In 2015 the member states of the UN agreed on the 2030 Agenda and 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The 17 SDGs were structured around the five pillars people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnerships. Well, at mid-point of the SDG implementation in 2023 all five pillars and the promise of the 2030 Agenda to ‘leave no one behind’ are at risk of not being achieved..

In April 2023 the UN Secretary General issued a special report ‘Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals: Towards a Rescue Plan for People and Planet’. According to a preliminary assessment of around 140 targets with data, only about 12% are on track. Nearly 50% of the targets are moderately or severely off track and approximately 30% have either stagnated or “regressed below the 2015 baseline.” The report puts forward five recommendations to rescue the Sustainable Development Goals and accelerate implementation between now and 2030.

Important is the word ‘towards’ in the title because the report does not describe and agreed rescue plan covering the five Ws: Why, What needs to be done When by Whom and with What means. Instead, it is a policy paper with some suggestions for Member State consideration in advance of the UN SDG Summit in September of this year. Therefore, for the time being the SDG remain without a rescue plan.

Attending a High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development this month in New York I saw all present senior managers of the UN, representatives of members states and stakeholder organizations agreeing that the SDG implementation show only fragile progress, slow momentum and that many goals are off track. And if the Secretary General as top diplomat of the UN titles his special report ‘Towards a Rescue Plan for People and Planet’ all alarm bells should be ringing. Humanity is in peril and the UN issues a cry for help to save people, planet and with it the UN itself. At the same time UN managers did everything to keep up the mood and demonstrated progress in new projects and initiatives. This is good leadership if admitting delays and motivation for accelerated action and a call for new ideas and initiative go hand in hand.

Tinder recommends swiping as the way to find someone with whom to save the planet

Is it a coincidence or not? While delegates at the UN started discussing the need to save people and planet, the dating platform Tinder started running an advertising campaign in subways of New York offering its own approach on how to save the planet: Go online and find someone on Tinder to save the planet with. Whatever the interest of Tinder in saving the planet may be, they sense that there are many people interested in saving the planet. Of course, they play with people's emotions and suggest to find the right partner for the endevor of saving the planet by swiping through Tinder. Of course, Tinder is not offering to rescue the world but similar to the UN Tinder is proposing a way 'towards' saving the planet. And if that could be achieved by swiping through Tinder that would be an interesting opportunity. 

How to get big things done – The High Level Political Forum (HLPF) in New York

To not get frustrated about the state of global governance of sustainable development and to not depend on the offer by Tinder during my current ravel to New York, I brought with me as inspiring travel literature the book by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardener ‘How Big Things Get Gone – The Surprising Factors Behind Every Successful Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration’. To say it straight out, Flyvbjerg is also not recommending the Tinder option, although …. he is a big supporter of testing: try, learn, and do it again. He describes in his book several cases and explains why and how the best solution may need many tests and trial runs in the planning phase (e.g. his chapter on Pixar Planning). And yes, what is not useful he would suggest to swipe it away.

Why? Really? Why do we have the 2030 Agenda?

Flyvbjerg recommends to answer the 5 W questions when planning, implementing and evaluating big projects. And the first and most important is the question Why a project is to be implemented. Flyvbjerg gives the example of the  prominent architect Frank Gehry who had the habit of painstakingly digging deep on the question why a new client wants a project. This was not because he didn't want the new contract but he needed to know the real motivation. The planning of a project or policy is mostly not costly compared to construction and implementation but if the motivation for the client is not clear the plan and its implementation may hit the wall by getting over budget, over time and that over and over again.

Okay now, why did the world agree on the SDG? In 2015 when the SDG were approved all supporters said that they want the agenda because the 17 goals are what the world needs. That was idealistic. What they didn’t say is that there remained a plethora of other vested interests of countries, institutions and individuals that just continued to exist and which interfered with the goals of the agenda. In other words, they agreed on the 2030 Agenda but without making it their maxim for acting. 

