SDG Target Interactions: The Philippine Analysis of Indivisible and Cancelling Targets

TL;DR

This study models SDG target interactions as a graph, analyzing positive, neutral, and negative relationships through expert evaluation, to inform sustainable development planning and conflict mitigation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel graph-based framework for analyzing SDG target interactions using expert assessments and a web application for visualization.

Findings

Over 97% of interactions are positive or neutral.

Negative interactions are rare, with only 2.86% being cancelling.

The 'graph of beautiful targets' highlights targets suitable for simultaneous work.

Abstract

The United Nations developed the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with 169 targets, to serve as a plan for solving the world's problems and achieving a more sustainable future. This is modeled as a graph with the targets as nodes, and with the interaction between targets as the edges of the graph. An exhaustive binary comparison is done to analyze the intra- and inter-goal target interactions, entailing over 14000 comparisons. The task is to assign a 'color' to an edge: positive (indivisible), zero (consistent) or negative (cancelling). This is done via a panel of experts who will evaluate the target interactions, through a web application that was developed for coloring the edges. This is an on-going study, and so far, of the 1256 edges colored, only 36 are cancelling (negative), or 2.86%; more than 97% are positive interactions. So far, the "most negative" interactions involve: "Climate Change"; "Life Below Water"; "Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions"; and "Decent Work and Economic Growth". Most useful for planning might be the 'graph of beautiful targets' feature, which shows target with non-negative interactions, and how they connect to each other. These are the targets that may be worked on simultaneously, and currently has more than 130 nodes. This study can help researchers analyze which targets enable or constrain each other, what mitigation can be done to avoid conflicts, and can be configured for sub-national or regional study. Web app at: http://sdg-interactions.herokuapp.com/