Dan Banik: Taking Stock of the SDGs

Author

The chapter is written by Dan Banik.

The book is edited by Deepak Dwivedi and Pooran Pandey.

Publisher

New Delhi: NITI AYOG/ Crossbill Publishing House.

Abstract (chapter)

The emerging consensus in most academic and policy discussions is that the pace of action on achieving the SDGs is slow and that a sense of urgency is needed if the goals are to be achieved by the 2030 deadline. There is also considerable debate on the nature and type of efforts by state and non-state actors required across the 17 SDGs without losing the focus on poverty reduction. My aim in this chapter is to better understand the current status of policymaking and implementation of the 2030 Agenda at global, national and local levels. I begin with a brief overview of the contested theory of change upon which the 2030 Agenda rests and thereafter go on to critically examine three overarching and interrelated sets of challenges that are slowing down progress on the SDGs: awareness; institutional set-up, policy coherence and methods for tracking progress; and development finance.