How can accountability support policy integration for achieving all Sustainable Development Goals?

What is it about?

The SDGs are closely interconnected, with synergies and trade-offs among them. Achieving them requires very high levels of integration in policies in different areas at all levels (for, from local to global, for example between energy, health, education, industry and finance. Many would also say that achieving the SDGs require strong accountability mechanisms, the ability to hold actors (e.g. governments) to account for how they work to implement them. Research has shown that some types of accountability mechanisms is negative for policy integration. In this paper we provide the background for why this can be the case and analyse the emerging efforts to hold governments to account with regard to SDGs particularly in the United Nations with this potential trade-off in mind. We conclude that such negative effects can be avoided if there is a strong sense of shared responsibility among actors at all levels, available information on the types of behavioral efforts that support integration, and both an active interest in integration as well as a deeper understanding of the underlying interlinkages among the goals and targets among those who seek to hold actors to account.

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Why is it important?

Achieving the SDGs requires both unprecedented degrees of policy integration and effective accountability mechanisms. It is therefore essential to make these processes mutually supportive.