By Andrew Griffiths, Sightsavers, former co-chair of Beyond 2015, Leo Williams, Conscious Consultants, former Director of Beyond 2015, and Aissata Ndiaye, Sightsavers

Our previous post focused on the important normative legacy of the 2030 Agenda. The values of the 2030 Agenda are central to the impact it could and should have. In this post, we argue that these values, by necessity, have a life well beyond 2030. But in order to get there, we need to address the question of what real-world impact normative values have, nice as they may be in principle.

The answer we would give is, in part, to point at the many multi-stakeholder partnerships that have led to good outcomes. Sightsavers, for example, has been part of SDG civil society alliances in over 20 countries, bringing civil society together with government to collectively agree priorities in a way that has never been done before. In these contexts, there is simply no need to argue what the right outcome of the work is, because the SDGs already articulate a shared perspective.

There are tangible results from the intangible normative shifts that the SDGs have instigated, stimulated, and accelerated. The numerous examples include countries signing up to the Inclusive Data Charter and collecting disaggregated data for the first time in household surveys and censuses, or the development of new policies, like the Ugandan disability accessible planning guidelines.

In another example, Zimbabwe’s 2024 voluntary national review (VNR) demonstrated progress made towards women’s rights and disability rights. One key area of work for SDG 5 (gender equality) was strengthening the inclusion of disability in efforts to support rights of women and girls, including through promoting dialogue on disability issues and better inclusion in national policymaking processes. Key achievements include the development of strategic guidance for the National Disability Board and specific inclusion of rights of women and girls with disability in the National Development Plan.

As part of its engagement in SDG implementation, Sightsavers contributed to the influencing of Zimbabwe’s Persons with Disabilities Amendment Bill (2023). Legislation protecting people’s rights was also mentioned in Kenya’s 2024 VNR. Along with the country’s Social Protection Policy (2019), these initiatives led to cash transfers, credit facilities, school feeding, and mobile schools.

As part of the 2025 VNR process, India, for the first time, incorporated 11 targets related to persons with disabilities into its revised National Indicator Framework (NIF). Previously, only two such targets were included. The 2025 VNR process also involved active engagement with the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office and Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. Looking ahead, the revised NIF represents a significant step forward in advancing disability data and its disaggregation.

Encouragingly, Ireland is in the process of translating the leave no one behind principle into national legislation. The government is considering introducing a new equality ground of socioeconomic disadvantage in its General Scheme of the Equality (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024. This would be major progress in the fight for inclusion, tackling inequality and poverty and meaningfully including socioeconomic disadvantage in anti-discrimination laws, similar to age, sex, disability, and race.

All of these examples teach us not to neglect the less tangible normative effect of global agreements like the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda. This is the key lesson for the future – and any future development agenda. No agenda other than the SDGs has had, or could have, the same impact. The values behind the Goals will continue to be relevant after 2030, whatever UN Member States agree. We will want to see gender equality on 1 January 2031, just as much as we will on 31 December 2030. So, whatever the form of the framework, it is the normative elements of the SDGs that will still be relevant and important, and this is not something that Member States can simply negotiate away for political convenience.

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This is the second of the authors’ two articles focusing on the normative legacy of the 2030 Agenda in post-2030 sustainable development.