How Can We Accelerate Transformations to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? Insights from the 2023 Global Sustainable Development Report (Policy Brief, No. 158)

Key Messages

» Progress on the SDGs requires integrated approaches operating at a systemic level that address multiple goals simultaneously. Interventions toward progress on a given target must also generate positive synergies with other targets, while resolving tradeoffs.

» Transformative change does not follow a linear path, and policy needs will vary across contexts and phases of transformation. Policies should respond to impediments unique to each phase

– emergence, acceleration, or stabilization. » New capacities are needed in all countries for cohesive, forwardlooking, and science-based SDG action. This includes capacity in foresight analysis, innovation and strategy development, risk management, negotiation, mediation, and building resilience.

» Investments need to be scaled up in science that can drive necessary transformations, especially in the Global South, including “socially robust” science that speaks to contemporary social challenges and that engages diverse stakeholders.