Global goals in a local context: Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals - A case study

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Main field of study – Leadership and Organisation

Degree of Master of Arts (60 credits) with a Major in Leadership and Organisation

Master Thesis with a focus on Leadership and Organisation for Sustainability (OL646E), 15 credits Spring 2018

Supervisor: Jonas Lundsten

GLOBAL GOALS IN A LOCAL CONTEXT

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS: A CASE STUDY

Jonatan Engström

Usva Salvi

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Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to explore a local organization’s adoption of global sustainability policy, in terms of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Agenda is a response to global sustainability challenges which require action by international cooperation and actors on all levels. For such a policy to fulfill its purpose, means of implementation must be ensured. This study aims to answer both why and how a small organization located in Malmö, Sweden, has adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, and what it implies for its operations. More specifically, the focus is on the perceptions of people involved in the selected case organization. These perceptions have been captured by interviews. In addition to the interviews, the case data also consists of a document that directs parts of the organization’s operations. Furthermore, to connect the global and local levels, the case data is supplemented with the 2030 Agenda. By conducting a thematic analysis, our main findings indicate that the SDGs are adoptable to a local organization, but that their main function seems to be to frame and legitimize already existing activities in a context of sustainable development.

Keywords: Sustainable Development Goals; The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; Sustainability policy; Local policy implementation; Global governance; Legitimacy; Case-based research; Thematic analysis

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1. Introduction

Societal challenges, such as climate change and poverty, are global issues that demand actions and responses from actors at global, national and local levels. In order to be sufficiently reacted, these challenges require extensive international cooperation. The cooperation consists of mechanisms to control and monitor the challenges by different agreements and policies, which is referred to as global governance (Karns, Karen & Stiles, 2015). One response to sustainability challenges faced globally is the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a resolution adopted by the United Nations’ General Assembly in 2015. The agenda consists of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to end poverty and create a socially, environmentally, and economically sustainable planet, by engaging all countries worldwide for 15 years (United Nations, 2018a).

Moreover, international policies and agreements need to be adoptable and implemented on different levels in order to fulfill their purpose. The SDGs leave, however, freedom to national choices and for governments to decide about the implementation and determination for the goals in the UN member countries, since the SDGs are not legally binding (Karns et al., 2015). Thus, the implementation of the SDGs can highly vary at the national and local level and therefore, in-depth studies on how international policies, such as the SDGs, are interpreted and implemented are needed (Betts & Orchard, 2014). The implementation of the SDGs is considered a complex process, where the interlinkages between the different goals, and local and national contextual differences, need to be taken into consideration (Stafford-Smith et al., 2017). Considering the complexity of implementing the Sustainable Development Goals locally, the research problem that this thesis revolves around is how global policy can be implemented in practice on a local level, and thereby achieve the work towards the goals which is needed for them to be accomplished globally. More specifically, the purpose of this study is to, by conducting a case study, explore an organization's adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals into its operations. With this focus in mind, this thesis’ aimed theoretical contribution is to provide insight about a new phenomenon, i.e. the implications of the global SDGs on a small, local, organization, specifically in a context of Sweden and Malmö. Besides from the theoretical contribution, this thesis aims to contribute practically by showing why a small organization on a local level adopts a global policy and what the adoption might imply for the organization and its operations.

In order to explore this topic in a satisfying way, some delimitations have been done. The local context of focus in this thesis is the Malmö area, where the case that has been selected as study object is located. The reasons for this focus are several. Malmö is facing multiple challenges related to sustainability, and this local context is characterized by a sustainable focus. The city has taken action to proactively work with these challenges. One example is that the City of Malmö has adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, and the adoption of the goals are supposed to affect operations in all parts of the organization (City of Malmö, 2017a). The city is not only challenged by issues regarding social sustainability, but aims also to be the most climate-smart city in Sweden by 2030 (City of Malmö, 2010). A climate-related threat that the city and the surrounding region is facing is an expected rise of the sea level. Skåne is one of the most exposed regions in Sweden regarding expected risks of flooding and coastal erosion due to raised sea levels (European Commission, 2009).

The case that will be examined in this study is an organization which also focuses on these challenges. It is a small organization working with marine education. One of the reasons why this case has been selected is because the information on the organization’s website states that the organization has included the Sustainable Development Goals into its activities. In addition, parts of the organization’s activities are directed by a mission from the City of Malmö. Within this case study, we will study the perceptions of the people working in the organization. The research questions that this thesis aims to answer are why the SDGs are adopted in, and what it implies for, a local organization’s practical operations. The assumption that the SDGs are adopted is made by the notion mentioned above, that the organization mentions inclusion of the SDGs on its website.

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However, the actual implementation is yet to explore. To provide a more comprehensive understanding, and to connect the global and local level, we will support the collected case data, which consists of a document and interview data, with the UN resolution that constituted the 2030 Agenda.

This introductory chapter has aimed to briefly introduce the context and topic of this study, and the rest of this thesis is structured as follows. The second chapter provides a contextual background regarding the national and local setting, an introduction to global sustainability policy and the SDGs, and the global challenges which the policies react to. The theoretical framework in the third chapter consists of a presentation and discussion about the key concepts related to this research. In addition, some previous studies on global sustainability policy implementation are presented. The contextual and theoretical backgrounds lead to the purpose and research questions presented in chapter 4, which is followed by a chapter describing the methods and methodological considerations. Chapter 6 presents the main findings from the empirical data, which are then analyzed and discussed in the following chapter. Lastly, the eighth chapter presents the conclusions, this thesis’ contribution, and recommendations for future research.

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2. Contextual background

To contextualize this thesis’ focus, this chapter will provide some necessary background information. The chapter frames the sustainability challenges which are of focus for the case organization, provides a background to global sustainability policy and the Sustainable Development Goals, and introduces the national and local context within which the explored case operates.

