Uncovering SDG Interlinkages: interconnectedness and policy coherence for sustainable development

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.

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?

Review. A first literature review (Miola et al., 2019) was updated and expanded in 2021-2022 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, to August 2022.

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 will be available soon in a Technical Report. Meanwhile, for further information, please contact JRC-SDGs[at]ec.europa.eu