The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide an ambitious and comprehensive framework for tackling the world’s most pressing challenges by 2030. Spanning 17 goals and 169 targets, the SDGs cover a wide range of interconnected social, economic and environmental issues – from ending poverty and hunger to combating climate change and protecting ecosystems.
While the SDGs offer a shared blueprint for sustainable development, translating this global agenda into meaningful action at regional, national and local levels remains a challenge. The complex and multifaceted nature of sustainability problems demands new approaches that can capture the interplay of factors across scales and domains.
Bronfenbrenner’s socio-ecological model (SEM) offers a promising lens for studying and advancing the SDGs in a more integrated, context-sensitive manner. Originally developed to understand human development, the SEM emphasizes the interdependence between individuals and their multilayered environments (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). It organizes influences into nested systems – microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem and chronosystem – that interact to shape outcomes.
Applied to the SDGs, the SEM can help map the complex web of drivers and barriers to sustainable development at different levels. At the individual level (microsystem), factors like knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors around sustainability come into play. Interpersonal relationships and community settings (mesosystem) shape norms and collective action. Institutions, policies and systems (exosystem) enable or constrain progress. Overarching cultural values and beliefs (macrosystem) influence priorities and paradigms. And historical and developmental timescales (chronosystem) affect trajectories and tipping points.
By situating SDG challenges and interventions within this nested framework, researchers and practitioners can develop more holistic, cross-cutting strategies. A socio-ecological approach prompts us to consider how SDG targets interact across levels and scales – how global policies translate to local realities, how individual choices aggregate to societal trends, and how short-term actions impact long-term sustainability.
For example, tackling SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production) requires understanding influences at multiple levels – from personal values and household practices (micro) to business models and supply chains (meso) to national policies and global trade agreements (macro). Interventions must be designed to leverage synergies and manage trade-offs across these nested systems.
Similarly, advancing SDG 13 (climate action) demands coordinated efforts from the local to the global. Individual behaviors like energy use and transportation choices (micro) are shaped by infrastructure and urban planning (meso), which in turn are influenced by national targets and international agreements (macro). Effective climate strategies must align incentives and actions across levels.
The SEM also highlights the importance of context in shaping SDG outcomes. The same intervention may play out differently in different settings based on local cultures, power dynamics, and resource endowments. Understanding these contextual nuances is critical for tailoring SDG solutions that are locally relevant and socially acceptable.
Researchers are beginning to apply socio-ecological thinking to SDG challenges. Scharlemann et al. (2020) use the SEM to analyze interactions among SDGs, revealing both synergies and conflicts across levels. Orchard et al. (2020) employ the SEM to examine the multilevel determinants of food security and nutrition in low- and middle-income countries. And Brizga et al. (2020) adapt the SEM to assess sustainable consumption governance in Latvia.
However, much more work is needed to leverage the full potential of the SEM for SDG research and practice. This includes developing robust indicators and methods to measure sustainability influences and outcomes across socio-ecological levels. It requires fostering transdisciplinary collaborations that integrate insights from natural and social sciences, humanities, and local knowledge systems. And it demands engaging diverse stakeholders to co-design interventions that are systemically informed and contextually grounded.
As the SDG deadline of 2030 looms, we need all hands on deck to accelerate progress. The SEM offers a valuable tool for breaking down silos, connecting the dots, and scaling up solutions. By embracing a socio-ecological mindset, we can unlock new possibilities for realizing the transformative vision of the SDGs.
…SDG 13 demands coordinated efforts from the local to the global.
References:
- Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development. Harvard University Press.
- Scharlemann, J. P., Brock, R. C., Balfour, N., Brown, C., Burgess, N. D., Guth, M. K., … & Kapos, V. (2020). Towards understanding interactions between Sustainable Development Goals: the role of environment–human linkages. Sustainability Science, 15(6), 1573-1584.
- Orchard, S. E., Stringer, L. C., & Manyatsi, A. M. (2020). Determinants of food security and nutrition in the context of multilevel governance: a socio-ecological approach. Food Security, 12(6), 1297-1310.
- Brizga, J., Mishchuk, Z., & Golubovska-Onisimova, A. (2020). Sustainable consumption governance in Latvia: a socio-ecological approach. Journal of Cleaner Production, 250, 119489.