Gearing up impact assessment as a vehicle for achieving the UN sustainable development goals

Authors

Angus Morrison-Saunders, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Luis E. Sánchez
Francois Retief
John Sinclair
Meinhard Doelle
Megan JonesFollow
Jan-Albert Wessels
Jenny Pope, Edith Cowan University

Document Type

Other

Publication Title

Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal

Publisher

Taylor and Francis Ltd.

School

School of Science

RAS ID

30928

Comments

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal on 22 October 2019, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14615517.2019.1677089

Morrison-Saunders, A., Sánchez, L. E., Retief, F., Sinclair, J., Doelle, M., Jones, M., ... & Pope, J. (2020). Gearing up impact assessment as a vehicle for achieving the UN sustainable development goals. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 38(2), 113-117. https://doi.org/10.1080/14615517.2019.1677089

Abstract

This article reflects on the potential for impact assessment (IA) to be a major vehicle for implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While it is acknowledged that the SDGs are intended to deliver broader outcomes than IA currently does, we nevertheless argue there is significant convergence between IA and the SDGs, which we explore utilising the key dimensions of sustainability assessment: comprehensiveness, strategicness and integratedness. We conclude that ‘geared up’ IA might be used as a major vehicle to facilitate achievement of the SDGs. However, IA must become more comprehensive and integrated, such that the full suite of SDGs and their relationships, including trade-offs, can be dealt with in a transparent and inclusive way. © 2019, © 2019 IAIA.

DOI

10.1080/14615517.2019.1677089