Most countries that have adhered to the Recommendation have laid a strong foundation for PCSD through political commitment, strategic vision and stakeholder engagement. Within the last five years, most countries adhering to the Recommendation have published statements that define a high-level commitment to PCSD, for example, via national sustainable development strategies. This progress can be further enhanced by explicitly committing to considering the transboundary impacts of policies on sustainable development at all stages of policymaking, making greater use of tools for long-term planning such as strategic foresight, and by more effectively engaging marginalised and vulnerable groups in both policy coherence and sustainable development efforts.
Government co-ordination mechanisms have been strengthened to enhance PCSD, but to a lesser degree. While many countries have taken action to enhance whole-of-government co-ordination and communication for sustainable development since adherence to the Recommendation, fewer actions have been taken to support the arbitration of policy divergences and to anticipate potential transboundary impacts of policies.
The most significant gaps in efforts to enhance PCSD are those that require the development of tools to assess and address policy impacts. A key area with noticeable gaps is the monitoring and reporting of transboundary impacts, which is crucial for informing decision making and adjusting policies based on their potential impact. A similar gap can be found in the use of policy planning mechanisms and tools to integrate sustainable development into policy and finance, such as the budgeting process. These gaps correspond with challenges reported by Adherents in the availability of data and evidence and technical capacity for assessing and addressing transboundary impacts.
Integrating transboundary impacts into policymaking remains a particularly challenging area. While some Adherents have committed to considering the transboundary impacts of policies in legal and political frameworks, relatively few have identified priority issues for policy coherence for development and developed dedicated strategies or action plans to translate their commitments into action. Adherents highlight insufficient political support as a key challenge.
The Recommendation has been widely disseminated by the OECD, Adherents and other international organisations and stakeholders. The whole-of-government approach underpinning the Recommendation benefits from engagement across OECD policy communities to support Adherents in developing coherent policymaking processes. There is nevertheless room to further enhance collaboration across the OECD and outreach to non-Members to bolster both national and international efforts to improve policy coherence for sustainable development.
The multifaceted nature of recent global crises reinforces the relevance of the Recommendation. The COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, and the escalation of regional conflicts have brought into sharp relief the interconnectedness of different policy areas, the possible synergies and trade-offs that need to be managed within countries and across borders, and the impacts on future generations. At the same time, underlining the need to address transboundary impacts more effectively, Adherents called for the OECD to increase its support for their implementation efforts and to lead by example, including through greater cross-organisational collaboration and co-ordination.
The OECD continues to support Adherents and the international community in their efforts to enhance policy coherence for sustainable development. This support includes continuous dissemination of evidence, experiences and lessons learnt, with a focus on sharing good country practices, tools, and solutions that enhance PCSD. The OECD also supports efforts to build technical capacity within public administrations as well as data availability, methodologies and tools for assessing policy impacts on sustainable development with a specific emphasis in increasing understanding on the impacts of policies on developing countries.
