SDG interactions in Sri Lanka

Overview

The challenge of integrating the 2030 Agenda in national policy

The Sustainable Development Goals, adopted by world leaders in 2015, outline an ambitious global agenda for sustainable development. Its 17 goals and 169 targets are interconnected, and together they create a picture of what a sustainable world could look like in 2030.

As national governments mainstream the 2030 Agenda into planning and budgeting processes, they face the complex challenge of integrating the entire set of goals and targets in a way that stays true to the foundational idea of treating the agenda as an indivisible whole.

SEI has developed the SDG Synergies approach, which governments can use to prioritize SDG targets and to identify the most effective partnerships and collaborations to achieve them. The approach provides a systematic and structured way of understanding interactions between the SDG targets, and builds a systemic and nuanced understanding of synergies and trade-offs in a particular context.

About this project

This is one of the first applications of the SDG Synergies approach to support national policy-making. It is being carried out in partnership with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA).

To ensure the project is highly relevant for national policy-making, the process is government-led throughout all stages of the project with several national consultations.

The project supports the Sri Lankan government in coherently integrating the 2030 Agenda and facilitates dialogue on the SDGs across departments and ministries in a way that is responsive to the policy community’s priorities.