Insights from Agenda 21 for enhancing the implementation of the SDGs and shaping the Post-2030 sustainable development agenda

This paper re-examines Agenda 21 for lessons to improve SDG implementation and contribute to discussions on the post-2030 sustainable development agenda. The SDGs' roots in Agenda 21 have been almost forgotten, as analyses of the SDGs' creation and structure highlighted “governance through goals” as a core feature and presented SDGs as the MDGs' successor. This paper, however, demonstrates that the SDGs' contents are substantially based on Agenda 21, especially their broad scope and integrated perspective, not just MDGs. While Agenda 21 was considered unsuccessful, no systematic assessment was conducted, so the lessons for improvement were not clear. Now is a good time to reconsider Agenda 21's experience to better understand the SDGs' strengths and weaknesses and consider possible implications for developing the post-2030 sustainable development agenda. Concretely, this paper surveys and synthesizes the similarities and differences between Agenda 21 and SDGs (including Agenda 2030), and existing non-systematic evaluations of Agenda 21. This paper argues that despite Agenda 21's uneven progress, it had more impact than is generally appreciated, so discussions of post-2030 should take its experience into account. Lessons to inform discussions on achieving the SDGs and developing the post-2030 agenda are presented.