the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and their 169 targets have been developed to be interconnected by design.
Exploring the systemic interactions inherent to the 2030 agenda, understanding which SDGs influence one another - positively or negatively - is critical to prioritise and implement policies and campaigns that maximise synergies between goals while navigating trade-offs.
The need for informed decision-making urgently requires knowledge of context-specific SDG interactions.
The analysis in the article [M. Pham-Truffer & al, researchgate, 2020] focused on 3 key elements of the network of interactions among goals.
Dominant goals, Systemic Multipliers and strong interconnections - this highlighted possible virtuous cycles that could serve as concrete entry points to realise the 2030 agenda.
collaborative efforts to add and refine data through open-knowledge platform could provide enhanced usability in concrete contexts
Extracts from
Myriam Pham-Truffert in Sustainable Development June 2020 - retrieved from ResearchGate in Feb 2022
17 Sustainable Development Goals
169 targets of which 126 Means of Implementation
interconnected by design
SDG interlinkages - 2030 agenda - spcial-economical system - policy coherence - science-policy interface - network analysis - virtuous cycles - impact multipliers
SDG interactions refer to interdependencies whereby actions toward one goal or target impacts the performance of one or more others
SDGS were designed to be interconnected and indivisible, reflectign the necessary linked challenges facign humanity: to alleviate poverty and ensure human prosperity while protectign the planet and its resources, thus balancing the 3 dimentions of sustainable development: Social, Economic & Environmental.
Analysis suggest that certain SDGs and SDG interactions are crucial, and can critically influence the realisations of the 2030 agenda
the need to sectorial integration for working with nexsus approaches and considering the SDGs as interacting elements rather than the mere sum of goals, targets and indicators (Pradhan 2019)
By applying network analysis concepts to highlight imperfect interconnectedness among goals or to address variation of interactions depending on countries' socio-economic status. Prioritising policies and programmes that realise SDGs by exploiting positive direct and indirect effects of specifically targeted measures. By applying concepts of Directional Interactions, a methodology is proposed to identify interconnected systemic Buffers or multipliers. Further suggestions to maximise the leveraging potential by emphasising highly interconnected sub-networks that could function as virtuous cycles.
Complex dynamic networks - correlations, casual and directional
building on the effort to start synthetizing the abundant but fragmented body of knowledge on SDG interactions.
the paper approaches the assesment of positive and negative interactions for each pair of SDG targets separately; where other studies that combine positive and negative effect by assigning a mean weight to interactions tend to dilute understanding of the trade-offs.
Positive interactions are referred to as "co-benefits" and negative interactions as "trade-offs".
policymaking must be based on the biophysical, social and economic systems at appropriate scale.
3 levels:
policy-level: pointing to conflicting worldviews and priorities;
level of allocation of resources for SDG specific actions
systemic interactions between social-ecological systems that have unintended consequences for other SDGs.
if the pursuit of one SDG impacts one part of the Earth system, direct and indirect interactions with other subsystems may alter the available space achievement of the others.
For example, if agricultural production is intensified with chemical fertiliser, the additional yield can provide co-benefits in terms
of local food security (or industrial use?)
as well as trade activities (how are the profit shred?)
At the same time however, use of fertilisers might degrade the quality of water downstream and cause significant health harms within [the local and] distant communities. [Biodiversity loss and loss of other natural services].
under business as usual scenarios, policymakers tend to prioritising achieving each their separately considered goals, making intervention at resource level that brign about unintended effects in the social-ecological world.
By contrast, pursuing policy coherent to implement SDGs implies an inverted approach:
first seeking to understand dynamics and interactions in social-ecological systems;
only then considering how to allocate various capacities and financial resources - governance.
Coding Rules & Procedures
Scoring assessment
+3 indivisibile
+2 Reinforcing
+1 Enabling
0 Consistent
-1 Constraining
-2 Conteracting
-3 Cancelling
Meaning
Inextricably linked to the achievement of another goal
Aids the achievement of another goal
Creates the conditions that further another goal
No significant positive or negative interactions
Limits options on another goal
Clashes with another goal
Makes impossible to reach another goal