Interactions between Health and the Sustainable Development Goals: The Case of the Democratic Republic of Congo

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Abstract

A systematic and contextualized assessment of the interactions between the Sustainable Development Goals and health in the Democratic Republic of Congo is currently lacking. This study aimed to characterize and classify the linkages between the Sustainable Development Goals in the DRC with a focus on health and well-being. In this semi-qualitative participatory study, 35 experts assessed 240 interactions between 16 of the 17 SDGs during a two-day workshop in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, using a scale from +3 (strongly promoting) to −3 (strongly restricting). SDG 16 (Peace, justice, and strong institutions) had the strongest promoting influence on other goals and was identified as a key priority for the DRC to attain the SDGs. Progress on SDG 3 (good health and well-being) was perceived as promoting progress on most SDGs, and through second-order interactions, a positive feedback loop was identified. Furthermore, progress on the other SDGs was deemed to promote progress on SDG 3, with SDG 16 having the greatest positive potential when second-order interactions were taken into account. Our results show the importance of recognizing synergies and trade-offs concerning the interactions between health and other SDGs and that it is imperative to set up structures bringing together different sectors to accelerate work towards achieving the 2030 Agenda.

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A Systematic Study of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Interactions

Prajal Pradhan, Luis Cadillon Costa, Diego Rybski … (2017)

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Mapping interactions between the sustainable development goals: lessons learned and ways forward

Måns Nilsson, Elinor Chisholm, David Griggs … (2018)

Pursuing integrated research and decision-making to advance action on the sustainable development goals (SDGs) fundamentally depends on understanding interactions between the SDGs, both negative ones (“trade-offs”) and positive ones (“co-benefits”). This quest, triggered by the 2030 Agenda, has however pointed to a gap in current research and policy analysis regarding how to think systematically about interactions across the SDGs. This paper synthesizes experiences and insights from the application of a new conceptual framework for mapping and assessing SDG interactions using a defined typology and characterization approach. Drawing on results from a major international research study applied to the SDGs on health, energy and the ocean, it analyses how interactions depend on key factors such as geographical context, resource endowments, time horizon and governance. The paper discusses the future potential, barriers and opportunities for applying the approach in scientific research, in policy making and in bridging the two through a global SDG Interactions Knowledge Platform as a key mechanism for assembling, systematizing and aggregating knowledge on interactions.

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Towards systemic and contextual priority setting for implementing the 2030 Agenda

Nina Weitz, Henrik Carlsen, Måns Nilsson … (2017)

How the sustainable development goals (SDGs) interact with each other has emerged as a key question in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, as it has potentially strong implications for prioritization of actions and their effectiveness. So far, analysis of interactions has been very basic, typically starting from one SDG, counting the number of interactions, and discussing synergies and trade-offs from the perspective of that issue area. This paper pushes the frontier of how interactions amongst SDG targets can be understood and taken into account in policy and planning. It presents an approach to assessing systemic and contextual interactions of SDG targets, using a typology for scoring interactions in a cross-impact matrix and using network analysis techniques to explore the data. By considering how a target interacts with another target and how that target in turn interacts with other targets, results provide a more robust basis for priority setting of SDG efforts. The analysis identifies which targets have the most and least positive influence on the network and thus guides, where efforts may be directed (and not); where strong positive and negative links sit, raising warning flags to areas requiring extra attention; and how targets that reinforce each others’ progress cluster, suggesting where important cross-sectoral collaboration between actors is merited. How interactions play out is context specific and the approach is tested on the case of Sweden to illustrate how priority setting, with the objective to enhance progress across all 17 SDGs, might change if systemic impacts are taken into consideration. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11625-017-0470-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.