2.1. Global marine issues

To put the examined case organization’s work into a global context, a brief background to marine challenges is first provided. The marine ecosystems, as the Earth in general, are currently facing a multitude of environmental challenges. In an article from 2009, Rockström et al. present nine planetary boundaries within which humanity needs to operate in order to avoid future environmental catastrophes for the planet. The boundaries are constructed by three scientific approaches which focus on human actions’ impact on the Earth, Earth System processes, and resilience (Rockström et al., 2009). Seven of the planetary boundaries have been quantified in the study, which means that actual numbers of the boundaries have been set, and several of those are related to the oceans and/or water usage. There are boundaries such as climate change, which affects the oceans indirectly in terms of melting polar ices if the temperature increases, and there are other boundaries which are directly related to the oceans, such as the ocean acidification (Rockström et al., 2009). The estimates of the article indicate that both the ocean acidification, and one other water-related boundary, global freshwater use, are boundaries that are considered to be of great risk of being reached (Rockström et al., 2009).

The Global Ocean Commission presented a report in 2014 which included proposed rescue packages for the oceans worldwide. The commission was hosted by the University of Oxford and consisted of influential people from different sectors and with different areas of expertise. In order to come up with proposed solutions of how to save the oceans, the commission identified five major drivers that have caused its decline, for example climate change (Global Ocean Commission, 2014). In contrast to these, they present eight drivers for recovery, concrete proposals of how to turn the development in a healthier direction. A specific focus on ocean sustainability in one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals is one of these drivers (Global Ocean Commission, 2014).

Human activities pose several threats to oceans and marine ecosystems. In a study made by Halpern, Selkoe, Micheli and Kappel (2007), the researchers discuss these different threats and how to prioritize among them. The researchers conducted a survey where experts worldwide answered questions about which threats marine ecosystems were facing. The results of the study might be somewhat biased since the respondents can be influenced by their specific expertise or geographical location, but it nevertheless indicated which marine threats are considered the most imminent, and also which ecosystems that are most threatened (Halpern et al., 2007). What surprised the researchers was that only one of the seven identified greatest threats is ocean-based, which means that all the others are due to land-based actions. The article therefore concludes that sustainable marine ecosystems can only be accomplished if both land- and ocean-based threats are being handled simultaneously, and further that different threats need to be managed on different governing levels (Halpern et al., 2007). One of the biggest threats related to the ocean is the rising sea level. Due to melting ices and thermal water expansion as a result of increased water temperature, the sea level rose during the 20th_{century and are continuing to do so (Nicholls &}

Cazenave, 2010). A rising sea level entails several negative consequences such as flooding, and also long-term negative effects regarding increased erosion, for example. Related to the findings made by Halpern et al. (2007), that marine threats differ between regions and ecosystems, the sea level rise differs regionally, and so does regions’ and countries’ capability to adapt to the heightened sea levels (Nicholls & Cazenave, 2010).

In an article made by Lubchenco, Cerny-Chipman, Reimer and Levin (2016), it is emphasized that the abuse of the marine ecosystems not only has negative environmental effects, but also harms social and economic aspects. Even though they acknowledge the threats that have been discussed above, the researchers state that there are positive signs globally of an ongoing change in society’s approach

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towards the marine ecosystems. Incentives are changing for different actors (individuals, organizations, nations) both in terms of economic interests, laws, regulations and policies, but also softer parameters such as increased awareness and attitudinal changes (Lubchenco et al., 2016). By emphasizing shifting incentives’ role as drivers for change, the researchers illustrate that there is hope for healthier marine ecosystems, despite all the current and future challenges.

2.2. Global sustainability policy and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable

Development

As a response to social, economic and environmental challenges faced globally, the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2015 adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Agenda consists of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to end poverty and create a socially, environmentally, and economically sustainable planet, by engaging all countries worldwide for 15 years (United Nations, 2018a). The mutually dependent and indivisible goals, which are broken down into 169 targets, build upon the previous Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (Fukuda-Parr, 2016). Besides from the MDGs, there have been some other global sustainability policies prior to the 2030 Agenda. Although the concept has been discussed since the 1970s, one of the most accepted and commonly referred definitions of sustainable development stems from the Brundtland report in 1987. Even though sustainable development since then has been widely accepted as a concept of concern, implementation of sustainability policies and an integration of the different perspectives to sustainability has been a challenging matter (Drexhage & Murphy, 2010). With a foundation set by the Brundtland report, the Rio Summit in 1992 resulted in a multitude of principles that aimed to direct global work towards sustainable development (Drexhage & Murphy, 2010). One result of the Summit was the Agenda 21, an action plan aimed at all governmental levels, with the purpose to decrease negative environmental impact caused by humanity (United Nations, 2018b; Drexhage & Murphy, 2010). In 2012, another conference focusing on sustainable development took place in Rio de Janeiro. Prior to that conference, Biermann et al. (2012) stated that there was an urgent need to develop a stronger institutional framework that could facilitate and speed up the global work towards sustainable development, in order to enable solutions to current global challenges. Consequently, the Sustainable Development Goals emerged from the 2012 Rio conference (Fukuda-Parr, 2016).

As stated above, the SDGs build upon the Millennium Development Goals, which lasted between the years 2000 and 2015. However, while the MDGs focused on developing countries and ending poverty, the SDGs have a global focus including all countries and a much broader sustainability focus, where ending poverty is only one part of it (Fukuda-Parr, 2016). Furthermore, one identified weakness with the MDGs which differs them from the SDGs, is that only an exclusive group of experts within the UN took part of the policy creation process (Fukuda-Parr, 2016; Kumar, Kumar & Vivekadhish, 2016). Contrastingly, in the process of creating the 2030 Agenda, multiple stakeholder groups were consulted, especially focusing on the most vulnerable societies.

The 2030 Agenda is a global agreement that includes all nations. National sovereignty and responsibility for implementation and follow-up of the goals is emphasized, and nations are expected to develop action plans on how to contribute to the goals, although it is worth noting that the agenda is not legally binding (United Nations, 2018a). In relation to the previous section about global marine challenges, one of the Sustainable Development Goals, number 14, is particularly focusing on these issues. The goal will be briefly introduced, since it is at core for this thesis’ examined case organization, but it is worth noting that this thesis’ focus is on SDG implementation in general, rather than this specific goal. Goal number 14, Life below water, revolves around the necessity of using the valuable global marine resources sustainably, and brings up facts and figures about both the environmental issues that have been addressed in this paper, but also the global economic impact the ocean provides (United Nations, 2018c). The goal consists of ten targets with different focus and timeframes. Even though the agenda in general reaches until 2030, four of the Goal 14 targets are set to be reached already by 2020.

