IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/sustdv/v31y2023i3p1214-1225.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Success factors of global goal‐setting for sustainable development: Learning from the Millennium Development Goals

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas Hickmann
  • Frank Biermann
  • Matteo Spinazzola
  • Charlotte Ballard
  • Maya Bogers
  • Oana Forestier
  • Agni Kalfagianni
  • Rakhyun E. Kim
  • Francesco S. Montesano
  • Tom Peek
  • Carole‐Anne Sénit
  • Melanie van Driel
  • Marjanneke J. Vijge
  • Abbie Yunita

Abstract

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were an important precursor to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Hence, identifying the conditions that made the MDGs successful enhances our understanding of global goal‐setting and informs the global endeavour to achieve the SDGs. Drawing on a comprehensive review of 316 articles published between 2009 and 2018, we identify six factors that have enabled or hindered MDG implementation. Our analysis stresses the importance of path dependencies and shows that the MDGs catalysed changes only for those countries with sufficient resource availability, administrative capacity and economic development, as well as adequate support from external donors. National ownership and NGO pressure bolstered efforts to implement the MDGs. These findings suggest that globally agreed goals do not easily trickle down from the global to the national level. Thus, this article adopts a forward‐looking perspective and draws key lessons for the current implementation of the SDGs in developing countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Hickmann & Frank Biermann & Matteo Spinazzola & Charlotte Ballard & Maya Bogers & Oana Forestier & Agni Kalfagianni & Rakhyun E. Kim & Francesco S. Montesano & Tom Peek & Carole‐Anne Sénit & Me, 2023. "Success factors of global goal‐setting for sustainable development: Learning from the Millennium Development Goals," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(3), pages 1214-1225, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:31:y:2023:i:3:p:1214-1225
    DOI: 10.1002/sd.2461
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.2461
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/sd.2461?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Elisa D�az-Mart�nez & Elizabeth D Gibbons, 2014. "The Questionable Power of the Millennium Development Goal to Reduce Child Mortality," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2-3), pages 203-217, July.
    2. Charles Gore, 2010. "The MDG Paradigm, Productive Capacities and the Future of Poverty Reduction," IDS Bulletin, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 41(1), pages 70-79, January.
    3. Sakiko Fukuda-Parr & Thea Smaavik Hegstad, 2018. "'Leaving no one behind' as a site of contestaion and reinterpretation," CDP Background Papers 047, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    4. Fukuda-Parr, Sakiko & Greenstein, Joshua & Stewart, David, 2013. "How Should MDG Success and Failure be Judged: Faster Progress or Achieving the Targets?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 19-30.
    5. Richards, John & Vining, Aidan R., 2015. "Universal primary education in low-income countries: The contributing role of national governance," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 174-182.
    6. Snyder, Hannah, 2019. "Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 333-339.
    7. Alice Evans, 2018. "Amplifying accountability by benchmarking results at district and national levels," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 36(2), pages 221-240, March.
    8. Anuoluwapo Abosede Durokifa & Edwin Chikata Ijeoma, 2018. "Neo-colonialism and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Africa: A blend of an old wine in a new bottle," African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(3), pages 355-366, April.
    9. Joachim H. Spangenberg, 2017. "Hot Air or Comprehensive Progress? A Critical Assessment of the SDGs," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(4), pages 311-321, July.
    10. Breuer, Anita & Leininger, Julia & Tosun, Jale, 2019. "Integrated policymaking: Choosing an institutional design for implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)," IDOS Discussion Papers 14/2019, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    11. Godwell Nhamo, 2017. "New Global Sustainable Development Agenda: A Focus on Africa," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(3), pages 227-241, May.
    12. Horn, Philipp & Grugel, Jean, 2018. "The SDGs in middle-income countries: Setting or serving domestic development agendas? Evidence from Ecuador," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 73-84.
    13. McArthur, John W. & Rasmussen, Krista, 2018. "Change of pace: Accelerations and advances during the Millennium Development Goal era," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 132-143.
    14. Jann Lay, 2012. "Millennium Development Goal Achievements and Policies in Education and Health: What Has Been Learnt?," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 30(1), pages 67-85, January.
