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Global Goals as a Policy Tool: Intended and Unintended Consequences

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  • Sakiko Fukuda-Parr

    (IPC-IG)

Abstract

Global development goals have become increasingly used by the UN and the international community to promote priority objectives. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the most prominent example of such goals but many others have been set since the 1960s. Despite their prominence and proliferation, little has been written about the concept of global goals as a policy tool, their effectiveness, limitations and broader consequences. This paper explores global development goals as a policy tool, and the mechanisms that have two types of effects: governance effects and knowledge effects. These effects lead to both intended and unintended consequences in influencing international development strategies and action. The paper analyses the MDGs as an example to argue that global goals activate the power of numbers to create incentives for national governments and others to mobilize for important objectives. But the powers of simplification, reification and abstraction lead to broader unintended consequences when the goals are misinterpreted as national planning targets and strategic agendas, and when they enter the language of development to redefine concepts such as development and poverty.
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Suggested Citation

  • Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, 2013. "Global Goals as a Policy Tool: Intended and Unintended Consequences," One Pager 193, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth.
    • Handle: RePEc:ipc:opager:193
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    Cited by:

    1. Frank Biermann & Thomas Hickmann & Carole-Anne Sénit & Marianne Beisheim & Steven Bernstein & Pamela Chasek & Leonie Grob & Rakhyun E. Kim & Louis J. Kotzé & Måns Nilsson & Andrea Ordóñez Llanos & Chu, 2022. "Scientific evidence on the political impact of the Sustainable Development Goals," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 5(9), pages 795-800, September.
    2. Davidson, Angus Alexander & Young, Michael Denis & Leake, John Espie & O’Connor, Patrick, 2022. "Aid and forgetting the enemy: A systematic review of the unintended consequences of international development in fragile and conflict-affected situations," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    3. Dorine E. Norren, 0. "The Sustainable Development Goals viewed through Gross National Happiness, Ubuntu, and Buen Vivir," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-28.
    4. Lorraine Eden & M. Fernanda Wagstaff, 2021. "Evidence-based policymaking and the wicked problem of SDG 5 Gender Equality," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 4(1), pages 28-57, March.
    5. Johannes M Waldmüller & Mandy Yap & Krushil Watene, 2022. "Remaking the Sustainable Development Goals: relational Indigenous epistemologies [Assessing national progress and priorities for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Experience from Australia]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(4), pages 471-485.
    6. Springer, Emily, 2021. "Caught between winning repeat business and learning: Reactivity to output indicators in international development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    7. Peter A.G. van Bergeijk & Rolph van der Hoeven, 2017. "The challenge to reduce income inequality (introduction and overview)," Chapters, in: Peter A.G. van Bergeijk & Rolph van der Hoeven (ed.), Sustainable Development Goals and Income Inequality, chapter 1, pages 1-19, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Lorraine Eden & M. Fernanda Wagstaff, 0. "Evidence-based policymaking and the wicked problem of SDG 5 Gender Equality," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 0, pages 1-30.
    9. Sabine Weiland & Thomas Hickmann & Markus Lederer & Jens Marquardt & Sandra Schwindenhammer, 2021. "The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: Transformative Change through the Sustainable Development Goals?," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(1), pages 90-95.
    10. Renda, Andrea & Laurer, Moritz, 2020. "IoT 4 SDGs - What can the Digital Transformation and IoT achieve for Agenda 2030?," CEPS Papers 26658, Centre for European Policy Studies.
    11. Hanson, Helena I. & Wickenberg, Björn & Alkan Olsson, Johanna, 2020. "Working on the boundaries—How do science use and interpret the nature-based solution concept?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    12. Dorine E. Norren, 2020. "The Sustainable Development Goals viewed through Gross National Happiness, Ubuntu, and Buen Vivir," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 431-458, September.
    13. Esther Kamau & Gillian MacNaughton, 2019. "The Impact of SDG 3 on Health Priorities in Kenya," Journal of Developing Societies, , vol. 35(4), pages 458-480, December.
    14. Alice Evans, 2018. "Amplifying accountability by benchmarking results at district and national levels," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 36(2), pages 221-240, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    global goals; policy tool; intended and unitended consequences;
    All these keywords.

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