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2.3. Sweden and the 2030 Agenda

Sweden has been active in adopting the Sustainable Development Goals. In a report to the United Nations’ High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development last year, the Swedish government states that the country’s ambition is to contribute to the implementation of the goals on a global level, but also to lead by example in implementing the goals successfully on a national level (The Government of Sweden, 2017a). It is stressed that a successful implementation requires a commitment on all levels of public administration, and that the goals are implemented in everyday operations (The Government of Sweden, 2017a). However, the public sector itself is not sufficient to accomplish the goals. Cross-sectoral collaboration is considered a necessity both nationally and internationally, and the implementation process requires inclusion of multiple stakeholder groups (The Government of Sweden, 2017a). Regarding Goal 14, Life below water, Sweden is facing several of the challenges, such as pollution and decreasing fish stocks, nationally. On a global level, the country, together with Fiji, initiated the UN Ocean Conference in 2017, and invested during the same year SEK 150 million into various international ocean-related initiatives (The Government of Sweden, 2017a).

To facilitate the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Government of Sweden assigned a delegation, The Delegation for the 2030 Agenda. The delegation has a mandate running from 2016 until the beginning of 2019, and part of its mission was to propose a national action plan of SDG implementation, which they did in 2017, and the action plan is supposed to be adopted before the summer of 2018 (The Government of Sweden, 2017a; The Delegation for the 2030 Agenda, 2018). In its partial report from March 2018, the delegation presents its analysis of how the SDGs should be translated into a Swedish context. The assessment is that approximately 70 % of the Sustainable Development Goals are applicable to a Swedish context, and a majority of these also correlate with national goals set by the parliament (The Delegation for the 2030 Agenda, 2018). Even though the parliamentary goals are considered to lack the indivisibility which characterize the SDGs, the delegation’s analysis so far indicates that Sweden could approach the SDGs to great extent by enhancing the work towards its parliamentary goals (The Delegation for the 2030 Agenda, 2018).

The next section will present the local context of Malmö, in relation to sustainability and the SDGs. As stated above, implementation of the goals is considered a necessity in all levels of society, not least at the local and regional level, since that is where national and international laws, regulations, and policies most often are put into practice (The Delegation for the 2030 Agenda, 2018).

2.4. Local context – Malmö, sustainability and the Sustainable Development

Goals

Malmö is a city with multiple current and future challenges related to sustainability. Much of the focus has been on the social dimension. For example, a five-year project was founded in 2008, Commission for a Socially Sustainable Malmö, which mission was to propose recommendations that could create more equitable living conditions for everyone living in the city (Stigendal & Östergren, 2013). However, the City of Malmö is also engaging in environmental issues.

The city strives to be the most climate-smart city in Sweden by 2030. This means, for example, that the city will reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases, and in 2030 the goal is that the whole city is provided with 100 % renewable energy sources (City of Malmö, 2010). Part of the work towards a sustainable future for the city is to work proactively with future environmental risks. With the purpose to enhance the sustainability work within the city, Malmö has decided to implement the Sustainable Development Goals on a local level (City of Malmö, 2017a). Malmö was the first Swedish city to do so, the goals are considered applicable since they correlate with the City council’s goals and affect all the operations within the city (City of Malmö, 2017a; City of Malmö, 2018). The Government of Sweden (2017b) has in a report to the UN compiled a collection of Swedish SDG-implementation examples, among those are several engagements made by the City of Malmö related to goal number 14. In its work towards goal 14, the City of Malmö is partnered up with the World Maritime University (WMU), which was established thanks to, and gains financial support annually from, the city (City of Malmö, 2017b, World Maritime University, 2018). A significant event related to the marine goal was the conference Life Below

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Water, which took place in Malmö in October 2017 and revolved around how local action regarding SDG 14 can be facilitated (City of Malmö, 2017c).

The city’s commitment to marine issues is also what leads us to the case which will be examined in this study. The study object is a small organization focusing on education and research about the ocean and marine issues, in order to improve the preconditions for a sustainable and viable sea, with a specific focus on the Öresund region. Parts of its operations are directed by a mission from the City of Malmö, which will be further presented and discussed later in this thesis.

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3. Theoretical background

This chapter will present the nature of the United Nations as an intergovernmental actor in a global context, as well as the Sustainable Development Goals in a context of international policy-making processes. These processes consist of international cooperation, which demands managing and steering, i.e., global governance (Karns et al., 2015). In order to get an understanding of the processes and meaning of the SDGs as international agreement and policy, firstly, the concept of global governance will be discussed. After that will follow a section about the UN as an intergovernmental organization and its legitimacy. Further, the SDGs’ relation to international policies, agreements and norms will be explored, followed by section 3.3., which revolves around policy implementation, focusing specifically on the SDGs. Lastly, previous studies about implementation of global sustainability policy is presented.

3.1. Global governance

Global sustainability challenges, such as climate change and migration, demand global responses that need managing and cooperation beyond nations. This cooperation consists of different actors such as governments and non-state actors, and managing this cooperation has in the recent years been institutionalized and labeled under the different forms of global governance (Harman & Williams, 2013). There are different but overlapping definitions of governance in the academic literature. In the most broad and general sense, governance can mean functions and the capacity of government to steer society and an economy toward defined collective goals. Therefore, governance can be explained as goal-setting for the society, finding the means and reaching these goals and determining the success or failure of different governance activities (Peters, 2012). Governance can also be defined as “organized efforts to manage the course of events in a social system” (Burris, Kempa & Shearing, 2008, para. 2) or “self-organizing, inter-organizational networks”, which is a ground for cooperative actions to govern structures and exercise control (Rhodes, 1996, p. 652). Thereby, global governance can be seen steering and managing collective goals through inter-organizational networks and cooperation.

