Skip to main content

The Present and Future of Sustainable Development Goals amid the Transforming Global Order and Social Change. A Decade of Action

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
The Palgrave Handbook of Global Social Change
  • 42 Accesses

Abstract

Labeled by the UN as a holistic “plan of action for people, planet and prosperity,” the Agenda 2030 embraces 17 ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) pertaining, inter alia, to poverty eradication, climate change, health, education and peace, and strong institutions. Notwithstanding the progress the global community had reached toward the Goals by 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused an unprecedented disruption to the SDGs’ implementation. Against this background, this contribution presents a tertiary analysis of the SDGs and their implementation in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic’s implications, paying particular attention to challenges the pandemic has provoked in the domains of democratic governance and international cooperation (especially in light of Goal 16 “Peace, justice and strong institutions”). It is demonstrated that the COVID-19-induced challenges have to a considerable extent reinforced the trends, previously attributed in literature to the contestation(s) of international liberal order. Among such trends, scholars distinguish autocratization, deglobalization, the rise of nationalism and populism, and the geopoliticization of international relations. Reinforced by the pandemic, these trends definitely threaten to undermine the means of SDGs’ implementation (e.g., global trade, finance, and capacity-building) and the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development. It shall be, however, emphasized that the collective experience of countering the COVID-19 pandemic may still foster global cooperation via raising leaders’ awareness about the severity of global challenges and demanding new solutions in the environmental and health domains.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maryna Rabinovych .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Rabinovych, M. (2023). The Present and Future of Sustainable Development Goals amid the Transforming Global Order and Social Change. A Decade of Action. In: The Palgrave Handbook of Global Social Change. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87624-1_8-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87624-1_8-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-87624-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-87624-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Social SciencesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics