Promoting sustainable development worldwide: the Sustainable Development Solutions Network

Context

The Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) was founded in August 2012 under the auspices of the then Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) Ban Ki-moon with the objective of addressing issues relating to sustainable development policy.

Objective

The scientific community is more closely involved in global debates on implementing the 2030 Agenda, particularly issues relating to global responsibility and inequality.

Approach

The project advises the SDSN Secretariat, facilitating science-based contributions to sustainable development. The project operates in three fields of activity:

1. It supports the development of data-based products (particularly indices) that record the global impacts of national actions and thus illustrate the global responsibility of individual countries (spillover effects).
2. It promotes research into data-driven policy-making, particularly in relation to gender equality issues and the ‘leave no one behind’ principle. To achieve this, the project works with various stakeholders such as statistical offices.
3. It supports selected projects from the SDSN networks in positioning their solutions among specialist groups. The focus is on projects that are committed to a sustainable post-COVID-19 transformation, gender equality or reducing poverty and inequality.

Last update: October 2023