The sustainable development goals: from global to local governance

Convenors: Kristina Jönsson and Magdalena Bexell, Department of Political Science, Lund University

Contact: kristina.jonsson@svet.lu.se

The panel is open to paper contributions exploring the recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their conditions of realisation. The new goals merge traditional development issues—such as poverty reduction, health and education—with environmental concerns and address not only low- and middle-income countries but also high-income countries. The panel explores governance challenges related to this holistic approach at all levels: local, national, regional, transnational and global. This includes agenda-setting processes and consultations on the SDGs and their indicators, the goals’ relationship to existing policies as well as upcoming implementation challenges. How do, for instance, the SDGs relate to existing policies, visions or agreements on sustainable development at different governance levels? What conflicts arise as globally adopted goals make their way towards national level policy making and local governance processes? In what way do the SDGs, and the broader Agenda 2030, affect stakeholder composition and power relations in the field of development? What lessons can be learnt from the governance of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in relation to the new goals? What can the MDGs and SDGs tell us about the power of numbers and measurement in steering policy priorities? We envisage concepts such as governance, legitimacy, ownership, responsibility, accountability, and power (structural, financial, normative, or epistemic) to be central in the paper contributions. The panel welcomes theoretical, empirical as well as methodologically oriented studies and is open to the full range of approaches nurturing the development research field.

Session A: 23 Aug., 14:00–15:30, De Geer Lecture Hall

• Legitimation of the Sustainable Development Goals: a conceptual framework. Kristina Jönsson and Magdalena Bexell, Lund University.
• The United Nations Organization, SDGs, and National Development aspirations in Papua New Guinea. Graham Hassall, Victoria University of Wellington.
• National and local public private partnerships for development (PPPD).  A way to achieve the SDGs? Virginia Rodríguez Nuño de la Rosa, University of Madrid.
• Toward a Conceptual Expansion of Ownership and Post-2015 Global Development Policy: Illustrations from the Jamaican Experience. Vaughn F. Graham, University of the West Indies.

Session B: 23 Aug., 16:00–17:30, De Geer Lecture Hall

• Tackling the sanitation enigma: addressing barriers to change sanitation practices and hygiene behaviors in sub-Saharan Africa. Nelson Ekane, KTH Royal Institute of Technology; Marianne Kjellén, Stockholm International Water Institute and Hans Westlund, KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
• Global efforts towards quality education for all: Evidence and reflections from an international and comparative educational perspective. Vinayagum Chinapah, Stockholm University.
• Exploring Universal Primary Education (UPE) Policy: The road-map towards inclusive and equitable quality education in Uganda. Stella B. Kyohairwe, Uganda Management Institute.
• Eco-social work for poverty alleviation in coastal areas of Mauritius: from research to practice. Komalsingh Rambaree, University of Gävle.

Abstracts

Legitimation of the Sustainable Development Goals: a conceptual framework. Kristina Jönsson and Magdalena Bexell, Lund University.

The paper aims to study how legitimacy is generated and challenged in national level translation processes of globally adopted development policies. Specifically, we explore the United Nations’ (UN) new Sustainable Development Goals. The UN General Assembly’s adoption of the new goals has triggered a translation process of those into domestic policymaking with ensuing legitimation challenges that, we argue, condition implementation prospects. When scholars have focused on legitimacy in global governance, they have primarily debated the normative standards against which international organizations should be judged. In contrast, we study the processes and sources that shape perceptions of legitimacy among development actors. Our theoretical framework includes a spectrum of legitimation and delegitimation strategies, a conceptualisation of the authors, audiences, and objects of legitimation, and the legitimacy sources and country level factors that condition legitimation processes. This explorative paper sketches a conceptual framework that can be used in future empirical studies as part of a larger research project that will include Ghana and Tanzania as case studies. Both countries have high stakes in the Sustainable Development Goals but differ in how far they have come in socio-economic development as well as in degree of democratic consolidation. These are factors that we argue impact the conditions of national level legitimation and delegitimation. The paper uses illustrative empirical examples drawing on UN documentation of the post-2015 country level consultation processes conducted in Ghana and Tanzania since 2012.