There has been a great interest in global governance within the academic research in different fields. According to Harman and Williams (2013), the term of global governance is, however, relatively new; it entered the academic discourse in the early 1990s (e.g. Rosenau & Czempiel, 1992; Finkelstein, 1995). In addition, the concept has increased interest ever since. Its popularity has also caused that the definition of the concept has not necessarily been specified in the research literature (Burris, Kempa & Shearing, 2008). The concept of global governance is also multidisciplinary, and it is related to different fields, such as environmental policies, economics, international relations and law (see e.g. Benvenisti, 2014; Harman & Williams, 2013; Weiss & Thakur, 2010).

Global governance, however, is not only related to the academic research but, for instance, the recent economic and financial crisis has increased interest toward managing and regulating social systems and conventions among international policymakers. In addition, there has been an increasing consensus among many states that mechanisms to control and manage processes aiming for common interest should be designed and developed. However, it is also recognized that it is not an easy or simple task to manage these complex systems (Harman & Williams, 2013). Furthermore, sustainable development, which includes sustainability policy, is a political challenge. Sustainability policy has developed at different levels since the early 1990’s and it has gained an institutionalized role in the policy-making (Heinrichs & Biermann, 2016). However, it is argued that the process of institutionalization has been insufficient and too weak so far, and that sustainable development does not have a top priority role in policy-making. In addition, the degrees of ambition and success of the institutionalization vary from one country to another. Therefore, the sustainability policy still needs to be developed and new approaches to sustainability policy and its governance (e.g. Earth system governance) is recommended (Heinrichs & Biermann, 2016).

One important aspect of global governance is its cooperative nature. Many of the global challenges that states are facing nowadays are complex and not only related to one state. Thus, it is argued that individual states have been less and less able to deal with these challenges on their own, and instead,

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interdependence and cooperative regulation and management have been needed in regimes of governance among states and non-state actors (Harman & Williams, 2013). This, however, does not mean that states are no longer important actors in governing. States still hold power in decision-making in many realms, but they are also sharing it as a means of actualizing the power. This is related to the partnership and cooperative approach to governance, in which states are part of the actors steering governance processes. Furthermore, states’ power remains even when they have not included decision-making in governance by implementing and transmitting decisions made by other actors. Therefore, the state-centered system of governance can be seen replaced by a form of governance where power is distributed among different actors, including such as civil society and market institutions, from different levels. This set of actors can be seen as a form of a network including multiple interactive nodes (Burris, Kempa & Shearing, 2008).

In addition to the networking and cooperative aspects, global governance constitutes actions in multiple scales and levels. Governance is scattered between multiple different political authors and actors. To interpret this complexity, there is a composed framework of multi-level governance in academic literature. There are multiple definitions for multi-level governance in research literature, but multi-level governance can be seen consisting of, for instance, multilateral or multi-tiered cooperation, where governance is poly-centric (Hooghe & Marks, 2003). One argument for why governance should operate on multiple scales is that the challenges that need to be managed and controlled concern different territorial and policy externalities. Thus, through a multi-level approach, the global governance can be more all-encompassing (Marks & Hooghe, 2004). However, the concept of multi-level governance in the political science literature has been criticized because of its descriptive nature rather than its ability to be explorative (Ongaro, 2015).

3.2. The United Nations and the Sustainable Development Goals in a context

of global governance

As already stated, global problems require different kinds of partnerships and cooperation. One of the forms for this cooperation is intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), that consist of at least three states as members, have operations in several states and that have been created through a formal agreement (Karns et al., 2015). The United Nations is an IGO that has been developed for multiple tasks, and its geographic scope is global. The UN is an important actor within global governance issues and its agenda deals with a broad range of managing global cooperation. In addition, the UN is a complex system including different operations to engage different states to cooperate and create multilateral diplomacy (Karns et al., 2015).

The United Nations can also be seen representing a structuralized authority that is based on institutionalized operations and accepted norms. In addition, the UN can be seen as a relative universal and legitimate organization (Weiss & Thakur, 2010). However, legitimacy is a highly subjective concept and it is a vague and complex phenomenon when it is applied to an international organization (Junne, 2001). Legitimacy is the process where it is justified that there are people who govern and others who are governed. This recognition is about who has the power and right to govern and the recognition is based on values of people. These values also establish the idea of justice and, therefore, determine the obligations that leaders and political institutions are needed to fulfill and perform to legitimate their position to hold power (Coicaud, 2001). Furthermore, there are also other sources of legitimacy than justice. Junne (2001) identifies different sources of legitimacy in relation to acceptance of national governments by its citizens. In addition to justice, these consist of effectiveness, charisma, representation and correct procedures. However, in relation to the legitimacy of IGOs, and the UN, whose audience is even more complex, the legitimacy of the organizations is defined by multiple stakeholders. Firstly, the legitimacy is dependent on governments that have created the IGOs. Secondly, by the international society, which is part of an even broader concept of global society. Global society consists of multinational corporations, social movements, non-governmental organizations and influential individuals. Thus, the degree of legitimacy of an IGO is dependent on various actors and matters. Dellmuth and Tallberg (2015) focus on the social legitimacy of the UN in their study. More specifically, the focus of the legitimacy is a social property of the relations between the UN and its

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member countries’ citizens. The authors argue that based on their study, the social legitimacy of the UN is based mainly on the capacity of the organization to deliver, i.e. institutional performance, as well as, citizens’ confidence in political institutions in general.

In addition to the role of the actors and their legitimacy, global governance consists also of mutual and collective agreements and goals to solve problems. Therefore, global governance includes different norms, laws, and policies. Weiss and Thakur (2010) define policy as an interconnected set of principles and goals in governing, and programs of action to implement the agreed principles to achieve goals. International norms, instead, in the context of international relations can be defined as shared understandings and expectations of suitable actions for different actors, such as states. In addition, some non-binding requirements set by many international conventions are actuality norms or referred to as “soft law”, that is more flexible and negotiable compared to actual hard laws. These norms or soft law have also been an important part of global environmental governance reacting to climate change (e.g. the Brundtland report in 1987, and The Kyoto Protocol in 1992). In addition, soft law can also be realized in many ways depending on the formal agreement and its desirability and possibility (Karns et al., 2015). Thus, norms and soft law are also more vague and unanimous than binding international law.

