What comes after the UN Sustainable Development Goals?
Our final What Comes After the SDGs? saw guests join us for another vibrant discussion on the future of sustainable development with our interdisciplinary, international and multi-sectoral panel.
Henrik Skaug Sætra from Østfold University College, Zaakira Mohamed from the Mina Foundation, Jessica Hope from St Andrews University, and Rosanna Lewis from British Council discussed everything from whether sustainable development is a valid term, through to the potential impact of the goals on communities.
The session was chaired by University of Leeds Director of Educational Engagement Louise Banahene.
You can now watch the full recording of the discussion here:
Throughout the discussion, panellists shared their views on what the limitations are for the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), exploring how the very process of building a consensus globally has depoliticised these, and weakened their potential for meaningful impact.
The panel discussed the challenges facing implementation; the problematic nature of picking a sub-section of goals to reinforce other agendas; the potential of culture in offering more meaningful approaches to regional and local priorities; and how technology can either help dramatically reduce or increase global inequalities.
They also explored what kind of model would follow the SDGs, and whether it’s time to look at separate frameworks for the global north, and global south.
The following are a selection of quotes shared by our panellists, to illustrate some of the points covered by the discussion. To enjoy the full, engaging and lively conversation, we recommend watching the recording of the event listed above.
Using the term ‘Sustainable Development’ is problematic
“I think when it comes to thinking about sustainable development, older critiques still hold. And one of them is that it’s an oxymoron, that the way that mainstream development is defined and practised, is just not sustainable.”
Jessica Hope
What are the challenges to sustainable development?
I think there’s a real danger […] that people are just putting the SDGs up on their websites because it looks good. And they’re communicating that they’re committed to some greater good without that translating into action of any kind. So, for many companies, that’s the problem for the SDGs, because it diminishes the value of the SDGs, it dilutes them, because people see them everywhere. People see that connection with lack of action.
Henrik Skaug Sætra
What are the real-world impacts of work surrounding the Sustainable Development Goals?
“The main thing for me is that the journey has taught us that period products affect your health affects education, the environment, human rights, the economy. We found that the menstrual cup was the most sustainable, eco-friendly product for girls, and a way to end period poverty so we can tackle other social injustices affecting our young girls. In doing this work we have learned, along the way, that this kind of product, which is safe and healthy, is actually linked to at least 10 SDGs.”
Zaakira Mohamed
“I’ve done most of my research in places like Bolivia. It’s a really important place for negotiating trajectories of sustainability, because they have massive fossil fuel energy extraction, backed by the state, but they also have a plenary national state. So, there’s a majority indigenous population, multiple different indigenous governments and a big decolonizing agenda. But also this history of radical engagement with development, namely rejecting development as a terrible imported concept — too linear, too focused on progress, and thinking instead about alternatives to development.”
Jessica Hope
“It’s not a new concept that we’re parachuting down onto them, “have you thought about development? And do you know about these SDGs things?” A lot of them are already doing this amazing practice on the ground. They’re just not calling it SDGs or development. The issue is that those stories, those approaches that are more human-centred and more based on people’s cultures and lived experiences are not being told across other sectors and to policymakers. And so, the decisions that are being made in the policies and laws and systems that we’re all operating in [are not based on] grassroots and cultural knowledge. It’s coming from a much more economical, political model that is based on power and extraction and oppression.”
Rosanna Lewis
Culture as an integral part of implementing the SDGs
“I think there’s a misconception when we use the word arts and culture that we’re talking about the sector, and the artists in the cultural sector should address the SDGs, that arts and culture is the solution to development. It is more on the lines around reimagining a system that works for every one that is going to be transformational, that is based on local contexts and people-centred approaches.”
Rosanna Lewis
The limitations of technologies
“We can’t fix [global issues] with technology. The hype around AI today is that there’s a lot of solution-ism here. We make some new products, and we tried find some way to use this technology to fix our existing problems, and sometimes it could work. But most often, it won’t really solve the fundamental, social, economical or environmental problems. Technology has a tendency to promote inequalities, more so than to fix inequalities… It contributes more to concentration of both power and capital, than to democratisation or more sustainable development.
Henrik Skaug Sætra
What comes after the Sustainable Development Goals?
“It’s really interesting to ask, now that we’re halfway, ‘what comes after the SDGs?’ Because these are really heavy stretch goals, and we’re not even close to kind of achieving any of them. We’re not on track to achieving any of the SDGs right now. But people still want to work towards them, so what happens once we open the door to saying ‘the SDGs, they’re done in 2030’? What happens then to the motivation? I think there’s a reason not too many people have started looking past as the SDGs already, as we’re so committed to working towards reaching them.”
Henrik Skaug Sætra
If you would like to hear more from our panelists, you can follow the link to this event above. You can also watch recordings of our first panel, and our second panel.
If you would like to hear more about our work looking beyond the UN Sustainable Development Goals, please visit the Horizons Institute Headline Theme page.
