The Alliance has co-created a new Scottish policy making guide focused on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the National Performance Framework (NPF). The guide supports holistic policy making that reflects our interconnected world and addresses the need to better navigate its complexities.
The resource – Outcomes-focused Policy Making in Scotland – is designed to support Scottish policy making to be more joined up and coherent, across policy areas both within Scotland and internationally.
The problems Scottish policy making aims to tackle are increasingly complex and exist across geographic and thematic boundaries, and any policy response needs to recognise and reflect this. In light of this challenge, the guide is aimed at helping those developing and implementing policy in the Scottish Government and associated public bodies to support holistic policy making that reflects the complex reality of our interconnected world, taking into account links and interdependencies to other policy areas – locally and globally.
It will support individuals and teams to think through a policy area and how it is informed by, and contributes to, Scotland’s National Performance Framework (NPF) and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The NPF is Scotland’s way of localising the SDGs. Its 17 Goals and 11 NPF National Outcomes are key measures of how Scotland can move towards a more just and sustainable future.
The Outcomes-focused Policy Making in Scotland guide has two main parts; the first half features a general overview of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Scotland’s National Performance Framework (NPF) and how the two are interlinked, while the second half provides practical, interactive activities to explore how to apply the NPF and SDGs in the policy making process.
Commenting on the launch of the resource, the Alliance’s Deputy Chief Executive, Lewis Ryder-Jones, said:
“This important resource can help policy-makers take a more holistic approach to developing, implementing and evaluating policy by encouraging critical thinking across all elements of sustainable development – an integral part to enhancing policy coherence.
We were delighted to support its development and are pleased to hear that it has been added to the Government’s own internal list of training resources for policy focussed civil servants.”
Eleanor Dillon, National Officer for the Bridge 47 project, added:
“We are delighted to have been able to support this partnership and co-create a resource that emphasises the importance of lifelong learning, and can help put the Sustainable Development Goals into practice in Scotland.”
The resource is the result of a partnership between the Scottish Government’s National Performance Framework team, the International Development Education Association of Scotland (IDEAS) Network, Scotland’s International Development Alliance, the SDG Network Scotland and Oxfam Scotland. The partnership was initiated, supported and funded by the Bridge 47 Building Global Citizenship project with input from Northern Star Associates to further develop the content.