Participatory pathways to the Sustainable Development Goals: inviting divergent perspectives through a cross-scale systems approach

0572900 - ÚVGZ 2024 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Collste, D. - Aguiar, A. P. D. - Harmáčková, Veronika Zuzana - Galafassi, D. - Pereira, L. M. - Selomane, O. - Van Der Leeuw, S.
Participatory pathways to the Sustainable Development Goals: inviting divergent perspectives through a cross-scale systems approach.
Environmental Research Communications. Roč. 5, č. 5 (2023), č. článku 055014. ISSN 2515-7620. E-ISSN 2515-7620
Institutional support: RVO:86652079
Keywords : SDGs * transformations * Co-production * Global south * pathways * food system
OECD category: Environmental sciences (social aspects)
Impact factor: 2.9, year: 2022
Method of publishing: Open access
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2515-7620/acce25

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include social and ecological goals for humanity. Navigating towards reaching the goals requires the systematic inclusion of perspectives from a diversity of voices. Yet, the development of global sustainability pathways often lacks perspectives from the Global South. To help fill this gap, this paper introduces a participatory approach for visioning and exploring sustainable futures the Three Horizons for the Sustainable Development Goals (3H4SDG). 3H4SDG facilitates explorations of (a) systemic pathways to reach the SDGs in an integrated way, and (b) highlights convergences and divergences between the pathways. We illustrate the application of 3H4SDG in a facilitated dialogue bringing together participants from four sub-regions of Africa: West Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, and Southern Africa. The dialogue focused on food and agricultural systems transformations. The case study results incorporate a set of convergences and divergences in relation to the future of urbanization, population growth, consumption, and the role of agriculture in the African economy. These were subsequently compared with the perspectives in global sustainability pathways, including the shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs). The study illustrates that participatory approaches that are systemic and highlight divergent perspectives represent a promising way to link local aspirations with global goals.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0343464