From Summits to Solutions ― Innovations in Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals

A positive agenda for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030

All 193 member nations of the United Nations agreed in September 2015 to adopt a set of seventeen "Sustainable Development Goals," to be achieved by 2030. Each of the goals—in such areas as education and health car —is laudable in and of itself, and governments and organizations are working hard on them. But so far there is no overall, positive agenda of what new things need to be done to ensure the goals are achieved across all nations.

In a search of fresh approaches to the longstanding problems targeted by the Sustainable Development Goals, the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the Global Economy and Development program at Brookings mounted a collaborative research effort to advance implementation of Agenda 2030. This edited volume is the product of that effort.

The book approaches the UN's goals through three broad lenses.

The first considers new approaches to capturing value. Examples include Nigeria's first green bonds, practical methods to expand women's economic opportunities, benchmarking to reflect business contributions to achieving the goals, new incentives for investment in infrastructure, and educational systems that promote cross-sector problem solving.

The second lens entails new approaches to targeting places, including oceans, rural areas, fast-growing developing cities, and the interlocking challenge of data systems, including geospatial information generated by satellites.

The third lens focuses on updating governance, broadly defined. Issues include how civil society can align with the SDG challenge; how an advanced economy like Canada can approach the goals at home and abroad; what needs to be done to foster new approaches for managing the global commons; and how can multilateral institutions for health and development finance evolve.

Raj Desai is a visiting fellow in Global Economy and Development at Brookings Institution, and associate professor of international development in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Previously, he was a member of the core team for the World Bank's World Development Report unit.

Hiroshi Kato is senior vice president of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, overseeing several departments (Africa, Infrastructure and Peacebuilding, Rural Development, Domestic Strategy and Partnership) and JICA-University Alliance for Development Studies. Previously, he served as director of the JICA Research Institute.

Homi Kharas is the interim vice president and director of Global Economy and Development at Brookings Institution. He has served as the lead author and executive secretary of the secretariat supporting the High Level Panel advising the U.N. secretary general on the post-2015 development agenda (2012–13).