Welcome to the United Nations
Effective, accountable and inclusive institutions are essential to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This is recognized by SDG 16 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Agenda also recognized that governments have the primary responsibility for implementing the SDGs and ensuring follow-up and review over the coming 15 years, at the national, regional and global levels. One of the first steps governments take to implement the Agenda is often to shape the institutional arrangements for steering the implementation of the SDGs and reviewing progress.
Public administration - the cornerstone of government’s work- plays an essential and critical role in improving people’s lives. Reinventing public administration is a positive and necessary way forward. Without public administration modernization and transformation to adapt to today’s needs, realizing a better future for all will be impossible. Where capable administrations are lacking, governments are incapacitated; and where governments are incapacitated, sustainable development falls short.
- World Public Sector Report 2023: Transforming Institutions to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals After the Pandemic
- World Public Sector Report 2021: National Institutional Arrangements for Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals – A Five-year Stocktaking
- World Public Sector Report 2019: Sustainable Development Goal 16: Focus on Public Institutions
- World Public Sector Report 2018: Working Together – Integration, Institutions and the Sustainable Development Goals
- Previous editions of the World Public Sector Report
- Compendium of National Institutional Arrangements for implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: 2020 Update
- Compendium of national institutional arrangements for implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: 2019 update
English | Russian (Unofficial translation) - Compendium of National Institutional Arrangements for implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2018)
- UN/DESA Policy Brief #164 : The integrated nature of the sustainable development goals as a lever for trust, institutional resilience and innovation
- UN/DESA Policy Brief #157: How Can Governments Strengthen Their Relationships with Society to Meet the Sustainable Development Goals? Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic
- UN/DESA Policy Brief #136: Promoting non-discrimination in public administration: some entry points
- UN/DESA Policy Brief #117: Building the capacities of public servants to implement the 2030 Agenda
- UN/DESA Policy Brief #116: A view of changes in institutional arrangements for SDG implementation at the national level since 2015
- UN/DESA Policy Brief #115: Horizontal and vertical integration are more necessary than ever for COVID-19 recovery and SDG implementation
- UN/DESA Policy Brief #114: Connecting the dots: The still elusive synergies between accountability institutions and the follow-up and review of the Sustainable Development Goals
- UN/DESA Policy Brief #74: Resilient institutions in times of crisis: transparency, accountability and participation at the national level key to effective response to COVID-19
- Research note: A Glance at Least Developed Countries’ Institutional Arrangements for SDG Implementation at the National Level, 2015-2021
- CEPA strategy guidance notes: UN DESA's work is supported by a series of Committee of Experts on Public Administration (CEPA) strategy guidance notes on the many facets of effective governance for sustainable development.
Events
- VNR lab: Recent innovations in institutional arrangements for SDG implementation (15 July 2022)
- VNR lab: Governance and policy integration in the context of COVID-19 (14 July 2021)
Meeting reports
- Report of Expert Group Meeting “Second technical meeting for the elaboration of a model to audit the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals” (24-26 July 2019)
- Report of Expert Group Meeting on “Budgeting and Planning in Support of Effective Institutions for the Sustainable Development Goals” (4-5 February 2019)
- Report of Expert Group Meeting on Integrated approaches to international migrations: the perspective of public institutions and public administration (1 November 2017)
- Report of Expert Group Meeting on Integrating Sustainable Development and Peace in Post-conflict Situations: the Role of Public Institutions and Public Administration (25 October 2017)
Presentations
- Are your institutional frameworks fit for purpose for the implementation and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development? (presentation made during First Global Workshop for the 2024 Voluntary National Reviews, 4-5 December 2023)
- Are your institutional frameworks fit for purpose for the implementation and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development? (presentation made during First Global Workshop for the VNRs to be presented at the 2023 UN HLPF, 6-7 December 2022)
- Institutional arrangements to mobilize all parts of government in VNRs and in SDG implementation (presentation made during introduction Webinar for 2023 VNRs, 26-27 October 2022)
- Institutional arrangements to mobilize all parts of government in VNRs and in SDG implementation (presentation made during the First Global Workshop for 2022 VNR countries, 25-29 October 2021)