Rethinking development: an SDG17-driven research-action approach in the Senegalese drylands

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity. It defines 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are integrated and indivisible. While the goals are set at the global scale, the necessary actions to achieve them are implemented at more local scales and must be aligned with each country’s national laws and regulatory frameworks. In order to reach the SDGs by 2030 there is an urgent need to design SDG implementation processes that take the indivisible nature of the SDGs seriously and acknowledge that human-nature relationships are intertwined with inherent complexities across scales. Therefore, multiscale participation in implementation processes is fundamental to achieve the SDGs. In this paper, we describe a participatory process for the identification of development pathways towards sustainable and just futures aligned with the SDGs. The multiscale process was carried out in Senegal in three contrasted localities, in collaboration with local administrators, elected officials, members of civil society, and national level decision makers and researchers. The process is broken down into 17 concrete steps, in resonance with the 17 SDG goals and goal 17.17 on multi-stakeholder partnerships, spanning the highly critical first step which sets up the governance of the full process to the ultimate 17th step which defines a long-term lobbying strategy aimed at influencing policy-making and development investments. We conclude that the bottom-up nature of the process with emphasis on the local articulation of problems and solutions, albeit incorporating expert input for technical and institutional feasibility, and the connection of a broad range of stakeholders across scales, constitute the key strengths of the process.