Impact case study database

(i) Long’s research directly influenced the advocacy campaign of ‘Beyond 2015’ (the largest international civil society coalition working on the SDGs) in the run-up to and during the negotiations on the 2030 Agenda in 2014-15. ‘Beyond 2015’ included 3,000 civil society organisations that ranged from large global NGOs (WWF, CAFOD, Save the Children) to small local NGOs in 142 countries, with 52% in the global South. Long’s research enabled ‘Beyond 2015’ and its members to articulate a rigorous defence of their recommendations grounded in normative political philosophy, which they could not have done alone. At the coalition’s invitation (based on Long’s well-established research expertise in global justice), Long joined their advocacy campaign in 2014 as Joint Lead for their Universality Task Force, Lead for the Accountability and Follow-up Working Group, and a member of the Rapid Reaction Drafting Group and the Advocacy Working Group. This close collaboration led to Long co-producing key advocacy papers of ‘Beyond 2015’ (20 advocacy papers in total) and their accompanying statements at the UN negotiations. The advocacy papers were further used by member organisations in their local campaigns to influence the negotiating positions of their respective governments.

Long’s research directly influenced the content of the coalition’s advocacy papers. The coalition’s key positional paper in the first stage of the negotiations in April 2014 (‘Putting People and Planet First’), for example, explicitly adopts Long’s interpretation of universality as ‘leaving no one behind’. It calls for the Agenda to focus on the most vulnerable and marginalised (‘special attention should be paid to the poorest and most marginalised’, IMP1), emphasises the Agenda’s relevance for all states regardless of their socio-economic position (‘there is room for improvement in all countries, even the most developed’, IMP1) and highlights robust multi-level review of the SDGs as a way to cement national responsibilities and ensure key principles are being upheld (IMP1). Long led in developing the campaign’s proposal for a SDG review system reflecting these principles, which was launched as an input to inter-state negotiations in April 2015. The significance of this impact is evidenced in the testimonial of ‘Beyond 2015’ Advocacy Director: ‘[Long’s] analysis helped to determine the content of the positions Beyond 2015 took and how we presented them to member states. Graham also contributed specific textual recommendations for the SDGs that reflected his research, and that went forward as part of our advocacy’. Furthermore, the testimonial states, ‘[Long’s] research and support played a vital role in making these [‘Beyond 2015’s inputs into the negotiation process] as strong and rigorous as they could be’ (IMP2).

(ii) Long’s research influenced the final text of the 2030 Agenda and the UN official guidelines for Voluntary National Review (VNR), impacting on all global and national review processes of the SDGs since 2015. By directly feeding into the position papers of ‘Beyond 2015’, Long’s research influenced the coalition’s argument that the central normative commitments should be as important as individual goals and targets, and that they should be equally important in framing individual SDGs and review processes. This advocacy position of ‘Beyond 2015’ contributed to the explicit inclusion of the normative commitments in the follow up and review sections of the 2030 Agenda (paragraph 74).

Although the UN negotiations were a state-led process, ‘Beyond 2015’ influenced the outcome by targeting all Permanent Representatives and governments of UN member states, and by directly contributing to the sessions of the UN Open Working Group on SDGs, and subsequent round of interstate negotiations in 2014-15. Following the publication of the final ‘Zero Draft’ of the 2030 Agenda on 8 July 2015, the Co-Chair of the UN Negotiating Team Ambassador Donoghue (Ireland) directly asked civil society actors contributing to the final negotiations, including ‘Beyond 2015’, for their ‘red lines’ in the final text. Long’s research (PUB3) informed his co-drafting of the coalition’s ‘Reaction to the “Final Draft of the Outcome Document for the UN Summit” and the joint civil society statement on the Review section of the Outcome document. This explicitly called for the insertion of ‘leave no one behind’ as a new guiding principle in the review section of the agenda and for ‘the participation of the most marginalized’ in the VNR processes (both absent in the previous Zero Draft). The coalition’s suggestion was adopted in the final text: the adopted 2030 Agenda added new guiding principles for review in paragraph 74, explicitly calling for review processes to have ‘a particular focus on the poorest, most vulnerable and those furthest behind’ (IMP3, 74e) and to be ‘open, inclusive, participatory’ and to ‘support reporting by all relevant stakeholders’ (IMP3, 74d).