Furthermore, the UN has an essential role reacting to and identifying global challenges by developing norms, managing knowledge, institutionalizing constructions and exclaiming recommendations (Weiss & Thakur, 2010). In addition, some of the operations of the UN can be seen as a compositionof different international norms, laws, and agreements (Karns et al., 2015). Weiss and Thakur (2010) argue, that at the UN, the policymakers are not the Secretariat and its officials but the Security Council and the General Assembly, which are intergovernmental forums. Thus, the delegates of national governments from the UN member states are making the decisions. This is possible by adopting resolutions that indicate the principles and goals set, and the programs of action to implement and achieve the agreed goals. In the context of sustainability, Meadowcroft (2007) argues that sustainable development is a complex and normative standard and therefore, it needs contextualization and clear goals in order to be more concrete. This process of concretizing the governance of sustainable development is happening through societal interactions, which can enable the formulation of clear goals and the development of knowledge. Thus, the formulation of the Sustainable Development Goals can be seen concretizing the complex concept of sustainable development, which in turn enables an increased awareness by making the otherwise abstract concept more accessible.

The resolution (70/1) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which the UN General Assembly adopted regarding the SDGs, can both be seen as an international policy and agreement of norms and soft law. According to Biermann, Kanie and Kim (2017), the SDGs provide a new type of governance through a goal-setting approach that consists of unique characteristics. These characteristics include firstly the nature of the SDGs, which is non-legally binding. The SDGs are grounded in the international law, but there is no prompt legal force to scrutinize the goals. In addition, there is no legal obligation for governments to implement the SDGs into their national legal systems. Another characteristic of the SDGs is their global goal-setting process through global inclusion. Thus, SDGs are intended to be implemented in both industrialized and developing countries. The governance through goals also includes the SDGs’ operations by weak institutional agreements at the intergovernmental level and it leaves much freedom to national choices and governments to decide about the implementation and determination for the goals. The implementation of the SDGs will be elaborated in the next section.

3.3. Policy implementation and the Sustainable Development Goals

Collective agreements in terms of international policies and norms are needed to solve global problems. However, it also needs to be ensured that such policies are implemented practically. Implementing global policies from global to national, regional and local level is not a simple task. Implementation can be defined as a part of the policy process dealing with the desirable goals that are set (Hill & Hupe, 2003). This process may also include modification, adaptation, negotiation and even undermining of the goals set. Therefore, realizing the policy goals may differ from one implementing actor to another. In

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addition, within global governance, which includes multiple actors and multi-level cooperation, implementing policies into practice involves multiple layers that affect the implementation of the policies (Hill and Hupe, 2003). Moreover, not only national governments have a role in the implementation of international policies and norms, but also local non-state actors are highly significant in the process of defining how a norm or policy is realized in practice (Betts & Orchard, 2014).

As already argued in the previous section, the national governments have a lot of freedom in the implementation of the SDGs. This freedom, however, affects the implementation of the SDGs at the local level. Each UN member country has their own responsibility and sovereignty to decide about the practical implementation of the goals, which might cause a risk that only the goals that are in line with countries’ own priorities are being implemented with the cost of the other goals (Stafford-Smith et al., 2017). In addition, the SDGs and their targets are relatively broad and vague, and can, therefore, be interpreted in different ways, which can cause weak implementation of the goals (Biermann et al. 2017). As stated above, the SDGs are based on soft law and rather weak institutional agreements. This, however, does not necessarily mean a lower likelihood in a successful implementation of the SDGs. According to Biermann et al. (2017), it is seen that successful implementation of the SDGs depends on country-driven, stakeholder-oriented and bottom-up aspects of governance through goals. In addition, cooperation and partnerships can be seen as an innovative character of the SDGs, not as a negative impact. According to Fenton and Gustafsson (2017), the implementation of the SDGs demands multi-level governance in order to create operations across different multi-levels, scales, and sectors. The SDGs require implementation as well at the local level, and therefore, the goals are dependent on strong engagement of local actors and organizations. In addition, the contribution to the implementation of the SDGs depends on the organization’s agenda, mission, and level of ambition. For instance, municipal organizations can be seen as potential coordinators for implementing the SDGs locally by supporting other actors and ensuring their aim to address SDGs either directly or collaboration with multiple approaches. In addition, Bowen et al. (2017) argue in their study, that greater recognition of three governance challenges are needed to implement the SDGs. These challenges consist of creating collective action by stakeholder interaction across multiple sectors and scales, focusing on equity, justice, and fairness when making difficult trade-offs, and lastly, assure existing mechanisms to hold societal actors to account about investments, decision-making and outcomes.

3.4. Previous studies on implementation of global sustainability policy

As stated in the introductory chapter, not much research has been conducted on local implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, since it is a relatively new phenomenon. If we look at the local and national context for this particular thesis, there are not many studies related to SDG implementation within it. Neither has there been any extensive research on the phenomenon in a global and international perspective.

In an international context, there are studies that propose certain general approaches for a successful SDG implementation to occur. For example, a study conducted by Morton, Pencheon and Squires (2017) argues for the necessity of a systems perspective on all governing levels as a necessity for implementation. Since the goals are indivisible and interlinked, systems thinking skills are considered a requirement for the implementation (Morton et al., 2017). Further, there are studies that analyze what the SDGs will imply for a certain nation or region. An example is an article by Tilakaratna, Nanayakkara, Madurawala, Jayaratne and Wickramasinghe (2017), which discusses what implications the Sustainable Development Goals will have for the country of Sri Lanka. However, these studies are not so much studying the implementation, but are rather proposed action plans of how a country or region should adapt to the goals, in terms of tools and partnerships, for example. A paper that focuses more on practical implementation is made by Wunder, Kaphengst and Frelih-Larsen (2018). The researchers study specifically what the SDG target 15.3 implies for sustainability regarding use of land and soil in a German context. Thus, although the researchers are examining the practical implications of implementing SDGs, it has a very narrow focus, while looking at just one of the 169 targets.

