Political Commitment

GUIDANCE

Building a strong, inclusive political commitment and leadership at the highest political level to foster whole-of-government action for PCSD. To this end, we recommend to:
• Enhance whole of government approaches to PCSD by defining priority areas, time-bound action plans and key performance indicators for making progress on PCSD and communicating results to the public;
• Systematically apply a poverty, gender and human rights perspective to PCSD frameworks in line with the 2030 Agenda ambition of ending poverty in all its forms everywhere, and empowering all women and girls and achieving gender equality;
• Introduce measures to promote PCSD within government structures so that commitment to PCSD outlives electoral cycles and changes in government, cabinet compositions or government programmes, including identifying a lead institution, responsible for promoting, overseeing and implementing PCSD;
• Build leadership capacity in the public service to consistently formulate, implement, and monitor policies coherent with sustainable development in across sectors.

‌

SELF-ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

• Is there a political statement at the highest level spelling out the government’s commitment to PCSD?
• Is this commitment effectively communicated across levels of government?
• Has the government identified priority areas for PCSD and developed subsequent action plans?
• Is there an institutional “catalyst” (central unit, ministry, committee etc.) in charge of promoting PCSD?
• Are there measures to build capacity in the public service to consistently formulate and implement policies coherent with sustainable development in all sectors?

► See the complete list of Self-Assessment questions for the 8 Building Blocks also available in PDF version.

COUNTRY EXAMPLES

The Netherlands Netherlands

The 2017-2021 Dutch Coalition Agreement Confidence in the Future has a strong focus on sustainability and proposes policies and actions that are in substance strongly aligned with the SDGs. Moreover, it stresses the importance of coherence both internally and externally. The national action plan on policy coherence for development, originating from 2016 and revised in 2018, includes goals, policy action and indicators linked to the SDGs focusing on five priority areas with a strong emphasis on means of implementation (SDG 17) and sustainability/greening of international policy: combatting tax evasion and avoidance, development-friendly trade agreements, development-friendly investment regime; increasing sustainability of production and trade, and combatting climate change. Source: PCSD Toolkit, Good institutional practices, Netherlands.

Latvia Latvia

In 2002, Latvia enacted its Sustainable Development Policy based on the 1992 Rio Declaration and its experience with balancing economic and social processes with environmental protection. Following a review of the European Union’s Sustainable Development Policy in 2006, Latvia refined its national planning processes, allowing for broad consultation of stakeholders during the elaboration of the country’s sustainable development vision Latvia2030. The document considers integrated planning across economic, social, ecological and cultural spheres as indispensable and strives to ensure inclusive policy making across all administrative levels and sectors. Accordingly, promoting policy coherence for sustainable development is a key principle of Latvia’s development planning process as stated in its 2018 VNR. Source: PCSD Toolkit, Good institutional practices, Latvia.

► See the complete list country examples for the 8 Building Blocks