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KnowSDGs

Uncovering SDG Interlinkages:
interconnectedness and policy coherence for sustainable development

The achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development requires simultaneous progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which represent the environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainability, by maximising synergies and minimising the trade-offs across goals.

What are SDG Interlinkages and why are they relevant?


Since the 2030 Agenda was conceived to be integrated and indivisible, the SDGs are interlinked and interdependent by design. Hence, SDG Interlinkages refer to the complex network of interconnections existing across the SDGs, their targets and indicators: these interconnections can be positive, negative or have a mixed nature, and can happen at different geographical and temporal scales with different impact.

SDG Interlinkages show how actions directed towards one SDG can influence all the others. Uncovering and understanding these interactions helps achieving the 2030 Agenda, avoiding the unintended deterioration of any SDGs.

Interlinkages intro

Interlinkages what is

What is the JRC SDG Interlinkages Tool helping in this context?


The SDG Interlinkages Tool contributes to the collective knowledge on the interconnections across SDGs and their implications for real-life policymaking with a well-rounded assessment of the SDG Interlinkages described in the literature. The tool facilitates users to delve into the manifold connections at the core of the 2030 Agenda.

The ultimate goal is twofold. On the one side, the Interlinkages Tool raises awareness of the 2030 Agenda and its interlinked nature. On the other side, in particular, this exercise supports policymakers progressing with the Agenda by understanding interactions across SDGs, in order to prevent negative impacts and build coherent and synergistic policies for sustainable development.


What is the methodology behind the JRC SDG Interlinkages Tool?


A first literature review (Miola et al., 2019) was updated and expanded by a team of researchers who retrieved and analysed all relevant scientific and grey literature* on SDG interlinkages, both in Scopus and Google Scholar. For the search a keyword string was used, combining the terms "sustainable development goals" and "SDGs" with alternative terms referring to interlinkages (such as "interactions", "trade-offs", "synergies", and more). From an initial pool of 454 documents, other selection criteria led to a final set of 92 publications that feed to the current database. They include articles, reviews and reports, published from 2015, the year of adoption of the 2030 Agenda.

All clearly identifiable interlinkages between a pair of two different SDG goals, targets, or indicators were recorded, together with other information, including the type of methods used to identify interlinkages, the geographical and temporal scales, the sign of interaction (positive, negative, or mixed), the direction of interaction, its strength and description.

More information on the methodology, including relevance scores, variables, analysis and its results are available in the JRC Technical Report "Uncovering SDG Interlinkages". For further information, please contact JRC-SDGs[at]ec.europa.eu

Interlinkages methodology

Explore more


Do you want to find out more about interlinkages in the SDGs network?


You can explore interlinkages between one pair of SDGs and find out more about the nature, characteristics and context of the interaction.
You can find the data already summarized at the goal level, or you can go more in detail with the target level.
You can also go more in detail with an advanced search where you can select the variables of your interest.
Happy exploring!