The national development plans after the SDGs: Steering implications of the global goals towards national development planning

Abstract

This article seeks to understand how the nationalization of the SDGs exercises affects NDPs. Drawing on theories of norm localization, it examines NDPs and visions of five countries to see how the SDGs as normative tools shift or steer a pre-existing alignment between global and domestic norms. Our study finds that the SDGs offer alternatives to traditional normative frameworks, but they have not fundamentally changed the state's dominant development paradigm. The SDGs have created a flexible space for norm translation through technical communication and approaches that appeal to the domestic discourse. Our study shows the dynamics of norm localization and flexibility provided by the SDGs as they interact with domestic norms and the state's sovereignty in creating space for sustainable development. This article contributes to the literature on the steering impacts of global goals in shaping national development planning and domestic policy choices through the identification of norm localization occurrences in NDPs.