The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls on governments and other stakeholders to achieve 17 SDGs and 169 associated targets, bringing together economic, social and environmental considerations in ways that mutually reinforce each other. It is obvious that isolated actions and policies, focused on individual goals and targets, cannot make a decisive contribution to successfully facing the whole complex web of global challenges.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, no country in the world was on track to reach the 17 SDGs. The COVID-19 pandemic further tested the resilience of all countries in how to respond in times of crisis. However, the pandemic has also provided Europe with a window of opportunity to learn and use the knowledge gained from this crisis to build an even more resilient Europe against other threats, whether that be from another pandemic or from the effects of climate change or biodiversity loss.
As many European countries are finalizing their Recovery and Resilience Plans, the topic of resilience and sustainable development is timely and important. It is because of this importance that the ESDN and the Slovenian Ministry for the Environment and Spatial Planning organized the ESDN Conference 2021 on the topic of “European Recovery and Resilience Mechanisms – Challenges in Systemic Approaches in Sustainable Development”. The insights from the Conference discussions inform the recommendations for this Policy Brief. The Conference had over 120 sustainable development practitioners and experts as participants from 22 countries.
Policy Recommendations for a more Resilient and Sustainable Europe
- Take policy coherence for sustainable development more seriously
- Foster governance processes for sustainable development transitions
- Incorporate the social dimension into sustainable development
- Educate and Communicate positive best practices of sustainable transformational change
You can read the entire Policy Brief here.