July 2018: The UN’s Division for Public Institutions and Digital Government (DPIDG) in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) issued an open call for contributions for the 2019 edition of the World Public Sector Report (WPSR), to address progress on the institutional dimensions of SDG 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions). SDG 16 will be one of the Goals reviewed in-depth at the 2019 session of the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF).
The report will consider seven principles related to SDG 16, and will be published in July 2019.
Per the WPSR 2019 webpage, the report, which is expected to be published in July 2019, will focus on public institutions to deliver the SDGs, and will seek to provide an empirical analysis of approaches to foster progress on “critical dimensions of institutions” for the SDGs. It will examine key challenges and opportunities for enhancing the performance of institutions by considering seven principles related to SDG 16, namely: effectiveness, transparency, accountability, anti-corruption, inclusiveness of decision-making processes, access to information, and non-discriminatory laws and policies.
According to the outline of the report, the chapters will examine: trends in implementation of the institutional principles highlighted in SDG 16; addressing corruption; budget and planning processes as enablers of SDG implementation; risk management in public administration and the SDGs; institutions for food security, nutrition and sustainable agriculture (SDG 2); institutions for gender equality (SDG 5); and institutions for the SDGs in countries in special situations.
The call for contributions invites researchers and experts to provide inputs targeted to one of the chapters that highlight trends, issues, research findings or solutions. DPIDG notes that all contributions that meet the requirements of the call will be acknowledged, and their content will inform relevant chapters of the report. The deadline for submission is 15 September 2018.
In April 2018, DPIDG issued the 2018 edition of the WPSR titled, ‘Working Together: Integration, Institutions and the Sustainable Development Goals.’ The 2018 edition reviewed countries’ public sector institutional arrangements to promote policy integration for SDG implementation at the national, sub-national and local levels. Other editions of the WPSR were issued in 2001, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2010 and 2015. [WPSR 2019 Webpage] [SDG Knowledge Hub story on release of WPSR 2018] [SDG Knowledge Hub story on launch of WPSR 2018]