Thinking Beyond Sectors for Sustainable Development

Edited by Prof Jeff Waage and Christopher Yap from the London International Development Centre, Thinking Beyond Sectors for Sustainable Development stems from an interdisciplinary project that began in 2013. This project marks the collaboration of over 30 academics from a wide range of disciplines and across six London colleges to discuss the emerging discourse around the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). One outcome of the project was a series of summaries on seven identified development sectors, which not only look at the historical experience of and current debate on goal setting surrounding Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but also the likely interaction between the MDGs and other development targets such as the SDGs. As the project explored the nature of interactions and potential implications for global development, it concluded that a less well-researched question was: “How would such a diverse set of goals and interactions be effectively governed and delivered?” (page viii). As such, a key output of this collaborative project became a new framework and perspective that identifies the opportunities and challenges for governance of future development goals.

Part I, “Perspectives on the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda”, includes the individual disciplinary sector summaries prepared by the groups of academics. These are: Biodiversity and ecosystems; Climate and climate change; Urbanisation and urban poverty reduction in low- and middle-income countries; Human health; Population growth; Agriculture and food; and Education, information and knowledge. All seven chapters follow a similar structure, as each answer three primary questions: (1) What is the historical process by which goal setting in this sector has developed? (2) What progress has been achieved in this sector through the MDGs and other processes? And (3) what is the current debate about future goal setting? (pages 3–5).

To conclude Part I, Chapter 8, by Niheer Dasandi, David Hudson and Tom Pegram, discusses the overarching issue of governance and institutions. In this they aim to clarify the status of governance in international goal setting. They also highlight political challenges that will likely face the SDGs in future (page 63).

Part II, “Thinking Beyond Sectors”, comprises of two chapters. Evolving from the disciplinary reflections set out in Part I, Jeff Waage and colleagues develop an interdisciplinary approach and a framework for thinking beyond sectors in Chapter 9. This new conceptualization of the 17 SDGs and their interactions is subsequently used to illustrate “how potential synergies might be exploited and conflicts mitigated in their implementation” (page xiii).

Following this framework, Chapter 10 builds a case study on sexual and reproductive health and education. Susannah Mayhew and colleagues select three of the SDGs (health, education and gender) to examine their interactions and the challenges of governing them (page 89). This case study emphasizes that success of the SDGs rests upon both establishing and implementing effective cross-sector governance (page 106).

As we transition from eight MDGS to 17 SDGs, this book produces a concise, informative and interdisciplinary resource for all who are keen to understand the process and progress of the MDGs and debates on the SDGs, in particular the role of governance in the effective implementation of such targets.

Book note prepared by Hannah Keren Lee