The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) pose challenges to public services in all countries regardless of their level of development. Their broad scope and interconnectedness, long-term commitment and contextualisation at both local and regional level require dedicated focus on government capacities to deliver. This paper analyses the major capacity areas that can support a shift from siloed policy making to more integrated approaches. It defines an ideal benchmark for assessing both the individual and organisational capacities needed by a public service to successfully deliver the SDGs. The paper, which was commissioned as part of a project to build civil service skills for SDG implementation in Poland, is drafted by Cristophe Dietrich and Marco Gozio of the ICON Institute.