Sustainability patterns.
Lessons learned from Sweden and theglobal SDG follow up
Viveka Palm
ISAP Thematic tracks: Harnessing synergies and advancing
indicators: Keys to SDG acceleration - 22 dec 2023

Book chapter in Interlinkages between the SDGs (Ed: Bali Swain, Min, 2023):

Lessons learned from Swedish and global
follow up• The monitoring of the SDGs globally and in the countries shows that there arepolicies that can improve the situation and result in more sustainable
development.
• The lack of important policies/ existence of too narrow policies to meet theSDGs need to be examined.
• Monitoring itself does not necessarily achieve sustainability as an outcome but
can serve to highlight what is working and what is not.

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Assessment of policies
Perceptions ofwhat is valuableand possible inthe country3

Set of Policies
Economic
SocialEnvironmental

Outcome ofpolicies
Wanted andunwanted - visible
in indicator followup

Redesign ofpolicies

Assessment; how
to make a sectoral
policy moresustainable

GoalPolicy

1

Social security systems to protect the poor
Social security systems to provide access to food for the hungry
Health services for all
Schools and education available for all
Equal rights for women and men, girls and boys
Systems to clean drinking water and to treat waste water
Systems to harness and distribute energy and to steer away from fossil fuels
Stable institutions, workers’ rights, rule of law
Vocational and adult training, infrastructure, supports for innovation
Social security systems, redistribution between groups
City and rural planning, good housing, good transportation systems
Policies to steer way from fossil fuels and exploitation of ecosystems
Policies to decrease greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and policies to adapt to a changing climate

2345678910111213141516174

Laws to safeguard marine nature reserves, to limit exploitation, to maintain good management
practices
Laws to safeguard terrestrial nature reserves, to limit exploitation, to maintain good management
practices
Peace, human rights, conflict solving mechanisms, law system, statistics to follow up
Development aid, national or international investments, south-south and triangular cooperation

Policies give visible outcome• In the follow up of the SDG targets, it can be seen that country results differ. If
policies are in place and are implemented, then that is also visible in the outcome
parameters.
• Countries with social security systems that cover most of the population are
generally having a better outcome.

• Regions that have committed themselves to implement environmental protection
are in a better position on air and water quality. For every goal, there are typicalpolicies that can be implemented by countries. Depending on political choices,
these policies can also be changed and the funding or follow up provided can differ
over time. In most areas there are some international conventions that countries
5 have signed to agree on minimum standards or rights.

Population covered by social protection
Vulnerable persons covered by social assistance
Population covered by at least one social protection benefit
Vulnerable persons covered by social assistance

100
80

85.4

60
40
20

62.8

64.0

46.9
34.4

28.9

24.9

15.2
0
World

6High-income
countries

Upper-middle-income Lower-middle-income
countries
countries

13.4

7.8

Low-income
countries

Policy areas that show potential for improvements in all
countries: renewable energy and education for all• Two broad areas can be seen as important for reaching Swedish goals. They havepotential for all countries and clearly interlink several goals.
• Continuing to invest in renewable energy sources and energy efficiency, the goals
on energy (7), Sustainable consumption and production (12) and Climate (13) andtargets on air pollution (3.9 and 11.2) become much easier to reach.
• Sweden’s policies have moved the heating of houses to renewables and produce
electricity that is virtually carbon free. Policies to encourage insulation of homes
and switching of fuels, energy taxes on fossil fuels, investing in combined heat andelectricity production and supports to renewables such as wind power, geothermal
power and solar power.
• Still fossil fuels need to be phased out of the transportation sector and work tochange coal use in steel making to renewable sources via hydrogen.
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Education for all• The other major game changer in the SDG framework, is to find effective ways tosupport vulnerable groups. Important vulnerable groups: children, youth that haveproblems to finalize school and find a gainful employment, and women subjected toviolence from their partners.
• Sweden is using the Child Convention to find ways to decrease the violence againstchildren and make the education system work for everybody. The Swedish Agencyfor Youth and Civil Society (MUCF) disseminates knowledge on youth policy. They
have been tasked to find out how to strengthen the work on children rights. Areport called ‘10 reasons for dropping out’, is tightly linked to one of the SDG
indicators. How to support families with children that have neuropsychiatricconditions such as ADHD or other vulnerabilities to cope with attaining education isa key area. In Sweden, the Child Convention has sparked investigations in how
8children’s rights are sometimes lacking and need to be improved.

