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An imperfect vision of indivisibility in the Sustainable Development Goals

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Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are presented as highly connected: an ‘interrelated’ and ‘indivisible’ agenda with a need for policy coherence for implementation. We analyse the relationships among the goals using formal systems analysis and find that the connections between goals are uneven, with a failure to integrate gender equality, peace and governance concerns. This incoherence may undermine policy initiatives aimed at developing approaches to implement the SDGs.

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Fig. 1: Variation in the network characteristics of the SDGs.
Fig. 2: Ranking of the interconnectedness of SDGs using network metrics.

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Data availability

The data and code that support the findings of this study are available in the Supplementary Information.

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Acknowledgements

G.B.S. acknowledges the support of E. J. Stewart and R. I. Stewart, as well as the Modelling Evidence and Policy research group.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally to this work: Graham Long, Matthew J. Grainger.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

    Philip J. K. McGowan, Gavin B. Stewart & Matthew J. Grainger

  2. School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

    Graham Long

Authors
  1. Philip J. K. McGowan
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  2. Gavin B. Stewart
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  3. Graham Long
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  4. Matthew J. Grainger
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Contributions

The idea was conceived by G.B.S. and P.J.K.M. G.L. led on the political dimensions of the work. M.J.G. led and undertook the analyses. All authors contributed equally to this work.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gavin B. Stewart.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Methods, Supplementary Figure 1, Supplementary R code, Supplementary References 1–9

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McGowan, P.J.K., Stewart, G.B., Long, G. et al. An imperfect vision of indivisibility in the Sustainable Development Goals. Nat Sustain 2, 43–45 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0190-1

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