Our Approach
The SDSN accelerates SDG achievement worldwide through global cooperation, education, and science-based solutions.
Our Vision
Today, the world faces unprecedented acute, complex, and transboundary sustainable development challenges. As we progress into the second half of the 2030 Agenda, we are far off target on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the objectives of the Paris Agreement and have lost ground in recent years due to the rising impacts of climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing conflict, geopolitical tensions, societal fragmentation, and the shortcomings of the global governance and financial architecture.
We cannot continue business as usual to achieve major SDG breakthroughs by 2030 and beyond; decrease emissions to net-zero levels to curb the climate catastrophe; provide financing to vulnerable nations; and ensure a more inclusive world that leaves no one behind. We need deep transformations at the global, regional, and local levels involving collaborative actions by governments, academia, civil society, and business.
Our Strategy
To accelerate SDG achievement worldwide, the SDSN’s work is structured around the following five key objectives:
- Mobilizing the world’s largest network of researchers and scientists on sustainable development to identify and develop global and local solutions for sustainable development;
- Hosting the first-of-its-kind SDG Transformation Center, a knowledge hub for SDG data, pathways, policies, and financing;
- Leading major thematic and geographic initiatives on climate and energy, economics, food and land-use, governance, health, happiness and well-being, sustainable cities, finance, and tropical forests;
- Enhancing global access to and the quality of education for sustainable development through the SDG Academy; and
- Engaging directly with major international processes and institutions, including the UN, governments, civil society, and key stakeholders, to promote science-based SDG transformations.
Our Global Engagement
The SDSN works closely with key international leadership, governments, the UN, and multilateral institutions — including the International Monetary Fund, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), G-20 and T-20 leadership, among others — in their efforts to coordinate cross-sectoral, regional, and national action on the SDGs. The SDSN also collaborates with multilateral development banks, including the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) in mainstreaming the SDGs into investment portfolios and country strategies.
At the national and subnational levels, the SDSN continues to provide direct support to numerous national governments, parliaments, and statistical offices. Efforts include working with the European Commission to strengthen SDG data and analyses, partnering with the Beninese Ministry of Economy and Finance to publish the first pilot baseline Sustainable Development Report for the country, and signing an MOU with the Members of the European Parliament SDG Alliance to partner on furthering the 2030 Agenda. The SDSN’s research has also supported dozens of countries’ voluntary national reviews, including the first EU-wide Voluntary National Review.
The organization also remains an active player in major international events and meetings, including the UN General Assembly, the High-Level Political Forum, the G20, and the UNFCCC COPs, influencing and supporting dialogue and actions on the SDGs. SDSN-organized high-level conferences further expand solutions-oriented actions for the SDGs.