World Bank Publishes SDGs Country Development Diagnostics Framework

As reported by IISD, the World Bank has released a publication, entitled Trajectories for Sustainable Development Goals: Framework and Country Applications, which presents a framework developed to assess the country-level implications of the post-2015 global development agenda, as well as brief, "at-a-glance" applications of the framework to ten countries.

This framework, together with the available cross-country data, offer a starting point for analyses that translate the global ambitions of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development into country-specific targets and policies with a view to accelerating progress. It notes that some countries, may find it more productive to set their own targets to ensure a more appropriate balance between ambition and realism.

The ten countries chosen for the application of the framework are geographically dispersed low-income, middle-income, landlocked, fragile, natural resource-rich, and small island countries, namely (in alphabetical order), Ethiopia, Jamaica, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Senegal and Uganda. The country briefs illustrate differences in SDG progress via provision of more and higher-quality public services. As argued by the authors, identifying specific service delivery and financing solutions to close attainment gaps lies at the crux of meeting the SDGs. Ways to expand fiscal space for priority SDG spending, including additional domestic or foreign financing and efficiency gains, are also discussed.

The framework consists of four steps, first illustrated through a pilot study on Uganda. They include: 

• benchmarking current level of progress for each SDG for the country being analyzed relative to other countries, given Gross National Income (GNI) per capita 
• projecting the country's values for SDGs by 2030, given projected business-as-usual development of GNI per capita
• turning to determinants of SDG outcomes
• seeking to identify ways of achieving outcomes that are more ambitious than those of business-as-usual, which includes discussion of potential changes in policies and spending in priority areas.

The book is organized over eleven chapters: chapter one presents the country development diagnostics post-2015 framework in detail, including examples from Uganda, while chapters two through eleven present the ten country briefs, country by country. 

See also: http://sd.iisd.org/news/world-bank-publishes-sdgs-country-development-diagnostics-framework/