Project
Governing SDG interactions in East-Africa
Numerous governments, businesses, and civil society organisations aim to contribute to achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals in the global South. However, cherry-picking SDGs coupled with lack of alignment between initiatives means trade-offs are not addressed and opportunities for synergy are missed. This project investigates SDG interactions in East-Africa and cross-sector and cross-level alignment mechanisms to govern these interactions.
Project updates
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Publication in World Development
- An article elaborating the theoretical framework of the project on "Alignment mechanisms to effectively govern the sustainable development goals" has been published in the journal World Development. -
Mid-Term Workshop Governing SDG Interactions in East-Africa
- In a three-day event, taking place from March 4-6, 2024, we brought together researchers, policymakers, and stakeholders from across East Africa to discuss progress on the Governing SDG Interactions in East-AFrica Project. The central question in the project is about synergies and trade-offs between the SDGs and how these can be governed (www.wur.eu/sdgs). -
Multi-level and multi-actor interactions in governing SDG 15 in Ethiopia: Stakeholder Workshop
- The Water and Land Resource Center and Ethiopia PhD researchers successfully conducted a one-day multi-stakeholder workshop on 15 January 2024 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The workshop brought together multiple stakeholders involved in realizing the objectives of SDG 15, specifically landscape restoration targets in Lake Tana sub-basin. The aim of the workshop was to explore stakeholders’ motivations, interests, and roles within landscape restoration initiatives. Additionally, the event aimed to map synergies and trade-offs SDG 15 presents on other SDGs (notably, SDG 2, SDG 6, SDG 13). The workshop convened state and non-state actors (Donors, NGOs, CSOs, Academia, Research Institutes, Government Agencies) operating in Lake Tana sub-basin -
Kenya Stakeholder Workshop of the Governing SDG Interactions project
- On the 28th of November 2023, the partners implementing the WUR-lead Governing SDG Interactions Project in Kenya, that is the Africa Research and Impact Network (ARIN), African Centre for Technology studies (ACTS) and the International Livestock research Institute (ILRI), organized a one-day workshop in Nairobi. The workshop was planned purposefully as an initial stride to introduce the governing SDG interactions project to diverse stakeholders in Kenya, to understand the stakeholder expectations from the project as well as identify pressing needs of the stakeholders that the project can contribute to and finally co-design the key research and impact pathways moving forward. -
Prof. Art Dewulf speaks at the UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development
- In the Voluntary National Review Lab on "Bridging Gaps and Forging Partnerships to Enhance Reporting on SDGs in Africa" at the High-Level Political Forum for Sustainable Development, Prof. Art Dewulf shared insights from his project on "Governing SDG interactions in East Africa". -
"Governing SDG Interactions" International Project Workshop and Policy Dialogue
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Policy Dialogue "Addressing SDG trade-offs and synergies in East-Africa"
- The first International Policy Dialogue on "Addressing SDG trade-offs and synergies in East-Africa" took place on 22 June 2022 at Wageningen University and Research.
Project summary
Progress towards achieving the SDGs is hampered by international development projects duplicating efforts on the ground; lack of coherence between donor policies; misalignment between national policies and multilateral development programmes; and diverging private sector investments. Aligning SDG efforts by these public and private actors operating across levels has itself become a challenge that will determine whether SDGs will be met in 2030.
Together with our international, Dutch and East-African partners, this project studies the effectiveness of governance mechanisms that aim to align SDG efforts between:
- different government departments
- donors and recipients
- different donors
- public and private initiatives
We aim to support better alignment between development actors and efforts, so as to minimise trade-offs, maximise synergies, and achieve the SDGs in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda.
In each case study country, one SDG is the starting point for studying trade-offs and synergies with other SDGs:
- Ethiopia: Multi-level study of interactions with SDG15 (Life on land): the challenge of landscape restoration
- Kenya: Multi-level study of interactions with SDG2 (No hunger): the challenge of climate-smart livestock
- Uganda: Multi-level study of interactions with SDG6 (Clean water and sanitation): the urban water-energy-food nexus
