SDGs4I

The goal of the project is to improve awareness of the impacts posed by the relationship and interactions between SDG goal and targets with national policy priorities.

This research is an 18-month project and focusses on SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals, and specifically target 17.14: Enhance policy coherence for sustainable development.

Increasing capacities to identify, understand and manage interactions and interconnections of Sustainable Development Goals and how best can science and knowledge inform a robust policy framework for implementation of the SDGs.

The project has been organised around these three research challenges:

1. How are national social, economic and environmental policy integrated?
2. Development of a tool that facilitates and enables integrated SDG implementation across policy domains.
3. Achieving policy coherence in support of national planning.

How can science and knowledge inform a robust policy framework for implementation of the SDGs?

The identification of effective implementation strategies needs to be supported by coordinated policies that take into account the multiple relationships existing between the 17 Goals and 169 Targets.

The planned research recognises that SDGs are not a means to their own end, but are a tool to reach ‘The Future we want’ in Ireland, which underpins Agenda 2030 across National to International contexts.

This project is funded under the EPA Research programme 2014-2020. The EPA Research Programme is a Government of Ireland initiative funded by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications.

The project focuses on SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals, and specifically target 17.14: Enhance policy coherence for sustainable development.

Increasing capacities to identify, understand, and manage interactions and interconnections of Sustainable Development Goals and how best can science and knowledge inform a robust policy framework for implementation of the SDGs.

Work Package 2– Review of SDG interactions and analytics

A comprehensive reporting of critical nodes for SDG implementation in Ireland, and the goals and targets that will be most influential in aligning with and delivering on the country’s priorities.

Work Package 3 – Methodology for mapping key interactions across all SDGs

A toolkit for evidence-informed approaches to address the multiple challenges encapsulated by the SDGs. Strengthening of scientific evidence in SDGs implementation including costs, benefits, and spill-over effects of SDGs implementation.
Stronger connections between the national and the international scientific community.

Work Package 4 -Implementation and validation methodology for mapping key interactions across all SDGs

A policy brief and guidance on the implementation of SDGs in Ireland accounting for cross-linkages and interactions between SDG goals and targets.

Work Package 5 – Communication and Dissemination

Improved awareness of the impacts posed by the relationship and interactions between SDG goals and targets with national policy priorities.

The SDGs are a global drive to achieve human development goals without compromising the integrity and stability of the planetary system to provide for future generations. It is in this context that the SDGs4I project explores these global aspirations against national goals in Ireland. Understanding the nature of interactions between SDGs and targets – negative and positive – and their implication for coherent planning and efficient policy design in Ireland to reflect national context, perspectives and priorities is important

The SDGs4I project provides a space to explore the utility and application of Ireland’s SDG implementation plan to support policy coherence for sustainable development in Ireland and;

Integrate policy analysis: to ensure that proposed policies, programmes and targets are supportive of nationally tailored SDGs;

Coordinate institutional mechanisms: to create formal partnerships across sectoral line departments and agencies;

Integrate modelling: to help clarify and articulate the interconnected system of goals and targets and to analyse and inform key policies, programs and projects for their impact on nationally tailored SDGs.

The project focusses on how environmental features of the SDGs support social and economic goals in Ireland, and which are important in the context of national, regional and international responsibilities and obligations for Ireland:

1. Biodiversity – ensuring that natural resources are properly harnessed and protected are key to the success of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and provides benefits to all sectors of society in Ireland.
2. Climate Action – addressing climate change and its impacts are integral to successfully achieving all SDGs and will particularly impact the way the environment supports social and economic objectives in Ireland.

The “Identifying Interactions for SDG Implementation in Ireland” project approach aims to evaluate the alignment of current Government of Ireland policy to the SDGs and a tool to analyse policy inter-linkages across economic, social and environmental areas, including the identification of synergies and trade-offs.

COLLABORATIONS AND DEMONSTRATIONS

Over the course of the project, we have interacted with a number of different stakeholder groups to present the SDGs4I project, the EnablingSDGs Tool development and/or demonstrate the functionality of the EnablingSDGs Tool.

PRESENTING THE PROJECT

The project has been (re)presented within MaREI the SFI Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine based at University College Cork (UCC) as well as in a wider setting within UCC. Connecting with different University departments and members ranging from the Department of Law to UCC’s Green Campus and Sustainability managers, as well as within the Environmental Research Institute (ERI).

Within our own direct research groups, we’ve been able to share the project and developments as part of MaREI’s governance group and Climate and Adaptation groups within the Coastal and Marine Systems group and also during the internal MaREI symposium across all universities part of MaREI held in Limerick at the end of 2019.

Pre-Covid 19 we presented the project, planning and development of the tool during a meeting at Dublin Caste end of 2019 with an audience of members of the SDG Intergovernmental Working Group together with our project Steering Group members and project coordinators as well as our project partners in International Science Council (ISC) and the EU Joint Research Centre (JRC). We’ve also had in-person as well as virtual meetings with members of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Irish Aid and the Central Statistics Office (the latter being also part of our steering group).

We attended three of the National SDG Stakeholder Forum events over the course of the project to represent the project and connect with other SDG projects and stakeholder in 2019 & 2020.

PRESENTING THE TOOL

We have presented the project and tool at a number of EPA events namely during their Research Coordination Group meeting themed around Water-Climate-Sustainability on 3 & 4 June 2020 as well as at a poster session in a virtual exhibit organised as part of an EPA research framework event on the 28^th of October 2020. The project featured in the October 2020 edition of the EPA Research Newsletter.

The project and tool were presented during a session at the GlobalGoals2020 International SDG Research Symposium held virtually in Utrecht, The Netherlands in June 2020 and an outcome of this was a publication of a paper on the project/tool [see in the outputs tab].

DEMONSTRATING THE TOOL

As the project entered its final phase with an extension period we have connected with the following stakeholders and demonstrated the tool during a number of online meetings and have ongoing collaboration activities with:

UNESCO Chair Project Manager of the project: “Transforming Lives of People with Disabilities, their Families and Communities, Through Physical Education, Sport, Recreation and Fitness”, Institute of Technology Tralee, in collaboration with the CSO.

UCD Earth Institute & the Biodiversity Forum.

UCD research team working on a community engagement project who are trialling the tool & user guide.

Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications – demonstrated the tool with the new coordinator within the DECC who is responsible for the SDG’s and the coordination of the Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) and our EPA project manager. We demonstrated the tool and have provided materials to present during their an SDG IGWG meeting held on the 7^th of December 2020.