Alignment mechanisms to effectively govern the sustainable development goals

The Sustainable Development Goals are intended to be implemented in an indivisible manner, underlining the importance of interlinkages and interdependencies between different SDG-relevant policy areas. The complexity of synergies and trade-offs that are inherent to SDG interactions increases the risk that governments cherry-pick the SDGs that align with current policy interests and priorities, while neglecting others. No development actor can single-handedly ensure the integrated implementation of sustainable development’s economic, environmental and social dimensions. To advance integrated development processes, we therefore seek to answer the following question: what governance mechanisms enable development actors, located in different sectors, in different jurisdictions and at different governance levels, to align their efforts? Drawing on public governance and international development literature we identify ten alignment mechanisms that can be used to create inter-departmental alignment, public–private alignment, donor-recipient alignment and inter-donor alignment. To understand how the different mechanisms manifest themselves in practice, we illustrate how they are used to create synergies and negotiate trade-offs in forest and landscape restoration governance in Ethiopia. Through 20 interviews with public and private actors in Ethiopia, we observe a movement toward more integrated forest and landscape restoration efforts, but also that important mechanisms to create synergies and negotiate trade-offs between different objectives are still missing or do not function as intended. In the discussion and conclusion, we provide insights on how the ten mechanisms can contribute to greater multi-actor alignment at different stages of the policy cycle.