Details of the Initiative
SDGs as a Strategy for Change
My research centers on strategy theory and the profound power shifts occurring across countries, markets, and individuals. In this dynamic landscape, each of these actors is actively formulating strategic responses to these shifts. My seminar explores the concept of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which have gained widespread global acceptance, from the unique perspective of strategy and power shift dynamics.
The origins of the SDGs can be traced to a pivotal moment in global governance. In 1999, then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan launched the UN Global Compact, an innovative initiative designed to foster a sustainable society. This paved the way for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which established eight international targets for developed countries to address challenges in the developing world by 2015. Adopted in 2000, the MDGs laid the groundwork for the SDGs, a more comprehensive framework of 17 targets that were established at the 2015 United Nations Summit for all nations to achieve by 2030.
This evolution can be viewed as Kofi Annan’s brilliant change strategy. He skillfully reframed the contentious North-South divide of the time into a structure of mutual engagement, thereby elevating the issue to a meta-level framework where all nations could participate as equals. Looking ahead, as the influence of state power wanes and societies become increasingly diverging, the SDGs may transition into a new role: serving as converging concerns shared through individual consciousness that transcends national borders. I interpret this as a key facet of the ongoing power shift from the state to the individual.