Developmental Science and Pathways to Sustainable Development for Children and Youth

Abstract

The United Nations 2030 Agenda along with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals cover a wide range of topics, from social to economic, from environmental to rule of law and governance. Effective implementation of these goals requires a collective and concerted effort to build a culture of sustainability, draw knowledge from multiple disciplines, and implement evidence-based programs and policies. Using a rights-based perspective, this chapter highlights the role of developmental science in contributing to the interdisciplinary scientific knowledge base. Developmental science contributes importantly to understanding global problems affecting the well-being of young people as well as to the effective implementation of SDGs in different country contexts with a special focus on LMICs. The chapter briefly examines children’s rights and well-being and the sustainable development framework, highlights the SDGs and the 2030 global framework for policymaking and action, reviews progress towards achieving the SDGs, identifies how developmental science contributes to policy change and societal progress, and provides a brief overview of this cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary field. The 24 chapters in the volume highlight key issues for developmental science contributions to achievement of the SDGs. Perhaps the most critical of these, identified in most chapters, is the importance of culture and context in measuring and understanding human development and in achieving the SDGs. Many chapters also provide useful examples from LMICs for making progress with achieving the SDGs and with advancing human development more generally. Finally, this chapter identifies a few recent developmental science discoveries not highlighted in the volume as well as important questions not asked because of the limited number of researchers from low- and middle-income countries.