Summary of Capacity-building Needs to Advance Sustainable Development Planning and Implementation

This report synthesizes regional perspectives from Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean on the capacity-building needs required to integrate sustainable development (SD) principles into national and subnational planning. Based on workshops held in 2014, the document identifies gaps in multistakeholder participation, vertical and horizontal government coordination, cross-sectoral policy integration, and monitoring, evaluation, and reporting (MER) systems to prepare countries for the post-2015 development agenda and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

• Regional experts envision a 2030 governance model centered on a national sustainable development council or similar body, chaired by a President or Prime Minister, to coordinate multistakeholder engagement and oversee long-term policy visions and action plans.
• Current development planning is predominantly characterized by a 'silo' or sector-based approach, which creates fragmentation and hinders the development of a common vision and the realization of cross-sector co-benefits.
• Effective integrated planning requires 'glocal' coordination—linking global, regional, national, and local policies—to ensure vertical alignment and the empowerment of local communities through the subsidiarity principle.
• To improve co-benefits in areas like water, energy, and food security, the report recommends adopting 'sector-neutral' development themes (e.g., poverty reduction, gender) and using policy screening tools to prioritize synergistic investments during budgetary allocations.
• While there is increasing recognition of monitoring, evaluation, and reporting (MER), current practices are often limited to expenditure reporting rather than evidence-based policy tracking. A future system should be based on SMART targets and include indicators, baselines, and participatory monitoring.
• Critical capacity-building gaps across all regions include a lack of institutional and legal frameworks for integrated planning, poor data collection and analysis skills at the local level, and a deficiency in negotiation and communication skills among stakeholders.

APA

Bizikova, L., Huppé, G. A., Tulsie, B., Paas, L., King, P., Olsen, S. H., Sano, D., Cornforth, J., Ullah, F., Urama, K., Ozor, N., Acheampong, E., & Swanson, D. (2014). Summary of Capacity-building Needs to Advance Sustainable Development Planning and Implementation. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/sdplannet_summary.pdf

Chicago

Bizikova, Livia, Gabriel A. Huppé, Bishnu Tulsie, Leslie Paas, Peter King, Simon Hoiberg Olsen, Daisuke Sano, et al. Summary of Capacity-building Needs to Advance Sustainable Development Planning and Implementation. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2014. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/sdplannet_summary.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{bizikova2014summary, author = {Bizikova, Livia and Huppé, Gabriel A. and Tulsie, Bishnu and Paas, Leslie and King, Peter and Olsen, Simon Hoiberg and Sano, Daisuke and Cornforth, Jack and Ullah, Farooq and Urama, Kevin and Ozor, Nicholas and Acheampong, Ernest and Swanson, Darren}, title = {{Summary of Capacity-building Needs to Advance Sustainable Development Planning and Implementation}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2014}, month = jun, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/sdplannet_summary.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }