Can Agenda 2030 bring about “localization”? Policy limitations of Agenda 2030 in the broader global governance system

Gloria Novovic

Development Policy Review, 2022, vol. 40, issue 4

Abstract: Motivation Localization is an elusive target of international development, aimed at strengthening local ownership through equitable partnerships and redistribution of resources and decision‐making. While this is a long‐standing objective, it remains unachieved. In light of these limitations in global governance, the transformative potential of Agenda 2030 is questioned. Purpose This article observes policy shifts triggered by Agenda 2030 by analysing its domestication in institutional and national contexts in Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda. By asking “Can Agenda 2030 bring about localization?” the article examines the policy potential of Agenda 2030 to transform the traditional international development paradigm, as David Slater theorized in 1993. Methods and approach The article offers interpretive policy analysis and presents insights drawn from 172 interviews and 11 focus group discussions (FGDs) conducted with international and national civil servants, civil society actors, and academics in Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda, as well as headquarters and regional offices of selected United Nations and donor agencies. Findings Agenda 2030 emerges as a legitimate framework that creates new policy avenues of national agenda‐setting and multi‐stakeholder co‐ordination. Across all three national contexts, Agenda 2030 was integrated into national agendas, considered to be central development anchors that, however, largely depend on change‐resistant donor structures. This is intensifying critiques of development paradigms among development practitioners, particularly from historically disadvantaged countries. Policy implications While triggering meaningful shifts in development agenda‐setting, Agenda 2030 has not resulted in political commitments to transform inequitable global development mechanisms that would enable its achievement. Key bottlenecks, in fact, are found not in the insufficient implementation of countries receiving official development assistance, but in the lack of institutional reforms to donor and global governance mechanisms. Political, rather than policy, solutions are required.

Date: 2022
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