Translation Is n‐Way, not One‐Way: Tracing Textual Pathways of Global Policy Into Local in Ethiopia

To be reached, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) must be meaningfully translated from the global to the national and local levels. Although such translation brings local perspectives into policies, existing evidence suggests that problems nonetheless arise. This study focuses on tracing the textual pathways from the SDGs to Ethiopia's National Development Plan. Using Steiner‐Khamsi's notion of global‐to‐local policy translation, we ask: How do national‐level texts align with or integrate the global SDGs and become reflected at the local level? The results indicate that translational processes are contingent on a chain of meaning creation, transmission, and interpretation as policies travel from global to local contexts. Thus, this study claims that global‐to‐local translation entails the conscious selection and re‐creation of locally appropriate texts. This highlights how, in the translation process, adding, transforming, or otherwise deviating from the original content to adapt to a local context can cause tensions, dilemmas, and paradoxes.