Drifting Past Policy Coherence? Rhetoric and Realities of the Mexican Sembrando Vida Program’s Sustainability Goals

Sofia Mardero, Birgit Schmook (), Sophie Calmé, Grecia Casanova and Rehema M. White
Additional contact information
Sofia Mardero: School of Geography and Sustainable Development, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9AL, UK
Birgit Schmook: Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Ocean Observation and Research, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Chetumal 77014, Mexico
Sophie Calmé: Department of Biology, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC J1K 2R1, Canada
Grecia Casanova: Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Ocean Observation and Research, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Chetumal 77014, Mexico
Rehema M. White: School of Geography and Sustainable Development, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9AL, UK

Land, 2025, vol. 14, issue 2, 1-19

Abstract: Global and interconnected sustainability challenges require systems thinking and policy coherence to support bold and coordinated action. To chart a course for action, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a suite of targets across international and national levels. Here, we explore intentions and contributions over time of the Mexican multifaceted rural-development program Sembrando Vida (SV) to the SDGs, to assess its policy coherence for sustainable development, especially in relation to climate change. We reviewed online documents and newspaper articles, interviewed key SV staff and analyzed the Mexican President’s morning conference speeches. We show that multiplicity and adaptation of stated intentions suggest opportunistic forms of policy drift with limited policy coherence. The potential of the SV program remains promising, but it requires clearer objectives, coherent strategy, expert knowledge, community support and evaluation. These results demonstrate how political context can cause policy drift and negatively impact intended policy coherence for sustainable development.

Keywords: UN Sustainable Development Goals; rural development; conditional cash transfer; climate change policy; environmental policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/2/278/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/2/278/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:14:y:2025:i:2:p:278-:d:1579671

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().