Will the SDG Summit save the SDGs?

Only 15% of SDG targets are on track, we learned in the 2023 SDG report:

Source: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2023/

To address this, the UN will hold the SDG Summit on September 18-19 in New York focused on six leaders’ dialogues. The formal summit is preceded by an SDG mobilization day (Sept 16) and an SDG acceleration day (Sept 17). The Governments of Ireland and Qatar are co-facilitators to lead consultations on political declaration for the SDG Summit during the 77th session of the General Assembly.

According to the Secretary-General …

This segmentation into leaders dialogues, mobilization and acceleration makes sense. I fully recognize the need for political leadership (leaders dialogues) and mobilization of communities to encourage leaders to act. But a resolution (alone) is not a result. (My friend Katri Bertram recently published a blog which reached a similar diagnosis and proposed complementary solutions.)

In this blog, I focus on execution (and acceleration), which is the weak link in the chain to speeding up SDGs. I list the themes for the various segments of the SDG Summit, review the framework for the Summit, and propose improvements. I then return to the question, “Will the SDG Summit Save the SDGs?” at the end.

Coming out of the Summit it would make sense to be able to answer more holistically the question: ‘how do we speed up the SDGs?’, and to bring together all parties around a common framework to do so.

To speed up the SDGs, we will need to work together to scale concrete, tested examples and models. We will need people to act not only like diplomats but also like entrepreneurs — let’s call them ‘diplo-preneurs.’

To speed up progress and reach the SDGs, we will need to act like diplo-preneurs!

Content of the SDG Summit

I have pulled the themes from the leaders dialogues, high impact initiatives and mobilization events, as listed here, below. There’s a lot going on, to say the least! With six leaders’ dialogues, twelve high impact initiatives, and seven mobilization events, we risk fragmentation of purpose. It will be important to keep the framework of the Summit in mind.

Six “Leaders’ dialogues”

Scaling up actions on key transitions to accelerate SDG progress.

Building resilience and leaving no one behind.

Game changers: Applying science, technology, innovation and data for transformative action.

Strengthening integrated policies and public institutions for achieving the SDGs.

Unity and solidarity: Strengthening the multilateral system for enhanced support, cooperation, follow-up and review.

Mobilizing finance and investments and the means of implementation for SDG achievement.

Acceleration: Twelve “High Impact Initiatives” (plus three “special sessions”)

Energy compacts: scaling up ambition to deliver on SDG 7

Food systems transformation: transforming food systems for a sustainable world without hunger

FutureGov: Building public sector capabilities for the future

Transforming education: learning to build a better future for all

Transforming 4Trade: Paradigm shift to boost economic development

Local2030 Coalition: Pushing key transitions and achieving the SDGs by 2030

Power of data: Unlocking the data dividend for the SDGs

Nature driving economic transformation

Global accelerator: The global accelerator on jobs and social protection for just transitions

Spotlight initiative: To eliminate violence against women and girls

Digital public infrastructure: Scaling inclusive and open digital ecosystems for the SDGs

The SDG stimulus: Scaling-up long term affordable financing for the SDGs

Plus 3 “special sessions”:

Advancing sustainable development in complex settings

SDG Digital

Generation equality

Seven Mobilization events

Towards a rights-centered gender-transformative economy, including a new international financial architecture

Breaking down the barriers to leave no one behind

Catalyze no transformative change: science, academia and the journey to 2030

Torchbearers for the SDGs: Meaningful youth engagement and the 2030 agenda

Local and regional governments forum: Action and leadership front he ground up: towards the rescue plan for people and the planet

Enhancing advocacy, financing and accountability: Key messages from civil society to the SDG Summit and beyond

Unlocking the potential of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): meeting the financing gap

A common framework with concrete examples for speeding up SDGs

Is there a way to create a common framework that might bring all parties together to speed up the SDGs? The SDG Summit started with this one:

Source: https://www.un.org/en/sdg-summit-2023/page/transformative-action

This is actually quite good. It separates content (“transitions”) from methods (“means of implementation”). We could also list content as the individual SDGs or clusters of SDGs (like the transitions) to reduce their number and improve their focus, but for today I will focus on the methods / means of implementation because these are more likely to achieve the acceleration needed across the SDGs to reach the 2030 targets.

There are two ways to improve this taxonomy. First, let’s think carefully about the full range of “means of implementation” and focus on those we think can speed up the SDGs. In a previous blog series on this topic, I identified three key areas:

• Data, digital, and delivery for impact

• Innovation in products, services, and finance

• Partnerships with multi-laterals, civil society, private sector.

There are some overlaps with the list proposed for the SDG summit, in particular innovative finance (“SDG stimulus”) and data (“data dividend”). However, the list from my blog is perhaps more extensive and more actionable.

It’s also worth looking at the Global Sustainable Development Report which emphasizes “transformations through science and in science.” This transformation is extremely important but I prefer to focus on it through innovation which is putting science to work in the implementation of products and services that benefit people.

Second, let’s focus on tested and scaleable examples or models. The risk of UN meetings is to speak in generalities. If we demand to hear about actionable, scaleable and tested models, we would be able to compare them across “transitions” (or SDGs) and unite around scaling them!

The table below does both. The content-based “transitions” are in the columns. The methods-based “means of implementation” are in the rows. We would populate the cells with concrete, scaleable examples. Then we compare them across columns. And then we work together to scale them.

In my blog series on speeding the SDGs and another recent blog on “some personal news” I described tested, scaleable models from health. Here is an updated list of these to show what we could be looking for at the Summit in other areas:

Data, digital, and delivery for impact

• Data: World Health Data Hub.

• Digital: New Global Initiative on Digital Health.

• Delivery for Impact: See my earlier blog.

Innovation

• in products: WHO mRNA hub.

• in services: WHO innovation hub.

• in finance: Health Impact Investment Platform.

Partnerships

• with multi lateral agencies: SDG 3 Global Action Plan.

• with civil society: WHO Youth Council and Civil Society Commission.

• with the private sector: examples of tobacco, industrial trans fats, and shareholder activism on vaccine equity.

My thesis is that for the multi-fold acceleration needed, no amount of doubling down on content will be enough to reach the SDG targets. To double the pace — and this is the scale of increase required for some SDG targets — a more serious focus on methods of acceleration will be needed.

Accompanying this, improvement in the effectiveness and efficiency of institutions to deliver the content and methods is also needed. In particular, multilateral agencies have a special role to play in supporting countries to speed up SDGs. But this “results-based multilateralism” is beyond the scope of today’s blog.

Conclusions

Will the SDG Summit save the SDGs? No, because no summit can be expected to do that. But a Summit can take stock on what is working and what is not and give clarity to actions that follow to scale tested models and examples.

Massive effort needs to be put into speeding up implementation, and unless we turn our focus to implementation, we will not achieve the SDGs. Concrete examples and models, if taken to scale, could speed up the SDGs. This is something we can all do together at the SDG Summit and beyond. Let’s populate the table with concrete initiatives that are working.

If you are attending or watching the SDG Summit, please tweet your favourite concrete examples at me @peterasinger or add them to the comments below.

I will follow up this blog after the Summit with my impressions.

Next year there will be a follow up known as the Summit of the Future. Imagine if this was used as a platform for taking stock of the scaling of concrete, tested examples across SDGs!

I have no doubt that the good people in the UN Secretariat and the countries facilitating these Summits would share the same goal of speeding up the SDGs.

To speed up SDGs, let’s resist rhetoric and reward results!