    15. Delfin S. Go & José Alejandro Quijada, 2012. "The Odds of Achieving the MDGs," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 27(2), pages 143-184, August.
    16. Albert Arhin, 2016. "Advancing post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals in a changing development landscape: Challenges of NGOs in Ghana," Development in Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(5), pages 555-568, July.
    17. Clemens, Michael A. & Kenny, Charles J. & Moss, Todd J., 2007. "The Trouble with the MDGs: Confronting Expectations of Aid and Development Success," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 735-751, May.
    18. Casey Stevens & Norichika Kanie, 2016. "The transformative potential of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 393-396, June.
    19. Myriam Pham‐Truffert & Florence Metz & Manuel Fischer & Henri Rueff & Peter Messerli, 2020. "Interactions among Sustainable Development Goals: Knowledge for identifying multipliers and virtuous cycles," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(5), pages 1236-1250, September.
    20. Meg Elkins & Simon Feeny & David Prentice, 2018. "Are Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers Associated with Reductions in Poverty and Improvements in Well-being?," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(2), pages 377-393, February.
    21. Vandudzai Mbanda & Willem Fourie, 2020. "The 2030 Agenda and coherent national development policy: In dialogue with South African policymakers on Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(4), pages 751-758, July.
    22. March, James G., 1955. "An Introduction to the Theory and Measurement of Influence," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 49(2), pages 431-451, June.
    23. Huck-ju Kwon & Eunju Kim, 2014. "Poverty Reduction and Good Governance: Examining the Rationale of the Millennium Development Goals," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 45(2), pages 353-375, March.
    24. Myles A. Wickstead, 2010. "Holding on to the MDGs (For Now)," IDS Bulletin, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 41(1), pages 123-126, January.
    25. Richard Manning & Charlotte Harland Scott & Lawrence Haddad, 2013. "Whose Goals Count? Lessons for Setting the Next Development Goals," IDS Bulletin, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 44(5-6), pages 1-9, September.
    26. Easterly, William, 2009. "How the Millennium Development Goals are Unfair to Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 26-35, January.
    27. Alicia Ely Yamin & Vanessa M. Boulanger, 2014. "Why Global Goals and Indicators Matter: The Experience of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in the Millennium Development Goals," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2-3), pages 218-231, July.
    28. United Nations UN, 2015. "Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," Working Papers id:7559, eSocialSciences.
    29. Gita Sen & Avanti Mukherjee, 2014. "No Empowerment without Rights, No Rights without Politics: Gender-equality, MDGs and the post-2015 Development Agenda," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2-3), pages 188-202, July.
    30. Marianne Beisheim & Felicitas Fritzsche, 2022. "The UN High‐Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development: An orchestrator, more or less?," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 13(5), pages 683-693, November.
    31. Rory Horner & David Hulme, 2019. "From International to Global Development: New Geographies of 21st Century Development," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 50(2), pages 347-378, March.
    32. Rajesh Tandon, 2013. "Do MDGs Matter? India's Development Trajectory in the 21st Century," IDS Bulletin, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 44(5-6), pages 22-29, September.
    33. Peterson, Stephen Bovard, 2010. "Rethinking the Millennium Development Goals for Africa," Scholarly Articles 4621100, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    34. Paul Bertheau & Robert Lindner, 2022. "Financing sustainable development? The role of foreign aid in Southeast Asia's energy transition," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(1), pages 96-109, February.
    35. Ergül Halisçelik & Mehmet Ali Soytas, 2019. "Sustainable development from millennium 2015 to Sustainable Development Goals 2030," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(4), pages 545-572, July.
    36. Cameron Allen & Graciela Metternicht & Thomas Wiedmann, 2021. "Priorities for science to support national implementation of the sustainable development goals: A review of progress and gaps," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(4), pages 635-652, July.
    37. Michael J. Kelly, 2013. "The MDG Enterprise: Experiences and Thoughts from Zambia," IDS Bulletin, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 44(5-6), pages 34-41, September.
    38. Anthony Ware, 2011. "The MDGs in Myanmar: relevant or redundant?," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(4), pages 579-596.
