Global Sustainable Development Report 2023

In the context of Australia's unique circumstances, opportunities and challenges, and those of our region, we must play an active role in global processes on sustainable development. With the development of the 2023 Global Sustainable Development Report already underway, now is the time to draw attention to the issues faced by our region and to identify and advocate for regional specific solutions. Through this project, we engaged with stakeholders in Australia and the Pacific to capture and raise the voices of our region in progressing global Sustainable Development discussions.

MSDI set up a range of engagement processes, including regional participatory workshops, through which governments, businesses, industries, universities and civil society in Australia and our Pacific neighbours were able to raise issues and identify solutions. These engagements were designed to align with and, where possible, link to planned GSDR 2023 activities.

Our engagements were not seeking to track and measure progress towards the SDGs, nor were we seeking to replicate other Pacific-based SDG reports. Rather the primary aim of these engagements was to capture the specific challenges and opportunities of implementing the sustainable development framework in Australia and our Pacific neighbours.

Engagements were guided by participatory principles to capture the breadth of stakeholder opinions and ensure that participant voices shaped the outputs and outcomes of the engagements.

MSDI was involved in the 2023 Global Sustainable Development Report in two important ways.

MSDI academic Shirin Malekpour was the only Australian among 15 world-leading scientists appointed by UN Secretary-General António Guterres to be part of the 2023 Group of Independent Scientists. With the help of MSDI Research Fellow Cameron Allen, Shirin helped synthesise the evidence and write the 2023 report.

Using Dr Malekpour's appointment to the Group of Independent Scientists as an entry point, along with MSDI's expertise, experiences and networks in the region, we engaged with stakeholders across Australia and the Pacific to capture the challenges and opportunities presented by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework, with a specific focus on the applicability and utility of the 2019 Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR).

Julie Boulton, a sustainability strategist with MSDI and Dominique Coy, a senior program co-ordinator with MSDI, ran regional participatory workshops and surveys with key sustainability stakeholders in Australia and the Pacific to explore the national conversations about the use of the SDG framework.

These engagements built on the 2019 GSDR and were informed by existing SDG reports in the Pacific and Australia to ensure cohesiveness and novelty. These engagements were designed to align to and, where possible, link to planned GSDR 2023 activities.