The United Nations sustainable development goals: a knowledge-to-action framework for implementation and evaluation

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have set the global agenda for sustainable development up to 2030. While this set of non-binding goals originated from unprecedented consensus building between governments and NGOs, critics argue that the goals are too broad, isolated, unfocused, and unrealistic. More importantly, the SDG process itself is seen as perpetuating the traditional top-down model of development that has been shown to be ineffective. The PLuS Alliance team comprising development experts are working to create a knowledge-to-action framework and case studies in agricultural development (Indonesia), social business (Bangladesh), and urban waste management (India), which will be disseminated to practitioner communities globally.