SDGs – Debating Development Research

14/05/2024

Imagining Global Development Policy after 2030: What is the EU’s Role and How Will it Sit with Competing Geo-Political Paradigms?

By Andy Sumner and Stephan Klingebiel / Part of the European Development Policy Outlook Series

The EU has been particularly important in championing Agenda 2030 and keeping the SDGs on the global development policy agenda. What should happen after the deadline passes?

Development won’t end in 2030. Even if – what is extremely unlikely – the headline SDGs were met, at least a billion people would live just above extreme poverty. What are the options for a unifying framework after 2030, and what should the EU’s role be amid competing geo-political paradigms on global development.

16/01/202418/01/2024

You don’t like the SDGs? Look what else is on offer

By Lauchlan T. Munro

My friends on the left generally don’t like the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). I am told the SDGs are neoliberal, incoherent, (neo-)colonial; the SDGs omit too many important issues: democracy, climate justice, human rights, intersectionality, power. While I agree that the SDGs are imperfect, I must ask, however, what other policy options are on the table? My sad answer is that the available alternatives to the SDGs are much worse, unless you like patriarchy, environmental destruction and national security states.

19/10/2023

Will growth be enough to end poverty? New Projections of the UN Sustainable Development Goals

By Arief Anshory Yusuf, Zuzy Anna, Ahmad Komarulzaman and Andy Sumner

Two days ago was the UN International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (you already knew that, right?). In new analysis for UNU-WIDER, we assess progress towards the global poverty-related SDGs, specifically monetary poverty, undernutrition, child and maternal mortality, and access to clean water and basic sanitation. Our analysis then looks forward, making projections on the state of global progress over the coming years, up to the 2030 deadline for meeting the SDGs.

10/10/202315/03/2024

Domestic politics and global development. What to expect from Spain in the construction of the post-2030 Agenda

By Iliana Olivié / Part of the European Development Policy Outlook Series

The recent SDG Summit held in New York centered around a much-discussed mid-term review of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), given that eight years have now passed since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for achieving the SDGs and that there are only seven more years to go.

02/08/202202/08/2022

Food transformations and (un)sustainable diets: Taking consumption seriously in development research

By Arve Hansen

The world is in dire need of more sustainable and healthy food systems. The development field has much to say on the topic but has historically had a clear focus on either food supply or food deprivation. The potential benefits and positive spill-over effects of eating healthier and more sustainably have, however, led to increasing and wider attention to the demand side of food. Recent research suggests that the sustainability potential of dietary change is considerably larger than that of improving production. If we could just change what people eat, and at the same time avoid some of the ongoing nutrition transitions in low- and middle-income countries, it would have a massive ripple effect in entire food systems.