Vulnerable groups: Children• The SDGs show the need for a solid net of social policies that can support
children in growing up to reach their full potential.
• The youngest are normally not that visible in the statistics, but they feature in
the follow-up in the educational goal and also importantly in target 16.2 (endabuse, exploitation, trafficking, and all forms of violence and torture againstchildren).
• By increasing the focus on them and decreasing the violence in theirenvironments, the possibilities for preventing many problems are apparent. It
is one important way to improve the situation for the most vulnerable groups.
9Policies to improve children’s situation• The SDG indicator that shows how many young people are not in education,
employment, or training, the so-called NEET indicator, is one of the mostimportant for monitoring this change. In the global follow-up we can see thatthe youth that may have problems entering society because of a lack ofeducation or employment are a large group in all countries, between 10 and
30 percent, and with large gender disparities.
• In Sweden, corporal punishment was forbidden in 1973, but it is still allowed
in many countries. The number of countries that have legal systems that
protect children against violence in all settings is surprisingly small; only 62
states have full prohibition of corporal punishment, equivalent to around 13
percent of the world’s children, with 26 more states committed to reforming
10 their laws.

Conclusion: Policy coherence• A too narrow focus on what is valuable in society is a recipe for policy
incoherence.
• This happens when the systems in place to alleviate poverty or pollution arevery narrowly focused and leave large parts of the population or ecosystems
outside of the system boundaries.

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SDGs and the European Semester• Eurostat report release datealigned with EuropeanSemester spring package• Chapeau communication –Appendix 3 with overview
arrow• Country reports – SDG
annex

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13

Key results 2023 - best performers
SDG 8 – Decent work and economic growth•

Recovery after the pandemic continues - record high employment rate
(74.6%) in 2022 – on track to reach 2030 target (78%)•

GDP per capita above pre-pandemic level•

Share of young people neither in employment nor in education and training at
all time low - 2030 target of 9% in reach
SDG 1 – No poverty

14•

Considerable improvement in all poverty dimensions•

Fewer people face problems meeting their basic needs•

Stronger progress required to lift at least 15 million people out ofpoverty by 2030

Key results 2023 – significant progress
SDG 5 – Gender equality•

Women’s hourly earnings catching up with those of men•

Gender employment gap has narrowed since 2017 but moreprogress necessary to half the gender employment gap by 2030•

In the area of education, gender gap is reversed - men continue tofall further behind women in terms of tertiary education•

Growing share of leadership positions held by women15

Key results 2023 – good progress
SDG 10 – Reduced inequalities•

Income inequalities have decreased, also between urban and rural areas•

Continued convergence of Member States in terms of GDP per capita andhousehold income•Better integration of migrants in the labour market

SDG 4 – Quality education

16•

Positive trends in participation in education and training – target for earlyleavers can be reached but more progress needed for early childhood
education•

Quality of education and training needs to be improved – there are more low
achieving pupils and the share of adults with basic digital skills not growing
fast enoughKey results 2023 – more progress necessary
SDG 13 – Climate action•

Greenhouse gas emissions reduced by 30% compared to 1990•

Based on past trends more effort required to meet the very ambitious
reduction targets set for 2030.

•Additional measures have been already put in place as part of the ‘Fit for55 package’.

•Climate related economic losses have risen sharply in 2021 due toextreme weather events.

•EU’s contribution to the 100bn$ target continues to increase.

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Communication package

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