SDG Policy Tracking

Support government effort and commitments for the SDGs

SDG Policy Tracking

SDG Policy

A conceptual framework to evaluate government efforts and commitment to the SDGs. See Chapter 3 of the 2023 SDR for more information.

Countries must redesign their economic planning, fiscal frameworks and policies to accelerate long-term SDG transformations. Tracking real-time (or close to real-time) government commitments for the SDGs and forward-looking pathways are critical for assessing countries’ progress towards SDGs implementation and making governments accountable.

Our SDG policy tracking work focuses on three key areas:

  1. Conducting an annual survey of government efforts for the SDGs (including speeches, coordination mechanisms, budgets, indicators, citizen engagement processes etc.) at the national, subnational and local level.
  2. Developing policy trackers, scorecards and analyses at the country and city level for six SDG Transformations.
  3. Providing a platform for exchange among policy makers, practitioners and scientists on SDG policies and pathways for accelerating SDG progress.

We also develop tools that can help analyse large policy documents, and identify future priorities for adopting and implementing sound, ambitious SDG policies and investment frameworks.

Through our work we promote stronger alignment between SDG commitments, policy making and access to financing for sustainable development.

Our work

Each year we publish as part of the Sustainable Development Report an international score that helps tracking government commitments and efforts for the SDGs. This score builds on a three- pillar conceptual framework (see Chapter 3 of the 2023 SDR) and based on information collected via a qualitative survey instrument – prepared and collected via SDSN global networks – and other third-party data and web scrapping. Our SDG Policy work is often used and cited to monitor government efforts towards the SDGs implementation and investment.

We also work closely with other SDSN initiatives to track and promote better policies for transformations in specific domains. This includes long term pathways for deep decarbonization (see SDSN Zero Carbon Action Plan) and sustainable the food and land (see FABLE modelling work and FELD Action Tracker).

Our most relevant publications

Policy Paper

The Index of Countries’ Support for UN-based Multilateralism: Construction, Verification, and Correlates: open access paper published

The paper provides insights on how countries’ support for UN-based multilateralism (UN-Mi) can be measured, using six headline indicators: (i) UN treaty ratification, (ii) votes aligned with the majority at the UN General Assembly, (iii) membership in UN organizations, (iv) participation in conflicts and militarization, (v) use of unilateral coercive measures against other Nation-States, and (vi) contribution to the UN budget and international solidarity. The paper also presents how the support of major economies for UN-based multilateralism evolved over time.

Policy Paper

Index of UN-Based Multilateralism: A Pilot Study by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network

The UN Charter sets out clear principles to maintain friendly relationships among world nations and to preserve peace and security. In international relations, UN member states hold the primary responsibility for implementing the principles of the UN Charter. This paper presents and describes a new measure of countries’ commitment to implementing the principles of the UN Charter. The Index of UN-Based Multilateralism (or Multilateralism Index, for short) uses five indicators that are then aggregated in a composite index. This Index aims to be a tool to help hold countries accountable for implementing the principles of the UN Charter and to provide an independent assessment of countries’ efforts to promote multilateralism.

Policy Paper

Towards a Sound Measure of Government Efforts and Commitments for the SDGs?

Unlike other great transformations of the past, sustainable development requires long‐term directed change. This working paper discusses and compares methods and tools that can be used to track policies related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including the principle of Leave-No-One-Behind (LNOB).

Program

What is FELD?

The Food, Environment, Land and Development (FELD) Action Tracker is a strategic initiative under the Food and Land Use (FOLU) Coalition, led by the UN Sustainable Solutions Network (SDSN). The Action Tracker is complementing other initiatives by the Coalition, dedicated to providing practical support to countries’ transformation of food and land use systems.

The FELD programme and its methodologies are designed to support countries and their partners in devising, implementing and improving effective and ambitious policies for transforming their food and land-use systems and practices.

Learn more about SDSN's reports, publications and data visualizations in our library

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