# A Novel ICT Framework for Sustainable Development Goals
## 6 Conclusions  
We have suggested an ICT framework for addressing sustainable development goals. Following the four principles, this framework aims to provide a pathway for designing and building an ICT platform: (1) SDGs performance should be shaped by three disciplines: governance science, sustainability science, and data science, (2) SDGs implementation should be triggered by various actors at different spatial scales, temporal, and decision making scales, (3) SDGs governance should be emphasized by various governance theories triggering actions across many levels and involving actors from multiple sectors, and (4) SDGs implementation should be influenced by the human behavior. The proposed framework is actually the first attempt to conceptualize the SDGs (as an ICT-supported phenomenon) in the light of existing discussions in governance science, sustainability science, and data science. In other words, the benefits of using this framework refer to the following novel features:  
* holistic approach that integrates three disciplines--governance science, sustainability science, and data science--bonded with the concept of digital democracy;
* increased-awareness approach that leads to governance of SDGs on both local and global levels;data-intensive approach in which SDGs are implemented by using state-of-the-art machine learning methods at different spatial, temporal, and decision making scales;
* governance-enhanced approach in which SDGs are implemented by considering various governance theories: adaptive governance, network governance, collaborative governance, accountable governance, fair governance, and trustworthy governance;
* two-way approach that ensures communications between government and people and effective citizen engagement in addressing SDGs; and
* responsible approach that provides true impacts on SDGs by motivating citizens to participate in addressing SDGs and by enabling those in positions of power to endorse the framework. Nevertheless, there are a few situations where this framework exhibits certain limits. First, the process of developing an ICT framework is iterative and could last for some time. For example, the social-ecological system (SES) framework was initially proposed in 2007, however, members of the SES club reported and discussed \"a few remaining ambiguities in its formulation\" in 2014 [110]. Second, the ICT framework we suggest here is a conceptual one and could face several challenges when implemented on a platform, especially those related to privacy, accountability, fairness, and paternalism. Any further work on the topic should take into account these limits, and should also address the soft paternalism and nudging for SDGs, including the issues related to the outcomes of nudging and the actors in charge of their implementation. As mentioned above, this framework could provide a supporting knowledge for building an ICT platform. We provide here only a brief guideline for the practical development and deployment of such a platform. For example, it could be designed and implemented as the ISO-Standardized Smart City Platform, developed and deployed for the city of Skopje, Macedonia [181]. The platform's application layer architecture could consist of several modules including a data gathering module, core intelligence reasoning module, security module for authentication, and user interface (front-end) module accessed via web and mobile applications, web services, and secure services for cloud/edge/fog and IoT integration [181]. The front-end module could have several dashboards: personal dashboard, real-time municipality dashboard, municipality dashboard, global dashboard. The \"social networks integration\" API could connect citizens to social network accounts and ranks users based on their involvement in improving SDGs. The API can share scores continuously (daily or weekly) and provide suggestions to enhance SDGs, thus motivating and empowering citizens to actively participate using the platform [181].