Sustainable Development Goals Diagnostics : An Application of Network Theory and Complexity Measures to Set Country Priorities

The United Nations 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals are comprehensive and holistic in nature, as they includes 17 goals and 169 targets covering economic, social, and environmental dimensions of development. In this context, policy...

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Main Authors: El-Maghrabi, M. H., Gable, S., Osorio-Rodarte, I., Verbeek, J.
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/270771529500170694/Sustainable-development-goals-diagnostics-an-application-of-network-theory-and-complexity-measures-to-set-country-priorities
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29934
id okr-10986-29934
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spelling okr-10986-299342021-09-05T12:13:59Z Sustainable Development Goals Diagnostics : An Application of Network Theory and Complexity Measures to Set Country Priorities El-Maghrabi, M. H. Gable, S. Osorio-Rodarte, I. Verbeek, J. SDGs SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS NETWORK THEORY ECONOMIC COMPLEXITY PROXIMITY CENTRALITY DENSITY BENCHMARKING PRIORITIZATION POLICY PRIORITIES PATH DEPENDENCE CONNECTEDNESS The United Nations 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals are comprehensive and holistic in nature, as they includes 17 goals and 169 targets covering economic, social, and environmental dimensions of development. In this context, policy makers face the challenge of translating the global agenda into feasible yet ambitious development plans and policies. This paper presents a methodology that can assist policy makers in prioritizing the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals within their development plans, given elements of path dependency among the goals. The method used is based on the notion that existing patterns of development outcomes can reveal information about the commonalities in countries' unobservable Sustainable Development Goal delivery mechanisms. The ease with which capacities can be used between Sustainable Development Goals depends on their degree of commonality, conceptualized in the proximity between them. Related to this, the paper introduces Sustainable Development Goal centrality as a measure of connectedness. In addition, it defines a country's Sustainable Development Goals density to indicate how close an "unsuccessful" Sustainable Development Goals is to those Sustainable Development Goals in which a country is performing well. The paper concludes that countries should prioritize the Sustainable Development Goals that are within reach (high density) and/or offer higher scope for success through redeployment of existing capacities (high centrality). It applies the method to show how this can help countries prioritize implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. 2018-06-27T21:48:49Z 2018-06-27T21:48:49Z 2018-06 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/270771529500170694/Sustainable-development-goals-diagnostics-an-application-of-network-theory-and-complexity-measures-to-set-country-priorities http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29934 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8481 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic SDGs
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
NETWORK THEORY
ECONOMIC COMPLEXITY
PROXIMITY
CENTRALITY
DENSITY
BENCHMARKING
PRIORITIZATION
POLICY PRIORITIES
PATH DEPENDENCE
CONNECTEDNESS
spellingShingle SDGs
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
NETWORK THEORY
ECONOMIC COMPLEXITY
PROXIMITY
CENTRALITY
DENSITY
BENCHMARKING
PRIORITIZATION
POLICY PRIORITIES
PATH DEPENDENCE
CONNECTEDNESS
El-Maghrabi, M. H.
Gable, S.
Osorio-Rodarte, I.
Verbeek, J.
Sustainable Development Goals Diagnostics : An Application of Network Theory and Complexity Measures to Set Country Priorities
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8481
description The United Nations 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals are comprehensive and holistic in nature, as they includes 17 goals and 169 targets covering economic, social, and environmental dimensions of development. In this context, policy makers face the challenge of translating the global agenda into feasible yet ambitious development plans and policies. This paper presents a methodology that can assist policy makers in prioritizing the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals within their development plans, given elements of path dependency among the goals. The method used is based on the notion that existing patterns of development outcomes can reveal information about the commonalities in countries' unobservable Sustainable Development Goal delivery mechanisms. The ease with which capacities can be used between Sustainable Development Goals depends on their degree of commonality, conceptualized in the proximity between them. Related to this, the paper introduces Sustainable Development Goal centrality as a measure of connectedness. In addition, it defines a country's Sustainable Development Goals density to indicate how close an "unsuccessful" Sustainable Development Goals is to those Sustainable Development Goals in which a country is performing well. The paper concludes that countries should prioritize the Sustainable Development Goals that are within reach (high density) and/or offer higher scope for success through redeployment of existing capacities (high centrality). It applies the method to show how this can help countries prioritize implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.
format Working Paper
author El-Maghrabi, M. H.
Gable, S.
Osorio-Rodarte, I.
Verbeek, J.
author_facet El-Maghrabi, M. H.
Gable, S.
Osorio-Rodarte, I.
Verbeek, J.
author_sort El-Maghrabi, M. H.
title Sustainable Development Goals Diagnostics : An Application of Network Theory and Complexity Measures to Set Country Priorities
title_short Sustainable Development Goals Diagnostics : An Application of Network Theory and Complexity Measures to Set Country Priorities
title_full Sustainable Development Goals Diagnostics : An Application of Network Theory and Complexity Measures to Set Country Priorities
title_fullStr Sustainable Development Goals Diagnostics : An Application of Network Theory and Complexity Measures to Set Country Priorities
title_full_unstemmed Sustainable Development Goals Diagnostics : An Application of Network Theory and Complexity Measures to Set Country Priorities
title_sort sustainable development goals diagnostics : an application of network theory and complexity measures to set country priorities
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2018
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/270771529500170694/Sustainable-development-goals-diagnostics-an-application-of-network-theory-and-complexity-measures-to-set-country-priorities
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29934
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