tl;dr: The SDGs are essential for global progress, but “SDG alignment” often masks flexible interpretations, strategic misalignment, and skewed power dynamics. Real impact demands transparency, accountability, and local engagement—not just SDG branding. ✨ #FutureOfCooperation

🌍 There is no doubt that a set of goals such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is essential as a general globally shared understanding to eradicate poverty, protect our planet and ensure prosperity for all.

However, there are also issues with the claim of SDG alignment:

• Flexible interpretations: The abstract nature of the global goals allows for different interpretations, allowing projects to claim alignment with certain SDGs without substantive evidence.
• Complex impact chains: Some initiatives develop complex and creative theories of change to justify their link to SDGs. However, these may not represent the core impacts of the project, and other impacts that run counter to the spirit of the SDGs may remain obscured.
• Strategic misalignment: Organisations may use the language of the SDGs to gain legitimacy and attract funding, but lack the capacity or commitment to ensure that their work is truly aligned with the SDG goals. This practice risks ‘SDG branding’ without delivering real impact.
• Power dynamics: The SDGs often function as a top-down framework, imposed by donors or international bodies. Local actors, who are critical to project implementation, may feel excluded from target-setting and decision-making processes, resulting in initiatives that don’t fully address community needs.

Therefore, even if a project aligns its outcomes with the SDGs, it doesn’t automatically qualify as a ‘good’ project in terms of sustainable transformative impact. True alignment requires transparency, accountability and a deep understanding of the local context to ensure that initiatives contribute meaningfully to the overarching goals.