Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://doi.org/10.48548/pubdata-1375
Resource typeDissertation
Title(s)Navigating pathways to sustainability: Assessing governance arrangements in the context of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs
DOI10.48548/pubdata-1375
Handle20.500.14123/1439
CreatorGlass, Lisa-Maria  0000-0003-0461-3878 (Institut für Nachhaltigkeitssteuerung (INSUGO), Leuphana Universität Lüneburg  02w2y2t16)
RefereeNewig, Jens  0000-0003-2390-2982  1051421268
Malekpour, Shirin  0000-0002-3609-8033
Hickmann, Thomas  0000-0001-5072-7855
AdvisorNewig, Jens  0000-0003-2390-2982  1051421268
Malekpour, Shirin  0000-0002-3609-8033
AbstractIn 2015, the United Nations General Assembly agreed upon the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda). At its core are 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specified through 169 targets and 231 indicators, embodying a vision of fostering inclusive, peaceful and just societies, promoting shared economic growth and prosperity, and safeguarding the planet and its natural resources. Despite facing legitimate criticism, the SDGs have become the most authoritative anchoring for defining the goals of global sustainability. By unifying the way in which the concept of sustainable development is framed, debated and assessed across academic, political, and societal spheres, the SDGs represent a pivotal milestone in the evolution of sustainable development discourse. The 2030 Agenda and the SDGs highlight the complex interrelationship between social, economic and environmental sustainability objectives, and emphasize the need to for collaborative action by all countries and societal stakeholders for their successful realization. However, midway to 2030, progress towards achieving the SDGs has been slow and uneven, prompting a critical examination of effective socio-political steering mechanisms, i.e., governance, necessary to facilitate and accelerate SDG implementation. This doctoral dissertation contributes to this endeavor by empirically analyzing governance arrangements at the sub-national, national, and global-transnational level. Specifically, it assesses the contribution of participatory and collaborative governance approaches to SDG achievement, including an analysis of the roles and governance functions assumed by diverse state and non-state actors involved therein. Furthermore, it examines which SDGs and interlinkages between them are predominantly addressed across the governance arrangements analyzed in order to identify potential patterns of (de-)prioritization across the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. This analysis includes an assessment of governance arrangements in the area of climate change and resilience building to identify potential synergies between the SDGs, and between the SDGs and other global development agendas, that can serve as entry points to accelerate action towards their achievement. Through a synthesis of the findings, this dissertation identifies common challenges and opportunities in SDG implementation and derives key enabling factors to improve the effectiveness of governance arrangements across different levels. The empirical findings of this dissertation show that participatory and collaborative governance arrangements can be conducive to SDG achievement, both in terms of effectiveness as well as regarding the consideration of diverse aspects of sustainable development and their interlinkages. The cumulative results further indicate a complementarity between state and non-state actors in SDG implementation efforts. While underscoring the crucial role of governmental actors to establish legal and regulatory frameworks, provide financial resources and create an enabling environment that facilitates participation and collaboration, this dissertation highlights the importance of softer mechanisms of socio-political steering by non-state actors, encompassing, for example, voluntary standard-setting, certification and reporting by corporate actors, advocacy, capacity-building and project implementation by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and knowledge production and dissemination by the scientific community. This dissertation supplements existing research on SDG interlinkages by emphasizing the potential of climate change and resilience actions to contribute to broader sustainable development. Specifically, it underscores that infrastructure enhancements (SDG 9) offer promising opportunities for fostering sustainable, climate-resilient pathways. Notably, the findings indicate a worrying tendency to prioritize the economic and social dimension of sustainable development across all governance arrangements analyzed. While context-dependent prioritization of certain SDGs is necessary and important, the comparatively low consideration of environmental goals overall can pose a severe threat to global SDG achievement. Collaborative governance arrangements involving stakeholders from diverse societal sectors, such as multi-stakeholder partner-ships (MSPs), seem promising for driving more integrated SDG implementation efforts through nexus approaches, i.e., by addressing several issue domains simultaneously. Thereby, these efforts can contribute to mitigating trade-offs and enhancing synergies between the goals, which can accelerate overall SDG achievement. However, the empirical evidence highlights that MSPs largely refrain from tackling potentially conflicting pairs of SDGs, such as SDG 12 (consumption and production) and SDG 10 (reduced inequalities), indicating untapped potential for more integrated and transformative action. While this dissertation adopts an actor-centric approach to the analysis of sustainability governance arrangements, it clearly acknowledges the importance of the structural, institutional and procedural aspects of governance for facilitating and accelerating SDG achievement. Therefore, this framework paper integrates findings on participation and collaboration, actors and their respective governance functions as well as patterns of issue prioritization and interlinkages to distill enabling factors related to these dimensions. Accordingly, the synthesis of the cumulative findings underscores the importance of harnessing complementarities, improving coherence, strengthening monitoring, review and follow-up as well as increasing accountability and commitment. Importantly, these aspects should be understood as analytical dimensions to be assessed and reflected upon within the respective context of diverse governance arrangements. While recognizing the limitations of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs, this dissertation emphasizes their crucial role in both research and practical application by offering a comprehensive guiding framework for integrated sustainable development. However, it highlights the need for governance reforms across all levels to overcome existing challenges and accelerate progress towards achieving the SDGs. This dissertation contributes to a better understanding of the complex relationship between governance arrangements and SDG achievement, offering insights for future research and informing policy and decision-making processes towards realizing the vision of the 2030 Agenda.
LanguageEnglish
KeywordsSustainability; Sustainable Development Goals; United Nations; Governance; Network Analysis; Nachhaltigkeit; Sustainable Development Goals; Vereinte Nationen; Steuerungsprozesse; Netzwerkanalyse
Date of defense2024-08-15
Year of publication in PubData2024
Publishing typeFirst publication
Date issued2024-09-20
Creation contextResearch
Granting InstitutionLeuphana Universität Lüneburg
Published byMedien- und Informationszentrum, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg
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