ABSTRACT
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has been celebrated for its transformative vision of development, encompassing economic, social, and environmental dimensions, and democratic deliberation through an open multi-stakeholder process. Four years after the promulgation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with the dust sufficiently settled, a more sober assessment of what the Agenda has achieved is both feasible and necessary. This chapter identifies a number of key dimensions on which the Agenda broke new ground and explains why women's rights advocates were so heavily invested in its negotiation. It looks at the reasons why the process of implementation has proven challenging, highlighting both the shifting political and economic contexts and the Agenda’s fixation with indicators at the expense of economic and social policies to combat poverty and inequality and enhance human well-being. Having adequate safeguards in place for those most at risk of being left behind and implementing improved policies and remedies require a sea change in democratic governance.