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While there are not many articles which, in a similar way as this thesis, examines a particular case and SDG implementation, an exception is a recent Swedish study made by Gustafsson and Ivner (2018). By studying the sustainability management within a Swedish regional municipality, they explore how the SDGs can be implemented in relation to already existing sustainability strategies. Thus, the article is about how to adopt the global goals effectively and without a double amount of work. The conclusion that is made in the article is that the SDGs might work as framing coordinators for the sustainability activities, and also be part of the daily operations (Gustafsson & Ivner, 2018).

Due to the rarity of previous research on the local implementation of the SDGs, it is worth examining what research previously has indicated about local implementation of other global sustainability policies. Briefly described in section 2.2. of this thesis, one outcome of the 1992 Rio Summit was the Agenda 21. The policy has a big focus on local implementation, and several studies throughout the years have evaluated the impact of Agenda 21. Similar to the SDGs, Agenda 21 is a non-legally binding policy, and the responsibility and decisiveness of both national and local authorities, in addition to cooperation on all governing levels, have therefore been considered a necessity for successful implementation (Garcia-Sanchez & Prado-Lorenzo, 2008). In a study of Agenda 21’s impact on European cities, Evans and Theobald’s (2003) findings indicate that the agenda has functioned as a facilitator of sustainable development actions in many local administrations. Related to these results, Sancassiani (2005) shows how Italian municipalities which have adopted Agenda 21 have developed local frameworks for integrating sustainability. The global policy has shown to increase stakeholder inclusion and facilitate integration of sustainability initiatives and policies on the local level. Eckerberg and Forsberg (1998) conducted a study of Local Agenda 21 implementation in four Swedish municipalities which were considered pioneers regarding implementing the agenda. Similar to the Swedish strive of leading by example regarding the SDGs (as mentioned in section 2.3.), the country and its municipalities also had high ambitions regarding Agenda 21. However, one of the indications from the study was that even in those pioneer municipalities, environmental policy was not a prioritized matter, when compared to economic issues, for example (Eckerberg & Forsberg, 1998). Lastly, another study in a Swedish context was done by Adolfsson Jörby (2002). While examining four municipalities, that article also indicated that implementing processes of Local Agenda 21 enhanced the stakeholder participation and the local work with sustainable development (Adolfsson Jörby, 2002).

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4. Purpose and research questions

As the previous chapter has discussed, global policies are used to govern and regulate actions for nation-states and other actors on all levels. Global challenges require local action, which means that global policies need to be adoptable in local contexts. The Sustainable Development Goals were developed through a global cooperation to cover a wide range of the major social, economic and environmental challenges, which the Earth is facing. However, as already stated in the previous chapter, the implementation of the SDGs in a local level is not a simple task. Therefore, the research problem that is addressed in this thesis regards the gap between global high-level sustainability policies and their implications for practical, local-level, operations.

The purpose of this study is to explore one case organization’s adoption of the SDGs into its operations. The SDGs are relatively novel, and as stated in section 3.4., there is yet a limited amount of previous studies about the local level implementation of the goals. Therefore, this research focus is considered relevant, since new insights about this phenomenon are needed in order to provide a deeper understanding of the local implementation of the SDGs. In addition, previous research has indicated that policy implementation on a local level is necessary to examine due to the significant role of the local actors in policy implementation processes (Betts and Orchard, 2014). The research questions that are intended to be answered in this thesis are stated as followed:

• Why does a local organization adopt the Sustainable Development Goals into its operations, according to the people involved in the organization?

• What does the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals imply for the organization and its operations, according to the people involved in the organization?

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5. Methods and methodology

Based on the theoretical and contextual background, the research problem and the specific purpose and research questions have been framed. Following on that, this fifth chapter will present the methodological considerations for this thesis, and describe the methods used for answering the posed research questions.

5.1. Methodology and research design

5.1.1. Ontological and Epistemological ground

This section will discuss the methodological standpoints that this thesis relies upon. The research-philosophical foundation needs to be presented before we describe which claims and contributions to the research field this thesis aims to reach, since the results, and the conclusions that are drawn based on these results, are dependent on the study’s ontological and epistemological grounds (6 & Bellamy, 2012). The ontological approach we adopt here, i.e. how we perceive reality (Tuli, 2010), is constructionistic, which means that the reality is created by the ones we interview. Related to this, the epistemological standpoint of this thesis is interpretive. A study’s epistemology defines its claims about the nature of knowledge, and this thesis’ interpretive approach implies that knowledge is the authors’ interpretations of the data conducted from the interview responses (Tuli, 2010). Another way to illustrate these ontological and epistemological claims, and how they differ from other approaches, is to make a distinction between objectivist and subjectivist perspectives, where the latter is the one applied here, since it revolves around exploration of a phenomenon based on individual perceptions (Morgan & Smircich, 1980). The subjective perceptions and experiences stated by the interviewees constitute the main part of the data of this thesis, and these need to be interpreted and analyzed by the authors. The interpretive and constructionistic approaches are generally characteristic for qualitative research, and so is to apply an inductive approach (Tuli, 2010), which is used in this thesis. The inductive process of this thesis means that, instead of using theory to develop hypotheses and test those on the empirical material, the collected data determines the theoretical framework of this study.

5.1.2. Research inference and research approach

The purpose of this thesis is exploratory in the sense that we seek to explore why and how the SDGs as global policy is adopted and used in practice on a local level. Exploratory research revolves around creating an understanding of a phenomenon and seek new insights based on the collected data (Hart, 2014).

As been described in the theoretical and contextual chapters of this thesis, the Sustainable Development Goals are quite new, and not that much research has been done to study the implementation of them. Since the goals last until the year 2030, it is naturally too early to do some evaluation of whether the Agenda is a successful policy for reaching a more sustainable world. Nevertheless, the current impact of the goals can be studied during their time span. For them to be successful, implementation in local contexts is a necessity, and to explore if and how they affect a local organization’s operations is a way to examine the current implications of a global policy such as the 2030 Agenda.