The significance of this impact is evidenced in ‘The Report on the Impact of the Beyond 2015 Advocacy on the 2030 Agenda Outcome’, written by an independent consultant, for ‘Beyond 2015’: ‘Critical elements of Beyond 2015’s advocacy which made instrumental contributions to the final outcome document include (…) the principles of “leaving no one behind” and of “no target can be considered until met for all segments of society’ (IMP4, p. 9). According to an anonymous Member State Representative, ‘we [UN Open Working Group] always took into account the views of the campaign. The fact that they were already the product of an agreement among different constituencies gave them credibility’ (IMP4, p. 22). The ‘Beyond 2015’ Advocacy Director testified, ‘this significant impact would not have been possible without Graham’s work’ (IMP2).

Following the 2030 Agenda’s adoption, Long’s research further influenced national SDG review processes by impacting on the UN guidelines for VNR submissions. The first VNR guidelines were published in 2016. Long closely collaborated with ‘Together 2030’ – ‘a self-organized civil society initiative to promote national implementation and track progress of the 2030 Agenda’ – to propose improvements. In 2017, Long drew on his research to co-draft (with World Vision) an advocacy paper entitled ‘Guiding for Accountability: Together 2030 Recommendations for a Revised Set of Guidelines for Voluntary National Reviews’. This document, shared with governments of UN members and launched with the UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), called for a revised set of guidelines to include a dedicated section in the VNR submissions that would ‘identify the poorest, most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in that country’s context’ and ‘address how the principle of ‘leaving no one behind’ has been incorporated into policy-making and review processes’ (p. 10). This recommendation was adopted in the updated ‘Voluntary Common Reporting Guidelines’ published by the UN in 2017: ‘The review could also assess how the principle of leaving no one behind has been mainstreamed in the implementation’ of the SDGs, ‘detail how vulnerable groups have been identified’, and clarify ‘what policies and programmes are being implemented to address their needs and support their empowerment’ (IMP5, p.3). At UN DESA’s invitation, Long contributed key paragraphs on stakeholder participation to the official VNR Handbook (UN DESA, 2019, pp. 14,17; 2021, pp. 9, 12) that ‘provides basic, practical information’ for countries undertaking VNRs. By 2021, 246 national reviews will have been conducted by member states (130 states overall).

By influencing both the final text of the 2030 Agenda and the UN official guidelines, Long’s research achieved a distinct and material impact on the implementation and the review of the SDGs by the 193 states that signed it in three ways. First, the inclusion of the normative principles urged participating governments to explicitly address how they identify the poorest, most vulnerable and marginalised in their states, and how their policies benefit them. Thus, it directly influenced how governments have reported on the implementation of the SDGs, particularly after the publication of the revised VNR guidelines in 2017. An independent assessment of the 2019 VNR reports commissioned by Bond (the UK network for international development organisations) reported, ‘countries are more consistently following guidelines for VNR reports’. Moreover, ‘the most significant increase in reporting was in inclusion of a dedicated chapter or robust information on leaving no one behind – 81% in 2019 versus 61% in 2018’. Second, by influencing the explicit focus of the VNR submissions, Long’s research indirectly benefitted the most vulnerable and marginalised populations in participating states. The changed focus of the VNR submissions meant these populations have received greater visibility in their national contexts and more opportunities to influence their national SDG agendas. Finally, Long’s research has significantly benefitted civil society organisations in participating states by enabling them to publicly voice their concerns and to better advocate for policies benefitting their constituencies.

Long’s ongoing work supports civil society stakeholders across the world in capacity-building aimed at more effective involvement in VNR processes. In 2018-19 Long (in collaboration with ‘Together 2030’) led a team of Newcastle researchers (Clough, Elstub, O'Flynn, Popa, Rietig, and Routley) to undertake and disseminate among civil society actors globally a survey of ‘Stakeholder Participation in VNRs’. In 2018-19, Long was further commissioned by the UN DESA to produce a technical paper and report (together with Clough and Rietig) on stakeholder participation and SDG partnerships. The Chief of the Outreach and Partnerships Branch, UN DESA Division for SDGs, testified this work has ‘helped to inform governments’ deliberations’ and provided ‘insights to global policy dialogues’ hosted by the UN (IMP6).

