Localizing and Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals at the National Level: Cases of Leadership

Abstract

This article describes the experience of localization and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the national level in the 10 countries which top the global SDG Index compiled by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the Bertelsmann Stiftung. The authors apply methods of comparative and content analysis of national and international documents and conclude that leading countries began to work actively on the transition toward sustainable development more than a decade ago, established effective inter-ministerial coordination in this area and have achieved significant success. Nevertheless, even they are still far from the full implementation of the SDGs. Moreover, not all of them have localized Agenda 2030 within their national sustainable development strategies.The authors identify three key SDG localization and implementation schemes: full localization (e.g. Germany), implementation of the SDGs without their formal localization (e.g. Sweden) and the complete absence of localization (e.g. Finland). The most preferable and effective scheme, according to the authors, is the first one.In the late 1990s, Russia could have become one of the pioneers of sustainable development. However, due to insufficient political will, Russia is still at the initial stages of its transition toward sustainable development. In order to catalyze progress in this area, Russia needs to urgently develop and adopt a national sustainable development strategy in which all of the SDGs are localized, take into account SDGs in other key strategic documents and set specific quantitative goals and designate ministries that will be responsible for achieving these goals.

Australia’s overseas development aid commitment to health through the sustainable development goals: a multi-stakeholder perspective

“…Australia’s SDG VNR specifies this will include Australia guarding against regional and global health risks (notably mosquito-borne viruses such as malaria, zika, dengue and chikungunya, and infectious disease), investing in research partnerships through the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, as well as preventing, detecting and responding to health emergencies and tackling antimicrobial resistance. Australia’s commitment to regional health systems strengthening is also acknowledged in the VNR, as is brief acknowledgement of the impact of climate change on health and wellbeing in the Pacific: “Our neighbours in Pacific small island states face specific health care challenges, including high rates of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), geographic barriers, constrained health spending and health sector workforce shortages and health risks posed by climate change” [10]. .…”

Digital maturity of territories during digital transformation

“…According to several authors T. Lanshina, V. Barinova, A. Kondratyev, M. Romantsov, the key areas of sustainable development that can create new economic development opportunities soon are renewable energy sources and clean transport, cyclical economy, digitalization, and environmental protection. Wednesday [8].…”

Achieving sustainable development: A baseline analysis of Western and Eastern European countries

“…In most European countries, the whole range of strategic objectives aimed at the implementation of the SDGs is formulated in special national documents where the SDGs are adapted to local conditions (Ignatov et al, 2019). Lanshina et al (2019) distinguished three key schemes for localizing the SDGs at the national level. The first approach is deep localization which includes consideration of all 17 SDGs and formulating goals at the national level.…”

“…The most desirable way to achieve the SDGs is the complete localization scheme. Moreover, the EU will integrate the SDG objectives into the annual review of EU member states' fiscal books (European Semester) (Lanshina et al, 2019 sia's strategy towards systematic implementation of the SDGs requires the inclusion of a full range of social issues in a comprehensive sustainable development strategy (Kolmar & Sakharov, 2019). Rydzewski (2015) discovered differences in the perception of sustainable development of residents of Eastern and Western European countries.…”