 35 , 43 , 51 , 55 , 67 , 79 , 91 ] and case studies [ 2 , 4 , 9 , 17 , 24 , 30 , 54 , 61 , 83 , 88 ] are still the predominant research methods, although more sophisticated methods of research are starting to become adopted, though, such as systematic literature reviews [ 15 ], comparative analysis of the investment criteria and other reports [ 33 ], interviews [ 23 , 81 ] and surveys [ 32 , 50 , 66 , 90 ].…”

“…Grafius et al [ 24 ] argue that research efforts and management strategies have so far focused on risks and negative aspects of the complexity of the systems perspectives,however, their case study review identified how interdependencies can also be seen positively, representing possibilities to increase organisational resilience and sustainability. The integrated social innovation and scenario-thinking mechanism was developed by Bonsu et al [ 4 ] as a bottom-up tool for empowering citizens, including youth and decision-makers, in delivering sustainable development goals, plans, policies and programmes.…”

“…Territorial scales local vs global scale are used by Jeannerat [ 30 ], with Folke et al [ 20 ] adding planetary scale. Cross-scale scale [ 4 , 17 ] is also considered by the researchers.…”

Food Security Challenges and Options in the Caribbean: Insights from a Scoping Review

“…Given the complexity of the UN's SDGs, including SDG2, there is a growing desire for bottom–up governance methods by helping governments and individuals in establishing relationships to make progress on the localization of the 2030 Agenda (Bonsu et al 2020 ). Despite the importance of bottom–up governance mechanisms, there were only isolated mentions (by one participant only) of a point on improving such approaches.…”

“…Agency is another major concern. There is a growing call, in academia, for bottom–up governance practices in achieving sustainable development goals (Bonsu et al 2020 ). Nevertheless, our interview results show that such practices are scarce in the Caribbean food system.…”