(iii) Long’s research has had a significant impact on processes of review and accountability for the SDGs in the UK in three ways. First, Long’s research directly influenced the UK’s 2019 VNR submission. Long’s normative argument that the universality of the SDGs should be understood as their applicability to all states and sub-state entities regardless of their socio-economic context, and the establishment of global principles and guidelines stressing vulnerable and marginalised populations and stakeholder participation (PUB3-5), influenced the ways in which the UK Government interpreted the applicability of the SDGs to the UK. The UK’s SDG review shifted from a focus on UK overseas aid to a greater emphasis on the SDGs within the UK, notably domestic inequalities. Long’s work with UK Stakeholders for Sustainable Development (UKSSD) to assess the UK’s domestic performance facilitated this impact. UKSSD’s ‘Measuring up to the SDGs’ report, based on Long’s research, is acknowledged in a letter from the Prime Minister (2018) as an important contribution to the VNR. Long’s involvement in parliamentary work on the SDGs in 2016-2019, detailed below, extended and magnified this impact. Furthermore, Long’s research also directly influenced Scotland's contribution to the 2019 UK VNR. In 2018-19, Long undertook a baseline assessment of Scotland’s SDG performance for the Scottish Government. That report on ‘The SDGs and Scotland’ (2019), produced by Long and a team of mostly Newcastle-based scholars (Clough, Molloy, Muggleton, Hardacre, Bolam, Cansino, Luxton), drew on Long’s normative insights on universality. Text and data from the report formed part of Scotland’s contribution to the 2019 UK VNR (IMP7, sections on goals 6, 10, 15, 16, 17) and it became the ‘point of reference’ for Scotland’s subsequent cross-government Supplementary National Review in July 2019 (p. 6).

Second, Long’s research significantly strengthened parliamentary scrutiny of the SDGs in the UK. From 2016-2018 Long contributed evidence arising from his research to 5 inquiries by House of Commons Select Committees: International Development Committee (IDC) inquiries into ‘The UK Implementation of the SDGs’ (2015-16) and ‘UK Progress on the SDGs’ (2018-19); the Women and Equalities Committee inquiry on ‘The Implementation of the SDG Goal 5’ (2016-17); Environmental Audit Committee inquiries on ‘The SDGs in the UK’ (2016-17) and on ‘The SDGs in the UK Follow-Up’ (2017-18). Long’s evidence prompted parliamentary questioning of ministers around disadvantage within the UK (debates in 2018 and 2020) and UK processes for stakeholder engagement.

Long’s appointment as Specialist Advisor for the IDC inquiry on the ‘UK Progress on the SDGs’ in 2018-19 meant he could shape the UK VNR critically during its construction. Long drew on his research insights (PUB3-5) to brief committee members and draft inquiry questions for officials from the UK’s Department of International Development (DFID) (IMP8). The impact of Long’s research is directly referenced in an official letter by the IDC Chair (Member of Parliament) to the Secretary of State, DFID (2 April 2019) urging that the UK VNR should include ‘a focus on those furthest behind in the UK context’ and ensure the ‘presence of stakeholder perspectives’ (IMP9, p. 5). Both recommendations were partially addressed in UK’s 2019 final VNR submission (IMP7), that included a chapter on ‘Leave No-one behind’ and referenced a programme of stakeholder engagement events led by government departments. Lastly, Long co-led the drafting of the Committee Report on the UK’s VNR process that was published on 16 July (IMP8). The report’s significance for future UK implementation of the SDGs is evident in the Government Response which agreed or partially agreed with 11 out of 14 recommendations, including the recommendation ‘to develop a formal mechanism for stakeholder engagement on domestic implementation of the SDGs’ (IMP10).

Finally, Long’s argument that universality entails consistent inclusion of the ‘most left behind’ in the review process has benefited a large number of UK stakeholders representing the most vulnerable and marginalised populations through their voice and participation in these processes. Beyond the UK VNR report itself which acknowledges the value of a wide range of stakeholders including ‘The SDG Network Scotland’ (IMP7, p. 11) and UKSSD (IMP7, p. 13), UK CSOs (e.g. Shelter, Sightsavers, Women for Women International UK) have had new opportunities to pressure the UK government using the SDGs in national and global fora.