ABSTRACT
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of international development goals aimed to be achieved by 2030, which were adopted at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit held in 2015. The SDGs are characterised as comprehensive, universal and inclusive. As a result, they include various and complex norms to be diffused and this entails a new challenge for the world in terms of their implementation. This chapter aims to clarify the purpose of the book with a brief statement of its conceptual framework and areas of policy focus. To help the reader to build a basic understanding of the SDGs, it will provide an overview of the SDGs as international norms, and trace the emergence of international goals and targets in the context of development policy. Finally, the chapter will introduce the structure of this book and outline the content of following chapters.