    39. Abbott, Pamela & Sapsford, Roger & Binagwaho, Agnes, 2017. "Learning from Success: How Rwanda Achieved the Millennium Development Goals for Health," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 103-116.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alkire, Sabina & Nogales, Ricardo & Quinn, Natalie Naïri & Suppa, Nicolai, 2023. "On track or not? Projecting the global Multidimensional Poverty Index," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    2. Asadullah, M. Niaz & Savoia, Antonio, 2018. "Poverty reduction during 1990–2013: Did millennium development goals adoption and state capacity matter?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 70-82.
    3. Madisen Fuller & Puneet Dwivedi, 2019. "Assessing Changes in Inequality for Millennium Development Goals among Countries: Lessons for the Sustainable Development Goals," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-13, July.
    4. Dang, Hai-Anh H. & Serajuddin, Umar, 2020. "Tracking the sustainable development goals: Emerging measurement challenges and further reflections," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    5. Maria Lo Bue & Stephan Klasen, 2013. "Identifying Synergies and Complementarities Between MDGs: Results from Cluster Analysis," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 113(2), pages 647-670, September.
    6. Mariia Kostetckaia & Markus Hametner, 2022. "How Sustainable Development Goals interlinkages influence European Union countries’ progress towards the 2030 Agenda," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(5), pages 916-926, October.
    7. Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, 2013. "Global Development Goal Setting as a Policy Tool for Global Governance: Intended and Unintended Consequences," Working Papers 108, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth.
    8. Jacob, Arun, 2017. "Mind the Gap: Analyzing the Impact of Data Gap in Millennium Development Goals’ (MDGs) Indicators on the Progress toward MDGs," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 260-278.
    9. Yizhong Huan & Lingqing Wang & Mark Burgman & Haitao Li & Yurong Yu & Jianpeng Zhang & Tao Liang, 2022. "A multi‐perspective composite assessment framework for prioritizing targets of sustainable development goals," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(5), pages 833-847, October.
    10. Cuenca-García, Eduardo & Sánchez, Angeles & Navarro-Pabsdorf, Margarita, 2019. "Assessing the performance of the least developed countries in terms of the Millennium Development Goals," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 54-66.
    11. Esther Kamau & Gillian MacNaughton, 2019. "The Impact of SDG 3 on Health Priorities in Kenya," Journal of Developing Societies, , vol. 35(4), pages 458-480, December.
    12. Stephan Klasen & Simon Lange, 2011. "Getting Progress Right: Measuring Progress Towards the MDGs Against Historical Trends," Courant Research Centre: Poverty, Equity and Growth - Discussion Papers 87, Courant Research Centre PEG, revised 20 Feb 2012.
    13. Ameeta Jain & Jerry Courvisanos & Nava Subramaniam, 2021. "Localisation of the Sustainable Development Goals in an emerging nation," Public Administration & Development, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 41(5), pages 231-243, December.
    14. Go, Delfin S. & Quijada, Jose Alejandro, 2011. "Assessing the odds of achieving the MDGs," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5825, The World Bank.
    15. Matti Ylönen & Anna Salmivaara, 2021. "Policy coherence across Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals: Lessons from Finland," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 39(5), pages 829-847, September.
    16. Nikos Chatzistamoulou & Phoebe Koundouri, 2020. "SDGs Patterns Across the Globe: From Theory to Practice," DEOS Working Papers 2016, Athens University of Economics and Business.
    17. Moldalieva, Janyl & Muttaqien, Arip & Muzyamba, Choolwe & Osei, Davina & Stoykova, Eli & Le Thi Quynh, Nga, 2016. "Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): Did they change social reality?," MERIT Working Papers 2016-035, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    18. Rosa Puertas & Luisa Marti, 2023. "Regional analysis of the sustainable development of two Mediterranean countries: Spain and Italy," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(2), pages 797-811, April.
    19. Nikos Chatzistamoulou & Phoebe Koundouri, 2020. "From Theory to Practice. SDG Patterns Across the Globe," DEOS Working Papers 2006, Athens University of Economics and Business.
    20. José Antonio Rodríguez Martín & Juan Dios Jiménez Aguilera & José Antonio Salinas Fernández & José María Martín Martín, 2016. "Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5: Progress in the Least Developed Countries of Asia," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 129(2), pages 489-504, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:31:y:2023:i:3:p:1214-1225. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-1719 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.