The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are officially known as “Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” and they are acting as the Post 2015 Development Agenda, successor to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). There are 17 goals, 169 targets, and 233 indicators. These goals are designed to achieve sustainable development outcomes by solving economic, social, and environmental challenges facing the world. 

This study by Lily Jin, Intern from Asian Development Bank (ADB)’s Social Development, Governance, and Gender Division, aims to (i) measure the relationship between governance and SDGs; (ii) prioritize SDG targets that are most relevant to governance and institutional performance issues; (iii) determine whether relevant governance issues are being addressed in ADB operations; and (iv) provide key findings that can help improve ADB project designs. 

With the ultimate goal of helping ADB’s developing member countries (DMCs) to achieve SDGs, the vision of the study is to develop a framework for how sector and thematic groups consider governance issues in their work. There are certain limitations to the study where the framework is concerned because country contexts will vary. 

The study report contains three main sections. The first provides a context around DMCs’ adoption processes for SDGs. The second contains analyses applying the World Bank’s CPIA criteria to determine the governance-SDG relationship. The third analyzes a sample of ADB operations approved in 2016 for their attention to relevant governance issues. To an extent, some recommendations are made for how to operationalize the study’s findings.