The United Nations Organization, SDGs, and National Development aspirations in Papua New Guinea. Graham Hassall, Victoria University of Wellington.

Papua New Guinea, the largest of the Pacific Islands Countries (population 7.3 million), made only average progress toward the MDGs during 2000-2015. Its rank on the Human Development Index in 2015 was 158, and its HDI score has risen from just .323 in 1980 to .505 in 2015. Despite this modest progress, Papua New Guinea has ambitious development aspirations, as set out in “Vision 2015”, its domestically-generated vision statement about advancing the into the top 50 “healthy, wealthy and wise” countries by 2050. Presumably, improved future development outcomes will result from improved governance practices. This paper explores the relationship between domestic actors, such as the public sector and parliament on the one hand, and global development partners such as the UN and its various agencies on the other. Development planning and implementation during the SDGs 2015-2030, if it is to yield higher returns on investment, will have to pay closer attention to the quality of global policy networks and their interface with national and regional partners. Papua New Guinea has the potential to do this, as it has plentiful natural resources, an emerging civil society and NGO community, an expanding media, and an increasingly capable public sector.

National and local public private partnerships for development (PPPD). A way to achieve the SDGs? Virginia Rodríguez Nuño de la Rosa, University of Madrid.

The recently launched Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) promote partnerships for achieving these goals. These partnerships were also promoted by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), where the participation of the private sector in development was considered of high relevance. The private sector considers these partnerships as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative. This is the case of the Mining Programme of Solidarity with People (PMSP), a partnership for development between the mining sector and the Peruvian State, in which around 39 mining companies compromised, initially from 2006 to 2011, to collaborate with subnacional governments and/or local communities of their zones of influence to achieve the development goals, defined previously by the Peruvian state. Many of these goals were part of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). However, the decentralization process was already being implemented since 2002. This implied that the State was now divided in three different levels of governments, and each of them had to achieve the legitimation from their citizens. The extractive policies promoted by the national level of government do not have the same acceptance at the local level. This has caused many conflicts and has affected, in some cases, national governance.  In this context, it is interesting to explore if the PMSP has contributed to local development and what have been the effects of this alliance in the legitimation or delegitimation of local governments. Through two case studies, some answers will be provided in order to reflect on how to better achieve the SDGs through partnerships.

Toward a Conceptual Expansion of Ownership and Post-2015 Global Development Policy: Illustrations from the Jamaican Experience. Vaughn F. Graham, University of the West Indies.

Is ‘ownership’ still relevant to the Post-2015 era? Since 2000, global efforts concentrated on reforming prescriptive aid relationships by promoting ownership by recipient countries. However, there have been many challenges operationalizing ownership at the country and sectoral levels, and the Post-2015 era will present more challenges. This is because traditional donors, private sectors, and philanthropic actors will now need to partner to finance the Post- 2015 Global Goals, and it is unclear how recipients will retain meaningful ownership. This article discusses how ownership is not monolithic, as different understandings have always been simultaneously reflected and challenged though time. In so doing it proposes analytical clarity around the concept, and raises questions and implications for Post-2015 development practice.

Tackling the sanitation enigma: addressing barriers to change sanitation practices and hygiene behaviors in sub-Saharan Africa. Nelson Ekane, KTH Royal Institute of Technology; Marianne Kjellén, Stockholm International Water Institute and Hans Westlund, KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

The mystery of sanitation and hygiene behavior change needs to be resolved if we are to attain the sanitation target of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG): adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all by 2030. Only 30% of the population in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) use improved sanitation. To change this, we must improve our understanding of: What keeps people from adopting healthier hygiene behaviors and sanitation practices? Which approaches work on the ground to change behaviors and improve sanitation systems? What accelerates progress in sustainable sanitation service coverage? This multi-stakeholder research combines qualitative and quantitative methods to examine sanitation and hygiene compliance and enforcement regimes. Looking at national policy (macro level), program implementation (meso) and household behaviors (micro), it examines the multiple barriers to behavior change in selected rural and peri-urban areas, and investigates how the barriers are tackled by different approaches to sanitation program implementation, e.g. Community Led Total Sanitation and Community Health Clubs. The research addresses root causes of compliance gaps and aims to show what it takes to overcome them i.e. to end open defecation and ensure access and use of toilet facilities and to instill proper hygiene habits. Improving understanding of the above issues and how best they can be tackled in tandem by all stakeholders including households is a major task deserving high priority as we work towards the sanitation SDG. Any headway into dealing with these issues early in the SDG timeframe is instrumental in ensuring meaningful progress.

