Framing policy objectives in the sustainable development goals: hierarchy, balance, or transformation?

Globalization and Health

Review

Alua Kulenova¹  Raphael Lencucha²  Anne Marie Thow³ 

[1]Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Family Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

[2]Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, McGill University, Hosmer House, 3654 prom Sir-William-Osler, H3G 1Y5, Montréal, Québec, Canada

[3]Menzies Centre for Health Policy, School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

关键词: Sustainable development goals;    Public policy;    Framing;    Intersectoral;    Multisectoral;    Health policy;    Development;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12992-023-00909-w

 received in 2022-06-16, accepted in 2023-01-19,  发布年份 2023

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

Society continues to be confronted with the deep inadequacies of the current global order. Rampant income inequality between and within countries, dramatic disparities in access to resources, as seen during the COVID pandemic, persistent degradation of the environment, and numerous other problems are tied to existing systems of economy and government. Current global economic systems are implicated in perpetuating these problems. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were born out of the recognition that dramatic changes were needed to address these intersecting challenges. There is general recognition that transformation of global systems and the relationship between sectors is needed. We conduct a structured, theoretically-informed analysis of SDG documents produced by United Nations agencies with the aim of examining the framing of economic policy goals, a historically dominant domain of consideration in development policy, in relation to health, social and environmental goals. We apply a novel typology to categorize the framing of policy goals. This analysis identified that the formal discourse associated with the SDGs marks a notable change from the pre-SDG development discourse. The ‘transformational’ agenda issued in the SDG documents is in part situated in relation to a critique of previous and existing approaches to development that privilege economic goals over health, social and environmental goals, and position economic policy as the solution to societal concerns. At the same time, we find that there is tension between the aspiration of transformation and an overwhelming focus on economic goals. This work has implications for health governance, where we find that health goals are still often framed as a means to achieve economic policy goals. Health scholars and advocates can draw from our analysis to critically examine how health fits within the transformational development agenda and how sectoral policy goals can move beyond a crude emphasis on economic growth.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2023

【 图 表 】

Fig. 2