Social Science, Equity and the Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract:

The Sustainable Development Goals are underpinned by a committment to a world that is just, equitable, inclusive and environmentally sustainable and include goals of ending poverty and hunger; universal access to health, education, water, sanitation, energy and decent work; and reducing the risks and impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss, and marine, forest and land degradation. They seek to reduce inequality between and within countries and achieve gender equality. The SDGs build on the apparent success in meeting many of the Millenium Development Goals, including those of reducing poverty, hunger and debt and providing access to water. The science needed to achieve and monitor most of these goals is social science - an area of scholarship that is traditionally undervalued, underfunded, underepresented misunderstood and lacking in detailed data.

This paper will provide an overview of the social science that is needed to support the Sustainable Development Goals, with a particular focus on the challenges of monitoring social data over time and within countries, the importance of research design, and of building capacity and credibility in the social sciences. As an example, the paper will discuss the social science that will be needed to achieve Goal 13: Take urgent actions to combat climate change and its impacts, and measuring targets such as strengthening resilience and adaptive capacity, and raising capacities of women, youth, and marginalized communities to manage and respond climate change.