Global efforts towards quality education for all: Evidence and reflections from an international and comparative educational perspective. Vinayagum Chinapah, Stockholm University.

Within the new global frameworks for implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), education is increasingly seen to be a powerful tool for preparing students to enter the labor market, as well as to create a peaceful and sustainable society. International and comparative educational research conducted on the achievement of the Education for All (EFA) goals has clearly revealed that despite important efforts accomplished in many countries, there are still serious challenges in terms of the quality of education that is offered. The panel will examine the extent to which a minimum Quality of Education For All (QEFA) can be reached through effective use and application of evidence-based international and comparative educational research. Global efforts to attain QEFA are examined by investigating major international surveys of learning outcomes. The case of Arab states demonstrates diverse socio economic and political contexts of each country and should be reflected in regional strategies to achieve QEFA. Evidence from data on national, regional and international assessments indicates that low achievement is globally widespread, and stronger government intervention will be needed. This panel of four members will demonstrate that the diversity of learning conditions and environment across and within countries should be carefully reflected into quality assurance by enhancing each individual’s learning potentials. The members will focus on QEFA, vocational education, gender, and information and communications technology (ICT) in education. 

Exploring Universal Primary Education (UPE) Policy: The road-map towards inclusive and equitable quality education in Uganda. Stella B. Kyohairwe, Uganda Management Institute.

Since 1997 when UPE was introduced in Uganda, like in most of Sab-Saharan Africa, substantial gains have been made towards increasing total enrolment and reaching gender parity in in Uganda.  From a net Enrolment was 3.1 million pupils in  in 1996 to 8.5 % in 2014  with a closing  boy-girl  gap in the enrolment, Uganda would be considered as performing well  by close of the  2015 millennium Development Goals in this area. These gains well registered and acknowledged however, the staggering completion rates and quality of the pupils under UPE consistently remain high on scale. Evident tendencies to downplay the relevance of UPE quality arguments keep dominating the public policy evaluations. However, as we may clearly note, the Sustainable Development Goal 4 re-emphasise inclusive and quality education for by re-directing the focus from equitable enrolment that is so far almost attained to completion of free primary education for both girls and boys and secondary schooling by 2030. It also aims to provide equal access to affordable vocational training, and to eliminate gender and wealth disparities with the aim of achieving universal access to a quality higher education. This paper basing on the progress made in the Millennium Development Goals in this area, explores the current strategies for achieving inclusive and equitable quality education in Uganda by 2030 and suggests areas of improvement. Primary and secondary empirical data will form a basis for the write-up.  

Eco-social work for poverty alleviation in coastal areas of Mauritius: from research to practice. Komalsingh Rambaree, University of Gävle.

Social work is a practice-based profession and an academic discipline that promotes social change and development, social cohesion, and the empowerment and liberation of people. One of the main tasks of social work is to alleviate poverty through interventions (research and practice) for enhancing human well-being. This paper aims to present and appraise a case-study on eco-social work (with a systemic perspective on human-environment interactions) interventions at micro (individuals), mezzo (families, groups) and macro (communities, systems, policies) levels, for poverty alleviation in coastal areas of Mauritius. Mauritius is a small island states that is trying to promote sustainable development through the ‘Maurice Ile Durable’ (Mauritius – A Sustainable Island) concept.  The discussion section of the paper is grounded on data from several studies (both qualitative and quantitative) under taken by the author between the years from 2008 to 2016 in coastal areas of Mauritius. Using a case-study approach and an eco-social work theoretical perspective, this paper answers the following questions: What are the research findings on the challenges in eco-social work practice for poverty alleviation?  How can research on links between ecosystem services and human wellbeing support poverty alleviation?