Priorities, systems thinking and the SDGs

This perspective piece by the Stockholm Environment Institute argues that UN Member States should adopt a systems-thinking approach to prioritize Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) ahead of the SDG Summit in New York. The authors contend that because SDGs are interlinked, prioritizing specific 'accelerator' goals can boost progress across the entire 2030 Agenda, provided that trade-offs are managed and 'easy fixes' are avoided.

• The authors argue that UN Member States should use systems thinking to prioritize certain Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) over others to accelerate overall progress toward the 2030 Agenda, rather than focusing on 'easy fixes' or short-term interests which could be counter-productive or threaten other Goals.
• Systems thinking allows policymakers to identify synergies and trade-offs between Goals; some Goals can 'push progress' across the system, while others are isolated or constrained by progress in different areas.
• Using the SDG Synergies tool in Sweden, researchers found that SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities) had the most positive impact across all 17 SDGs. Other high-impact goals included SDG 17 (partnerships), SDG 4 (quality education), SDG 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions), and SDG 13 (climate action). However, progress in these synergistic goals created trade-offs that negatively affected SDG 6, 15, 7, 12, 13, and 14.
• The authors recommend that countries use their Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) to report on their priority-setting approaches and share experiences regarding the institutionalization of systems thinking, analytical tools, and coordination mechanisms to facilitate peer-learning at the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF).

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2023). Priorities, systems thinking and the SDGs. https://www.sei.org/perspectives/priorities-systems-thinking-sdg/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Priorities, systems thinking and the SDGs. 2023. https://www.sei.org/perspectives/priorities-systems-thinking-sdg/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Priorities, systems thinking and the SDGs |date=13 April 2023 |url=https://www.sei.org/perspectives/priorities-systems-thinking-sdg/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2023priorities, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Priorities, systems thinking and the SDGs}}, publisher = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2023}, month = apr, url = {https://www.sei.org/perspectives/priorities-systems-thinking-sdg/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }