Paper short abstract:

This paper analyses and compares the different ways in which national governments of selected countries implemented the MDGs to observe and analyses existing patterns of implementation in order to provide one guideline for how practitioners working on the SDGs can implement the new agenda.

Paper long abstract:

The eight goals set by the MDGs expired in September 2015 and were replaced by 17 goals proposed under the SDGs.

As countries think about implementing the newly formulated goals, it is timely to examine the relationship between reported progress on MDGs and political and administrative mechanisms of implementation, to see what lessons can be learned for SDG implementation.

Monitoring reports and indices on the progress on MDGs have shown that countries have had varying success both at the aggregate level and across goals.

A compelling question arising from this analysis is one of ownership of goals by public agencies within countries. Scholarly work on the role of global targets has been wary of instituting duplicate service delivery processes - through alternate financing and implementation units - that often emerge in the implementation of international agreements.

This report focuses on the implementation of MDGs: Did countries with a dedicated MDG ministry or organization differ substantially in the progress they made towards the goals compared to countries where existing planning/individual ministries adopted relevant MDG goals in their ongoing development plans? Which implementation model for planning ministries proved to be most effective? How did planning ministries approach the question of prioritization? How are countries that are already starting to implement the SDGs approaching them from the perspective of the planning ministers? Did planning ministries take on the perspective of civil society and other groups?