The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is an action plan adopted by the United Nations (UN) in 2015 aiming to achieve universal sustainability and a prosperous future. The issues covered by the agenda touch every person’s life in a different way, as the issues addressed are cross-cutting and universal.

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States widely agree that the SDGs should be implemented, but the diverse nature of the goals and the states themselves, makes their implementation very different. Alongside states, there are many actors involved with the SDGs like international organizations, Civil Society Organisations, local formal and non-formal actors, whose interactions are very complex. Governing this multilevel system is inherently complicated in ensuring accountability and efficiency of the implementation of SDGs. The states stand at the centre of the current model of governing the implementation, but its proven inefficiency has increased the attention to finding new models that include other actors in policy-making, aiming for wider cooperation and more efficiency. For example, states following the 2030 Agenda have agreed to deliver their annual Voluntary National Review, but not all countries comply with this pledge, or are objective in their evaluation, thus calling for new ways to accelerate progress in the 2030 Agenda.

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With the state-centred model being ineffective in achieving visible progress, the implementation of the 2030 Agenda is now a challenge to the existing forms of implementation and decision-making. Considering the importance and the diverse nature of the SDGs, also noting that Partnership for the Goals is the SDG 17 itself, there is a need to address the issues set out. Firstly, because the commitment by countries to implement the Agenda is voluntary, international actors can't hold them accountable if they fail to implement the agenda. Secondly, the way policies are created and implemented differs between states, and even between regions or cities, thus proving a challenge for the establishment of a universal reporting system. Thirdly, non-state actors are not part of most systems of formal decision-making, while the work of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), Expert Groups or Networks and NGOs and often provide more effective actions.

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Finally, the interest of states in implementing the SDGs differs from the overarching interest of the UN itself and other actors that push for implementation, because what might be a priority elsewhere, might be considered not as such in another. The key element to understanding why the international implementation of the SDGs is vital, is because the issues in the 2030 Agenda are global and affect each state and person on the planet, though in different ways.

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Collaborative governance is a model that brings together in various levels the public and private actors in decision-making, with the aim of producing efficient policies. In this model, vertical collaboration (national to local) and horizontal collaboration (among cities, states, organisations) are both part of an effective governance for the implementation of SDGs. The challenge remains in determining the effectiveness of a governance system which needs to cover the system of accountability, legal framework, transparency and the means of cooperation among all actors. Lessons from current reports show that embracing NGOs and expert-based CSOs’ work into local or national policy implementation is more efficient in achieving progress in the 2030 Agenda. A model of such governance offers an option for all actors to send and receive feedback on the SDGs, with the chance to create and apply efficient policies. Social labs for example are a way of addressing complex systemic problems by bringing together multiple stakeholders to incentivise social change, like the Open Government Partnership organisation, collaboratio helvetica in Switzerland or the Gipuzkoa Lab in the Basque Country, Spain.

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Every citizen is impacted by the SDGs, and in the strive for efficient solutions, policies should include all groups of interest. The cooperation of governments as public policy makers, with actors that represent all the groups in the society, adds the voice and ideas of all groups to the cause of implementing the SDGS. All in all, efficient implementation of the 2030 Agenda is directly linked to having an effective framework of cooperation where policy-makers (governments) are accountable for implementing efficient SDG-related policies that cover the needs of all citizens, together with non-state actors in all levels of governance. Your first step into this topic, is in knowing what You are (or not) able to do in that aspect.

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