Interpretive research approaches are in general applied to understand and explore a specific phenomenon, rather than obtain findings that can be generalized to a greater population (Tuli, 2010). By exploring a specific local organization, this study aims to deepen the understanding of how global sustainability policy can be implemented in a local context. The contribution to the research field that this thesis strives to achieve is therefore not to draw general conclusions of how the Sustainable Development Goals can be implemented in a local context, but rather to study a specific case and based on that case illustrate how the SDGs are understood by the employees in the organization, and thereby provide an indication of how global sustainability policy affects local operations.

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5.1.3. Case-based research design

With the explorative approach of this thesis, we decided to use a case-based research design, to be able to put our entire focus on one case organization. Characteristics of a case study is that it is set in a specific context where data is collected in order to provide an in-depth understanding of that specific case (6 & Bellamy, 2012). Connected to what was written in the previous section, case studies are often related to the inductive research approach, and the focus on one single case naturally implies that these studies in general does not have ambitions to generalize the results to a greater population (Bryman, 2012). Instead, the most important contribution a case study strives for is to draw valid connections between theory and the collected case data (Bryman, 2012). This means that the results of this study will imply how perceptions of SDG implementation in a local context can be understood in relation to theory. There are also different approaches to study cases, dependent on what the purpose of the study is. Since the aim of this study is to explore why and how global sustainability policy is implemented in a local organization, this type is an exemplifying case. Exemplifying cases are chosen for instance because they fit for the purpose and research questions and thereby constitute a suitable context for the research, rather than being unique or unusual to its characteristics (Bryman, 2012). We selected our case based on these premises. With the purpose of studying how the global Sustainable Development Goals are implemented in a local context in and around Malmö, we looked for organizations that could be of interest. The selected case was identified, because it states on the organization’s website that they have adopted the SDGs. Considering the organization’s small size and that it works with environmentally-focused questions, it was found suitable to study if and how they actually implement the SDGs in their operations. The next section will describe which data collection methods that were used in this research.

5.2. Data collection methods

This section will start by presenting how the interviews with the employees of the case organization were conducted, followed by a description of the document selection. Lastly in this section, the nature of policy documents as a data source will be discussed. A list of the data sources is provided in Appendix A.

5.2.1 Interviews

The main data collected in this study consists of interviews. With the interpretive research approach, we wanted to examine the employees’ perceptions related to their work and the SDGs. We reached out to the selected case organization with the inquiry to interview as many in their staff as possible about the topic. In general, there are two different types of interview styles in qualitative research: semi-structured and unstructured (Bryman, 2012). We used a semi-structured technique with open-ended questions. The semi-structured style implies that the researchers are equipped with a set of questions for the respondents, but that the frame and the structure of the interview is still flexible and dependent on the interviewees’ responses (Bryman, 2012). Based on the explorative purpose of this study, this technique was chosen to capture the perceptions of the interviewees and what they considered important and relevant related to our topic.

Before the interviews were conducted, an interview guide was developed. With the purpose and research questions in mind, we developed an interview guide with 14 questions, where some of them also had sub-questions. The questions mostly revolved around the employees’ working tasks and the organization’s daily operations in relation to sustainability and the SDGs, focusing on investigating the interviewees’ experiences, opinions and perceptions (the interview guide is attached to this thesis as Appendix B). During the interviews, the order of the questions changed depending on the responses, and additional follow-up questions were stated to obtain a full understanding of the respondents’ viewpoints, but the interview guide remained the foundation for the interviews. The flexibility, to not strictly stick to the interview guide, and instead let the interviewees’ responses guide the direction of the interview, is a characteristic for the qualitative interview style (Bryman, 2012).

Interviews have been held with five people from the case organization. To get an in-depth exploration of our examined case, we enquired to interview all available employees that were relevant to our thesis,

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and this inquiry was met with these five respondents. Among the interviewees, there was one manager and four employees. Due to the organization’s small size, both the employees and the manager work with a wide set of tasks, mainly focusing on educational activities. Each interview was conducted at the organization’s office. The interviews were recorded to enable multiple listenings, a more thorough analysis of what has been said and also how the respondents express themselves (Bryman, 2012).

In order for the interviews to be as informative as possible, and to avoid potential misunderstandings, the interviewees had the opportunity to do the interviews in Swedish (which is their native language) or English. This opportunity was possible since one of this thesis’ authors is also a native Swedish-speaking person, and the other author understands written Swedish. The turnout was that two of the interviews were conducted in Swedish, and three interviews were conducted in English. The three English interviews were conducted by both authors together, and the two Swedish ones were conducted by the Swedish-speaking author. Even though the result is that the collected data is in different languages, this choice was given to the respondents, since it was prioritized for us as researchers to have interviewees that could express themselves as freely and detailed as possible, without a potential language barrier as an obstacle. The mixed language might have implications for the analysis of the material, which will be discussed in section 5.3.1.

5.2.2 Documents

For the case study to be as thorough as possible, we asked for documents that steer and direct the organization, as a supplement to the collected interview data. Both previous and current documents were inquired for. Documents are rarely examined by themselves in social research, but is rather studied as a complementary data source to increase the understanding about a specific topic (Prior, 2011). The purpose of adding supplementary documents was to deepen the understanding about the organization, and also to compare with the interview responses. As a result of our inquiry, we were provided with one organizational document which has been included in this case study. As mentioned in previous chapters of this thesis, the case organization executes parts of its work on a mission from the City of Malmö. The document that has been analyzed is a description of what the organization will accomplish within the frames of this mission. It is worth noting, similar to the interviews, that the case document is written in Swedish, which means that both the interview data and the document data are of different languages. In order to draw a deeper understanding of the role of the SDGs and the data of the interviews, we decided to analyze the UN General Assembly’s resolution (70/1) the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that constitutes and presents the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and their 169 targets. According to the UN (2018d, para. 1) the Agenda is “a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity”, and the SDGs are stated to be built on completing what the Millennium Development Goals did not achieve. In addition, they are mentioned to be integrated and balancing the three (environmental, social and economic) aspects of sustainable development. The Agenda, as well as all other policy documents, are reproducing realities through textual conventions. The organizational or policy documents are not neutral or transparent reflections of life per se. Instead, documents have always been written with a certain purpose behind and it is directed a to certain audience (Atkinson & Coffey, 2011). Therefore, it is meaningful to study what the Agenda says about the implementation and the overall nature of the SDGs. By doing this, it is possible to get a deeper understanding of how the SDG implementation is represented in the Agenda. In addition, studying the Agenda enables understanding of the global context of the international policies, which supports the analysis of the case data.

