Contributing to Indonesia’s SDG achievement: disclosures of regional-owned enterprises

Purpose - This paper investigates how Indonesian regional government-owned enterprises disclose what they plan, account for and report their sustainable development goal (SDG) contributions, showcasing their commitment in attaining impactful SDG achievement. In doing so, it aims to highlight how adopting a sustainability accounting and reporting (SAR) framework can enhance SDG disclosures. Design/methodology/approach - Content analysis, guided by an adapted SAR framework, is employed to examine the SDG disclosures across planning, accounting and reporting in 2019–2020 annual/sustainability reports of the 24 enterprises. Findings - Most Indonesian regional government-owned enterprises or badan usaha milik daerah (BUMDs) studied adhered primarily to Financial Services Authority Regulation (Otoritas Jasa Keuangan (OJK)) 51/2017, which does not sufficiently enforce SDG disclosures in the planning stage. They disclosed SDG-related activities in the accounting and reporting stages, highlighting programme implementation and budget realisation with little emphasis on strategic planning. This resulted in inadequate evidence in the disclosures of the strategic actions to comprehensively plan, account for and report their SDG achievement, essential information for stakeholders to showcase their meaningful actions to contribute to national and global SDG progress. Originality/value - Prior SDG disclosure studies highly focus on analysing the linkages of organisations’ reported sustainability programmes contributing to national SDG achievements, neglecting the investigation of how organisation should employ SAR to disclose what they plan, account for and report their impactful SDG contribution to stakeholders. This paper addresses this underexplored context, particularly in local government-owned enterprises which have a crucial role in accelerating SDG achievement. Given the global nature of SDGs, this analysis provides valuable lessons for organisations and regulators in Indonesia and other developing countries to utilise SAR to enhance SDG reporting. So that, they can better plan, account for and report tangible actions toward meaningful SDG achievement.