Since its adoption in 2015, the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development has shaped not only international development cooperation but also the design of national trajectories for social and economic development. In tandem with other global agendas adopted that year (such as the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and UN Habitat’s New Urban Agenda) it remains the global and regional blueprint for sustainable development despite the COVID-19 pandemic. The term "localizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)" has been used to capture the importance of subnational governments for achieving national SDG agendas. However, there is little deeper analysis of the required nexus between fiscal, political, and legal arrangements for SNGs; their involvement in national policy arenas (which discuss and decide on national SDG strategies); and the need for locally disaggregated data systems on the one hand, and effective SDG localization strategies on the other hand. It is this aspect which the present publication explores in greater detail by using country examples and conceptual analyses. The text will be of interest to policymakers, scholars, students and practitioners in public policy and public administration, decentralization, and sustainable development, with a focus on the Asia and Pacific region. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative License (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO).

This publication presents an empirical assessment of Mongolia’s system of decentralized governance and the extent to which it translates into the actual and practical working environment for subnational and local governments. It focuses on the roles of subnational and local governments in providing public services and promoting local economic development.

The international community has come together to pursue certain fundamental, common goals over the coming period to 2030 to make progress toward ending poverty and hunger, improving social and economic well-being, preserving the environment and combating climate change, and maintaining peace. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been agreed to by states, which have in turn adopted national targets and action plans. This volume studies the governance and implementation of these goals in Southeast Asia, in particular the difficulties in the shift from the international to the national, the multi-level challenges of implementation, and the involvement of stakeholders, civil society, and citizens in the process. Contributors to this volume are scholars from across Southeast Asia who research these issues in developing (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar), middle-income (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam), and developed countries (Brunei, Singapore) in the region. The perspectives on governance and the SDGs emerge from the fields of political science, international relations, geography, economics, law, health, and the natural sciences.

This book brings together a diverse range of scholars and practitioners working at the nexus of peace and development to reflect, at the mid-way point of the Sustainable Development Goals implementation period, what impact Goal 16 has made, or may yet make, toward reducing violence in ‘all its forms.’ Adopted in 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals include 17 objectives designed to shape and direct the global development agenda through to 2030, with Goal 16 aiming to promote ‘peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development.’ Amidst an ongoing global pandemic, evidence of a fracturing liberal international order, and the persistence of seemingly intractable conflict in large parts of the world, this volume takes stock of current progress toward providing access to justice and ensuring inclusive and democratic institutions. Across 15 chapters, the book’s contributors explore the universal aspirations of Goal 16 and its specific implications for conflict-affected states, which continue to experience ‘development in reverse,’ and for historically marginalized groups such as women, youth, the disabled, and indigenous peoples. In doing so, it offers a comprehensive assessment of Goal 16’s broader contribution to the creation of a more just, peaceful world against the realities of societies emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic and grappling with a deepening climate crisis. This volume will appeal to scholars, researchers, policymakers, and postgraduate students in sustainable development, global governance, international relations, global development, international law, and political science.

This book provides a concise and informative introduction to how geography and institutions shaped the development of nations, showing that while the role of institutions for the development of nations is indisputable, the role of geographic factors remains underexplored and underestimated. Drawing on rich empirical material from the history and modernity of different continents and nations, How Geography and Institutions Shaped the Development of Nations: Across Countries and Continents seeks to show not only the importance of geographical explanations of development but also their extraordinary diversity. This book is divided into two parts. The first part examines the main contributions to the understanding of development under the influence of geographic and institutional factors, as well as state’s geographic attributes and borders as geographic institutions. The second part immerses the reader in empirical material, presenting various cases on different continents in different historical periods. This book is an essential read for researchers in a broad range of areas, including international organizations and practitioners involved accelerating national development. It will also be of interest to scholars and students in development studies and, more broadly, to geography, comparative politics, and regional studies.

There have been significant efforts to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at multiple levels of governance across all regions of the world. However, the manner in which the global governance norms underlying the SDGs are actually being diffused is under-researched and not well understood. This book considers the promotion of the SDGs through the lens of norm diffusion theory, with a focus on three SDG policy areas; health, education and decent work. A distinctive feature of the book is that it offers multiple original case studies of SDG norm diffusion involving Asian and European actors. A unique feature is that the case studies in the book identify relevant SDG norm senders and norm receivers, and examine the relationship between them. The book also challenges the assumption that the SDGs themselves are static and unchanging, and reveals how SDG norms are dynamic and can be reformulated as a result of contestation between norm senders and norm receivers. As well as introducing a diverse and original set of case studies, the book therefore allows readers to deepen their understandings of the policy diffusion mechanisms by which SDGs are diffused, and grasp the patterns of success and failure in the implementation of these policies. Chapters 4, 5 and 7 of this book are available for free in PDF format as Open Access from the individual product page at www.routledge.com. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 licence.

Available Open Access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Experts from across the globe review leading social policy scholarship in this new volume in the Social Policy Review series. Specialists explore local and multi-level trends in social policy including government responses to the cost-of-living crisis in the UK and decentralisation in primary health care in Thailand. They also review policy responses to working age risks in England, Italy and Australia, as well as policy developments and transformations such as social protection in Japan and Australia and immigration resettlement schemes in the UK. Published in association with the Social Policy Association, the latest book in this respected series will be essential reading for students and academics in social policy, social welfare and related disciplines.