5.3. Data analysis methods

The analysis of the documents and interview transcripts is conducted with a thematic approach, although the process for the different data sources was somewhat different, which will be described below. Thematic analysis is characterized by discovering and identifying themes and categories within the empirical data. A theme is a category related to the research focus identified in the data. A theme can also provide a basis of theoretical understanding for the researcher, as well as, it can make a theoretical contribution to the research focus’ literature (Bryman, 2012). The process of conducting the analysis and how the themes were constructed will be described in this section.

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5.3.1. Interviews

After conducting the interviews, the analysis process started by writing transcripts of the recorded interviews, which made the in-depth examination of the data possible. During the first time reading the transcripts, important sections and parts in relation to the thesis’ purpose were marked. Second time reading the transcripts, the focus was on making comments in relation to the initial theoretical framework set in the study. In addition to that, all the relevant parts related to the research questions were identified and categorized. Based on the comments and marks, the identification of the key themes was outlined. Patterns, similarities and differences were found from the interview answers, and focusing on the linkages and continuities between them, the theme identification in a context of the theoretical framework was possible to conduct. However, as stated above, the finalization of the theoretical framework was determined by the findings from the empirical data.

Based on the identified topics and patterns, the findings were divided into four different themes. The themes consist of: 1) Local operations in global context, 2) SDGs as framework, 3) Increasing awareness, and 4) Implementation. All the themes include also different sub-themes (see table 1 in section 6.2.). Furthermore, some overlapping topics were identified among the themes. One of these cross-thematic topics is, for instance, the concept of legitimacy, which is part of most of the themes. The first two themes are more focused on the first research question about why the SDGs have been adopted to the organization’s operations, whereas the last two themes mainly focus on the second research question about how they have been implemented and what that implies for the organization.

Regarding the analysis of the interview data, it is necessary to again address the fact that some of the interviews were conducted in Swedish, and also that one of the documents is in Swedish. This should not affect the analysis, but it is still considered important to highlight this fact. The researchers are aware that there exists a risk of misrepresentation when translating the data (Polkinghorne, 2005), and caution with translating quotes and interpreting the interviewees’ responses will therefore be considered.

5.3.2 Documents

In addition to the interview data, the data analyzed in this study consists of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the directing case document mentioned above. As with the interviews, the analysis of the Agenda is based on the thematic analysis. However, the intention of finding the themes and categories is to provide a background and a deeper understanding for the interview answers, not to draw too many conclusions about the Agenda as such. This is because the purpose with analyzing the Agenda is to support the analysis of the interview data instead of trying to answer the research questions with the Agenda. Therefore, the document analysis was conducted after identifying the main findings of the interviews, which as such determined the analysis of the Agenda. Thematic analysis of documents is characterized by reading the document multiple times, and to, by a thorough and cautious focus, recognize patterns and reoccurring concepts in the text (Bowen, 2009). Accordingly, the analysis was started by reading carefully through the document and marking the relevant sections regarding the research purpose, the interview data and the theoretical framework. This was followed by identifying key aspects and themes in relation to the interview data and the theoretical framework. The most relevant themes identified from the data consist of: a) the aspects of global partnership and inclusiveness, b) aspects of freedom and responsibilities of the UN member countries as implementing actors of the SDGs, and lastly, c) the follow-up and support of the implementation provided.

The analysis process regarding the document that describes the case organization’s operations was somewhat different in relation to the recently presented analysis processes. The analysis was not thematic in the same way as the analysis of the interview transcripts, but instead characterized by a search for key concepts and content related to the theoretical framework and the other empirical data. Particularly, it was analyzed whether the Sustainable Development Goals appear in the document, and if so, how they are described specifically regarding implementation into the organization’s operations. The findings from the case document will be presented in section 6.2., prior to the findings from the interview data.

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5.4. Quality and ethics in research

The research quality is determined by the transparency and quality of the conducted data gathering methods, but also the context in which the study is conducted and the results’ validity in relation to the general research field (Bryman, 2012). As discussed in the methodology section, case studies in general have in common that the results are hard to generalize to a greater population (6 & Bellamy, 2012). The purpose is rather to explore one or several cases in depth. Interviewing all the, for this particular study, relevant employees in the organization provides us with an in-depth illustration of the organization’s work with the SDGs and how the employees perceive their work in relation to the goals. Thus, regarding the explorative purpose, we are getting an in-depth and thorough understanding of the phenomenon in this case context. However, even if the sample size of respondents could not be bigger within the selected case organization, it can be considered relatively small. A potential disadvantage with the small size of the organization and sample group is that the perceptions and interview responses might be homogenized and unvaried.

Whereas the quality in quantitative research is determined by the reliability and validity of the measurements, qualitative research is defined by its trustworthiness (Bryman, 2012). The interpretive approach of this study implies that the data is to be interpreted by the researchers. Nevertheless, one of the factors that ensures a study’s trustworthiness is the researchers’ objectivity in relation to the data, meaning that the findings must not be distorted by the authors’ personal values or opinions (Bryman, 2012). This notion is acknowledged by the authors of this thesis.

Considering the ethical conditions in this research, confidentiality for the interviewees has been secured. They were informed that their responses would be anonymized and that the interviews were being recorded to enable the analysis, but that the researchers would be the only ones with access to the recordings. In addition to this, the organization itself has also been anonymized in this thesis, to ensure the confidentiality of its employees. Furthermore, due to the small size of both the organization itself and the amount of interviewees, we have chosen not to separate the respondents by assigning them individual numbers while citing them in this thesis.