Background: With the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, a systematic assessment of how the goals influence child health and vice versa has been lacking. We aimed to contribute to such an assessment by investigating the interactions between child health and the Sustainable Development Goals in Cambodia. Methods: Based on the SDG Synergies approach, 272 interactions between 16 Cambodian Sustainable Development Goals and child health were evaluated by an interdisciplinary Cambodian stakeholder group. From this a cross-impact matrix was derived and network analysis applied to determine first and second-order effects of the interactions with a focus on child health. Results: We show that with the exception of Cambodian Sustainable Development Goal 15 (life on land) the interactions are perceived to be synergistic between the child health and the Cambodian Sustainable Development Goals, and progress on Cambodian Sustainable Development Goal 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions) could have the largest potential to contribute to the achievement of the Cambodian Sustainable Development Goals, both when it comes to first and second-order interactions. Conclusions: In this stakeholder assessment, our findings provide novel insights on how complex relationships play out at the country level and highlight important synergies and trade-offs, vital for accelerating the work toward the betterment of child health and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

This chapter focuses on the national level and studies interlinkages, institutional integration and policy coherence in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals. After defining key terms, the chapter reviews how perspectives on interlinkages have shaped a new discourse, followed by an analysis of the steering effects of the global goals on institutional integration and policy coherence. The chapter finds that some measures have been taken by national governments to advance institutional integration through coordination by central agencies and inter-ministerial exchanges. Growing policy coherence, however, is not clearly observable. Existing barriers in political-administrative systems preventing institutional integration and policy coherence have not vanished with the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals. Although recent studies have considerably enhanced knowledge on the conceptual understanding of interlinkages, integration and coherence, empirical data about how these concepts play out in practice at national level is still very limited.

In 2015, the United Nations agreed on 17 Sustainable Development Goals as the central normative framework for sustainable development worldwide. The effectiveness of governing by such broad global goals, however, remains uncertain, and we lack comprehensive meta-studies that assess the political impact of the goals across countries and globally. We present here condensed evidence from an analysis of over 3,000 scientific studies on the Sustainable Development Goals published between 2016 and April 2021. Our findings suggests that the goals have had some political impact on institutions and policies, from local to global governance. This impact has been largely discursive, affecting the way actors understand and communicate about sustainable development. More profound normative and institutional impact, from legislative action to changing resource allocation, remains rare. We conclude that the scientific evidence suggests only limited transformative political impact of the Sustainable Development Goals thus far.

Background: The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are integrated, indivisible and interdependent and interact and affect each other directly and indirectly. However, the 2030 Agenda does not attempt to identify or characterise these interactions.Evidence: The SDG Synergies approach was developed to enable the investigation of the strength and nature of interactions between SDGs based on the perception of a multistakeholder group. Two examples are given to concretely demonstrate how this approach overcomes present challenges and can be applied to situate health within the 2030 Agenda.Policy Options and Recommendations: There are clear benefits to situate desired health policy outcomes within the 2030 Agenda, and the SDG Synergies approach can be used as lever for including health aspects in traditional non-health sectors. Although focusing on specific health policies cannot be substituted with multisectoral policies alone, utilizing tools and methods such as the SDG Synergies approach can help policy makers put health at the centre of the SDGs.Conclusion: SDG Synergies is an impactful approach for policy makers to gain a systemic understanding of how broader sustainable development shape the health and well-being of people and vice versa.

OBJECTIVE With the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) there is a need for a framework for understanding how child health is related to other sustainable development outcomes. Cambodia has made great advances in child health and recently adapted the SDGs into the Cambodian Sustainable Development Goals (CSDGs). A systematic assessment of how the SDGs influence child health and vice versa has however been lacking. This study aimed to contribute to such an assessment by considering the interactions between the SDGs and child health in Cambodia.

METHODS The participatory semi-quantitative SDG Synergies method was applied in order to systematically assess the interactions. Over a two-day workshop, 29 governmental and non-governmental stakeholders scored 272 interactions between 17 CSDGs where CSDG 3 represented child health on a seven-point scale from strongly restricting (-3) to strongly promoting (+3). From this a cross-impact matrix was derived and network analysis applied to determine first and second-order effects of the interactions with a focus on child health.

RESULTS Overall, stakeholders perceived in general that there are promoting interactions between the CSDGs and child health and that CSDG 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions) might have the largest synergistic potential for the achievement of the CSDGs. Stakeholders perceived that progress on child health promotes the achievement of all other goals except for CSDG 15 (life on land) in Cambodia. Conversely, progress on all other goals positively influence child health.

CONCLUSIONS The investigation of the interactions surrounding the SDGs and child health in Cambodia provide insights on how complex relationships play out at country level, illuminating critical synergies and trad-offs. This understanding is vital for informing policy coherence and multisectoral partnerships that can accelerate the work towards achieving the 2030 Agenda and the betterment of global child health in Cambodia and beyond.

Quantitative models of transitions, such as energy systems models and integrated assessment models, do not usually represent social processes, institutions and politics. Their view of societal transitions, along with the governance required to drive them, is therefore limited. Socio-technical systems approaches, in contrast, represent the social side but lack a quantitative view of the future system. This paper addresses this by bridging an energy systems model with socio-technical systems analysis and a local action study, analysing the future transition of the residential heating system in Sweden. The paper focuses on demand-side shifts that would drive a transition to a highly efficient, low-carbon heating system until 2050. A conceptual framework for bridging three approaches is introduced and applied. For example, niche-innovations identified in the socio-technical study are implemented as scenario options in the model. Landscape signals are external drivers of the scenario, and the regime study identifies barriers and governance requirements. The local action study provides insights into community attitudes affecting niches and regime change. Our results indicate that the linking of approaches is meaningful, in that it provides an enriched understanding of future systems change in many dimensions. Further research is required using a variety of models on a variety of domains or sectors to draw more generalizable lessons about bridging modelling and social science-based approaches for transition studies.

This article introduces a suggested comprehensive framework for identifying, assessing and governing trade-offs and enhancing coherence in public policy decision-making. The framework is based on a simple three-stage model of policy-making: understanding policy interactions (input), integrating policy-making (process), and assessing ex ante policy decisions (output). The first stage is tackled with an interactions assessment framework, identifying how different sectors or ministries relate to each other in terms of their respective objectives, and on what topics negotiations are required to manage trade-offs. The second stage draws on approaches and experiences in environmental policy integration. It focuses on institutional procedures, structures and rules that enable integrated policy-making processes. The third stage draws on the longer-standing policy-analytical field of impact assessment applied to sustainable development. The article discusses the conceptual and theoretical foundations of each stage, as well as practical policy experiences. Discussing this in the context of 2030 Agenda implementation, the article suggests how trade-offs and policy coherence can be better governed using adapted policy-analytic methods and approaches.

Pursuing integrated research and decision-making to advance action on the sustainable development goals (SDGs) fundamentally depends on understanding interactions between the SDGs, both negative ones (trade-offs) and positive ones (co-benefits). This quest, triggered by the 2030 Agenda, has however pointed to a gap in current research and policy analysis regarding how to think systematically about interactions across the SDGs. This paper synthesizes experiences and insights from the application of a new conceptual framework for mapping and assessing SDG interactions using a defined typology and characterization approach. Drawing on results from a major international research study applied to the SDGs on health, energy and the ocean, it analyses how interactions depend on key factors such as geographical context, resource endowments, time horizon and governance. The paper discusses the future potential, barriers and opportunities for applying the approach in scientific research, in policy making and in bridging the two through a global SDG Interactions Knowledge Platform as a key mechanism for assembling, systematizing and aggregating knowledge on interactions.