Since its beginnings, DAWN has aimed to address the complex interplay among the economic, ecological, political and social challenges with a unified and comprehensive analytical framework. For example, the processes of globalization and financialization are implicated in the increase of flexible work and precarious labour conditions, which come hand-in-hand with increasing gender-based discrimination and segregation; or, the impact of trade agreements in reducing the availability and affordability of medicines, affecting women and girls not only as patients but also as health caregivers in the home as a consequence of the gendered division of care work[1].

DAWN’s interlinkages approach to gender, economic and ecological justice addresses structural causes behind inequality and human rights violations and demands a framework of development to do the same. This is why during the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) negotiations some of us saw with scepticism the creation of yet another list of goals, targets and indicators that perpetuate “development siloes”. Still, we recognized how the 2030 Agenda and its SDGs comprehensively address major global problems and the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, social and environmental.

The SDGs and targets are set to realize the human rights of all and to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls; they are claimed to be integrated and indivisible. In this way, the 2030 Agenda recognises the interlinked nature of the challenges we faced. However, it’s still weak in tackling some of the economic structural obstacles for the full realization of women and girls’ rights, such as the economic and financial volatility, the role of the private sector and the issue of domestic resource mobilization[2].

This year a meeting of the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) dedicated a session to discuss “Leveraging interlinkages for effective implementation of SDGs”. The session, consisting of two panels and facilitated by a diverse group of experts and policymakers, demonstrates that there is still confusion regarding what an interlinkages’ approach to the implementation of the SDGs would look like. As noted by Dr Debapriya Bhatacharya, chair of the Southern Voices and Distinguished Fellow at the Center for Policy Dialogue, to a great extent the confusion lies in thinking that addressing interlinkages is only a matter of coordination [among national institutions, for example]; and partly by using the concept as opposed to prioritization.[3]

For such an ambitious agenda with 17 universal goals and their associated 169 targets that must be integrated into national policy frameworks, it is almost unavoidable to speak about the implications of prioritization of actions and their effectiveness. Policy coherence is one of the first issues that comes to mind, something which has been referred to in the HLPFs – although not with the necessary depth of analysis and not enough in the Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs). Despite many efforts that seek to conceptualize and assess interaction amongst the SDGs, during the HLPFs there has been relatively limited analysis of how exactly goals and targets interact with each other, and of the targets’ systemic impacts in achieving the SDGs overall[4].

Considering how a target interacts with another target and how that target in turn interacts with others, results in providing a more robust basis for priority setting of SDG efforts[5]. These kinds of analyses need to take into consideration the correlations between all targets and dimensions (social, economic and environmental) and should include a qualitative approach to understand gender power dynamics and discrimination.

At the HLPFs, countries are supposed to present national voluntary reviews of the implementation of the SDGs, including how they have been incorporated into national frameworks and how they integrate the three dimensions of sustainable development. However, VNRs implicitly reference only the challenges faced by the countries in integrating the SDGs in the national plans, and insufficiently address interlinkages. An interlinkages approach also implies efforts to transform the way in which the State operates and implements public policy — something hard to achieve during the first year or two of the 2030 agenda. Nevertheless, if the HLPF wants to address interlinkages they need to revise the guidelines of the VNRs in a way that encourages governments to make a deeper analysis on how the implementation of the goals and targets can be really integrated and indivisible.

To really move beyond the reductionist goal’s approach ‘MDGs-style’ the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development must find ways to move beyond development silos, competing priorities and limited budgets, towards effective implementation of the agenda as a whole. This will require greater contextual analysis; a strong focus on structural and policy obstacles and institutional settings to deal with multi-sectoral, multi-scale, multi-actor issues such as the SDGs.