Fulfilling the Promise of ‘Leaving No One Behind’: Exploring Institutional Pathways to Success

Eileen de Jong, Sebastiaan Princen and Marjanneke J. Vijge

Sustainable Development, 2025, vol. 33, issue S1, 77-90

Abstract: The 2030 Agenda's Leaving No One Behind (LNOB) principle has the potential to offer a new approach to development, but whether it is achieved largely depends on how it is institutionalised within countries. This research provides the first empirical study into the relation between institutionalisation of LNOB and its goal achievement. Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis, this research investigates how and in what combinations five institutional elements present necessary and/or sufficient conditions for achieving LNOB in three key areas: social protection, health and education. The results indicate different conditions that lead to goal achievement of LNOB without revealing highly interlinked conditions. These findings challenge the notion that institutionalisation of LNOB is an ‘all or nothing’ situation. More targeted approaches could be equally effective suggesting that goal achievement of LNOB does not require the impossible from governments. Our research contributes new empirical insights and proposes case study analysis as the next necessary step.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.3555

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:wly:sustdv:v:33:y:2025:i:s1:p:77-90

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainable Development is currently edited by Richard Welford

More articles in Sustainable Development from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().