Beyond COVID-19: Applying “SDG logics” for resilient transformations

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a realistic approach to navigate societies through and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the SDG agenda is not without flaws. Even before the pandemic, progress towards achieving the SDGs has been too slow. COVID-19 presents a stress test for the SDG approach. The SDG agenda provides three ‘logics’ that could help transform towards sustainable societies: (1) a governance logic that sets goals, adopts policies, and tracks progress to steer impacts; (2) a systems (nexus) logic that manages SDG interactions; and (3) a strategic logic that enables (micro-level) companies to develop strategies that impact (macro-level) policy goals. We discuss key hurdles that each of these SDG logics face. Transforming towards sustainable societies beyond COVID-19 requires that multinational enterprises and policymakers (better) apply these logics, and that they address operational challenges to overcome flaws in the present approach to the SDGs.