Polycentric governance and SDG commitments: public sector responses in challenging times

Accelerating evidence of climate change, combined with growing social and economic inequalities, underpin the United Nation’s (UN’s) development of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Despite commitment from its 193 members to achieve these SDGs by 2030, in the seven years since the SDGs’ launch, progress is slow. Reports on the readiness to measure progress on SDGs from the Supreme Audit Institutions of 72 member states overwhelmingly express regret that states are yet to define goals, data is missing or irrelevant, and citizens lack voice in stakeholder processes. If progress is to be made, national commitments to transnational agreements, such as the SDGs, require cooperation and action from a diverse range of actors. Instead of traditional bureaucratic or market-based regulatory approaches, polycentric approaches to governance are needed to deal with complex multi-level problems, and develop innovation and monitoring at domain (e.g. regional) and global, level. This chapter analyses features of the UN’s polycentric SDG governance and its monitoring structures, including High Level Political Fora and the attendant reports, and how nations are called to account for their commitments to achieve the SDGs. It highlights the challenges faced in a complex fragmented sustainability project where achievement requires interdependency, opportunities for learning and sufficient resources. These issues will continue to drive public sector responses towards SDG success in networks, especially in these challenging times.