Complexity Measures for the Analysis of SDG Interlinkages: A Methodological Approach

Abstract

The 2030 Agenda, with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 169 targets and 232 indicators, has set an ambitious “plan of action for people, planet and prosperity”1 that must be achieved within 15 years (2015-2030). These first years of implementation of the SDGs by the 193 member states of the United Nations (UN) have served the international community to realize the complexity of the network of interactions (synergies and trade-off) between goals, targets and indicators, within a context where each country has set its priorities of development and those are not always aligned with the main objective of the 2030 Agenda (lack of policy coherence; policy vs politics). As a result of this situation, one of the main difficulties that the countries will need to overcome is to comprehend the nature and complexity of the intricate network of interlinkages between the SDGs, considering their universal and integrated nature. The purpose of this study is to improve the understanding of the level of sustainability complexity of each member state of the UN in the process of the implementation of the SDGs based on the Product-Space Theory and the Economic Complexity. Thus, we present a SDG priority-setting tool applied to the challenging and ambitious task of accomplishment of the 2030 Agenda, through the understanding of the SDG interlinkages network and its complexity. Our findings are significant for the on-going debate of policy coherence and alignment of national policies with the SDGs and the sustainability path countries should follow to progress towards an integral achievement of the 2030 Agenda.