An upgraded version of the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies’ (IGES) SDG Interlinkages Analysis & Visualisation Tool (Version 4.0) is now available online for free. Updates to the tool mean it now offers improved methodology and an enhanced interface, among other new features.
Since 2015, IGES has developed the SDG Interlinkages Analysis & Visualisation Tool to support integrated SDGs planning. The Tool enables users to visualise the quantified causal links between SDG targets and identify potential synergies and trade-offs. Version 4.0 of the Tool provides new functions that enable users to save selections and add new targets.
The SDGs and their relevant targets closely interact and complement each other, and in so doing constitute a complex network of interlinkages. Effective SDGs implementation therefore calls for a systems approach to seek and scale up the synergies, and minimise the trade-offs for cross-sectoral integration and institutional collaboration. However, given the extensive scope of the SDGs, existing knowledge about their connections remains limited. IGES’ Strategic and Quantitative Analysis Centre (merged with the Integrated Sustainability Centre since July, 2021) has focused on analysing the synergies and trade-offs between SDG targets aimed at encouraging policy coherence and joint implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and developed the SDG Interlinkages Analysis & Visualisation Tool.
The tool’s geographical coverage was expanded based on IGES expertise and interest, from nine countries in the previous versions to 27 countries from Asia and Africa since its last iteration (Version 3.0). The specific countries covered in these two regions are unique in that they face varying levels of socio-economic and environmental challenges, but also play an increasingly important role in the global economy. At the same time, focusing on a limited number of countries helps in conducting more in-depth studies. Results generated by the tool have already been used as inputs in SDG planning and priority setting in several countries.
The SDG Interlinkages Analysis & Visualisation Tool and the results of SDG interlinkages analysis can serve as a practical means to support policy integration and coherence at the national as well as local levels. At the international level, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) included the tool as an example of SDG integration in the 2020 Handbook for Voluntary National Review (VNR), and UN ECOSOC selected the tool as a good practice for the High Level Political Forum 2020 Exhibition. The tool was used to support UNDESA’s VNR capacity building on SDG integration into national development planning (2019). Through the collaborations with relevant stakeholders at the national, sectoral and sub-national levels, the tool was applied to support the development of: i) a stakeholders’ engagement-based case study on SDG and climate actions integration, planning and priorities in West Java Province of Indonesia; ii) the national action plan for sustainable consumption and production (2020-2030) in Viet Nam; and iii) a chapter on SDG interlinkages included in Indonesia’s national SDGs Roadmap and a major discussion on SDG interlinkages in Indonesia’s Voluntary National Review 2021.
Documentation for the entire project, including the methodologies, reference materials and publications, is available from the website hosting the SDG Interlinkages Analysis & Visualisation Tool (V4.0).
While being broadly framed as 17 separate and diverse elements, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and associated targets inherently interlink with one another making up indivisible parts of sustainability from a systemic perspective. Actions or measures taken for achieving one goal may be mutually reinforcing or contradictory with achieving...