In addition, the 2030 Agenda was approved without establishing implementation structure with respective rules, regulations and ressources. There was a long political process beginning in 2012 that lead to the SDG in 2015 but there was no experience based planning process preparing the implementation. Over the years elements of a plan were developped as in the field of financing for sustainable development but they still lack the necessary commitment. Instead, a kind of a trick was applied by giving no implementation mandate e.g. to the UN. Instead, the implementation of the goals remained within the responsibility of each member state. And most of the work would have to be done at the local level. Unfortunately, local authorities were not included to the decision making at the UN level. Worse, in most countries the implementation of the 2030 Agenda began without a robust planning. In conclusion, it seems correct to note that the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the SDG has never been planned properly. Therefore, being off track with limited progress and slow momentum shouldn't come as a surprise.

Let’s get back to the drawing board and do big things better by not only organizing new summits but by better planning the implementation

Just to repeat: A preliminary assessment of the roughly 140 SDG targets with data show only about 12% are on track; close to half, though showing progress, are moderately or severely off track and some 30% have either seen no movement or regressed below the 2015 baseline. It's late but it's not too late to go back to the drawing board. Better late than never.

The UN is now preparing an 'SDG Summit' for September 2023 and a second 'Summit of the Future' in September 2024.In preparation the UN is issuing a series of Policy Briefs and the above mentioned report 'Towards a Rescue Plan of the SDGs'. Also, there are new ideas and initiatives and there are engaged people and institutions. That is all great and need to be appreciated. But it is liekely that all this won't be enough. Already now we can see that old mistakes are repeated: The UN is focussing on th epolitical process with two Summits with up to 193 Heads of State as milestones.

Rescuing people and planet is a noble undertaking but as any medical doctor can tell a rescue may include a triage, amputation and reduction of ambitions. Can we afford that and at whose cost would come a reduced focus and ambition? The only way to prevent a weak outcome of the Summits and to agree on goals which leave no one behind would be propper planning for the time after the Summits. Goals should only be agreed it the 5 Ws are answered ahead of the implementation phase. And let's be flexible. The year 2030 is not given by law. Deadlines for goals should be ambitious but realistic.

And where are the people in the process? The 'We, the people' as it famously says in the UN Charter have no place in this process, although it might end with decisions about the approach to rescue people and planet. Flivbjerg refers in his book to the importants of experience including the 'unfrozen experience' of people. In this sense the rescue effort has to be people centred to be succesful.

We cannot swipe the problems away, and UN and member states cannot solve the problems without the support of all people. Of course, 7 or 8 billion people don't fit into the UN General Assembly Hall but there are many other methods and tools to engage citizens. The world is devided in many ways but in spite of all conflicts, differences and inequality in the world there is at least one point on which all people can agree on: They want to live and they want to live with a decent quality of life. Ask a Russian or Ukraining soldier, ask refugees or people suffering hunger. Of course, the Charter of the UN, the Human Rights Charter and other international agreements list more achievements than just the right and desire to live. These achievements should be preserved but if even the UN sees people and planet in peril international cooperation should set the first priority on assuring that all people including future generations can live on this planet.

Proper planning for the implementation of the existing, an enhanced or a new agenda for development would also be a sign of commitment and that decision makers are serious about rescuing people and planet. Flyvbjerg also calls for a single, determinded organisation. That can be seen as a sign that the UN will be further needed but it may also indicate that the mandate and the overlap of responsibility may need to be reviewed to have a functional organization to assure implementation across the multilevel system of governance. As last recommendation from Flyvbjerg I would like to highlight his suggestion to think from the right to the left, i.e. to first think about what exactly is aimed at (the famous Why question) and that to design the steps leading to the goal.  

And yes, if you, dear reader, should hesitate to fight on your own you may use a dating platform to team up with someone to save the planet with. Alternatively, you may as well attend UN meetings, join civil society organizations or research groups studying how to best rescue people and planet. There are everywhere people ready to get engaged for life on this planet. They have shown before that big things get done and I belief that together we will be able to demonstrate this again now.