Giving Compass' Take:

• Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah argues that true accountability will be essential for SDG success. If no one faces real consequences for failure, there is insufficient motivation for success. 

• Who should be held accountable for the SDGs? 

• Read a roadmap to assessing system-level and SDG investing.


The problem with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), was that no one ever lost their job for failing to meet an MDG target.

When I say this at high-level meetings, participants shift uneasily in their seats. Their unease really shows when I ask why, if we truly want the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to succeed, would we not hold accountable those of us in governments, intergovernmental agencies, global business, or civil society organizations (CSOs) responsible for achieving them—even to the point that our jobs would depend on it?

My provocation seems absurd because we do not (yet) see the SDGs as having real political bite. They are not legally binding, their complexity and interconnectedness make apportioning blame (or credit) difficult, and they arise out of an intergovernmental system that seems ineffective at accountability.

To me, one of the key priorities, especially for civil society working on sustainable development, is to deliver an accountability revolution.

Civil society at every level—from local to national to global—needs to play its oversight or watchdog role effectively. We need to make sure that ambitious goals are not watered down or cherry-picked, and that states embrace the new universalist, human rights-based approach that is required of them.

Holding governments and the private sector to account will be essential.

Read the full article about SDG success by Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah at Brookings.