# A Novel ICT Framework for Sustainable Development Goals
## 1 Introduction
Moreover, ICTs and the advances of global Internet impose the necessity to give a proper attention to cybersecurity and the challenges that unreliable or insecure ICT infrastructure and services pose for social and political sustainability. Finally, and perhaps the most important \"if the ICT-enabled economic growth proceeds without complementary improvements in the sustainability with which we use other resources, the expansion in global consumption of resources from water to energy will pose an even greater challenge\" [25]. In other words, ICTs have the potential to increase the threats to our environment, security, and the sense of well-being that may not be directly the result of ICTs, but that are almost certainly deteriorated by these technologies. These various arguments all suggest the reasons and requirements to establish a proper framework in place, so that ICT can support delivering a change the world needs to achieve the Global Goals and make sure no one is left behind. This paper aims at proposing an ICT framework for both addressing the complexity of SDGs and providing knowledge for building ICT platforms. We are aware that there is a critical reflection on the frameworks that are based on the so called \"three pillars\" and the approaches to find a \"balance\" between the environment, economy, and society. For example, [PERSON] and [PERSON] look at \"the economic system as a part of human society and human society as a phenomenon that has become possible due to the biological processes on earth which have been reliably carrying it so far\" [27]. The LES model, built up to structure the impact of ICT on sustainability, was actually based on this point of view [28]. Nevertheless, we intentionally use the \"three pillars\" or \"dimensions\" of sustainability because (alongside the environmental and economic sustainability) we would like to lay stress on the sound public policies that support healthy governance systems (social and political sustainability), as ICTs will progressively change the governance and delivery of every single type of public services. With this in mind, we propose four design principles intended to (1) configure the basic building blocks of the ICT framework provided here (data module, sustainability module, and governance module), (2) implement coordinated efforts of various stakeholders at different spatial, temporal, and decision-making scales, (3) allow various governance theories to be implemented in the framework, and (4) provide incentives for individuals to take a part in the decision-making process. Hence, this work aims to contribute new knowledge to recent literature and policy discussions on the potential of ICT to offer an extraordinary platform for achieving the SDGs. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 deals with the concept of sustainability according to different streams of thought, examines the existing research initiatives that have addressed SDGs from different perspectives, and provides a plan to design the paper. Section 3 describes the fundamentals (governance science, sustainability science, data science, and digital democracy) for addressing sustainable development. Section 4 refers to the four design principles we propose for the ICT framework. Section 5 depicts the ICT framework for SDGs that is made up of three modules: data module, sustainability module, and governance module. Section 6 concludes and makes recommendations.