This Discussion Paper makes the case for universality in United Nations (UN) development work. So far, the UN development pillar has largely remained wedded to a 20th-century approach to development cooperation that centres on two groups of states and a one-way relationship between them: rich...

Aim: This paper studies the concept of sustainable development, which has been overly present in recent times on global arena of debates about issues most pressing to humanity in variety of contexts, political, legal, social and environmental. It has been appropriated by governments and NGOs...

The paper discusses the theoretical underpinning of the concept of sustainable development, especially in relation to follow-up and review, including ex post evaluation of progress. The purpose is to explore methodological aspects of applied approaches to the implementation process, e.g. ways to...

The SDG Summit will take place on 18-19 September 2023 in New York. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called it the 'centrepiece' of the UN's work this year. Numerous reports for this year's mid-term review of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs will lament the 'lack of political will' to...

Innovation and community action are two important areas of research and policy for sustainable development. Yet these two spheres of activity have not hitherto been linked. This paper builds a case for considering community action as a neglected, but potentially important, site of innovative...

The climate crisis is inevitably looming over the horizon. Some countries are much more vulnerable than others to its harshest consequences due to their existing issues of poverty and underdevelopment. At the same time, developmental policies pursue economic growth at the cost of environmental...

The notion of smart and sustainable cities offers an integrated and holistic approach to urbanism by aiming to achieve the long-term goals of urban sustainability and resilience. In essence, a smart and sustainable city is an urban locality that functions as a robust system of systems with...