Beyond COVID-19: Applying “SDG logics” for resilient transformations

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a realistic approach to navigate societies through and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the SDG agenda is not without flaws. Even before the pandemic, progress towards achieving the SDGs has been too slow. COVID-19 presents a stress test for the SDG approach. The SDG agenda provides three ‘logics’ that could help transform towards sustainable societies: (1) a governance logic that sets goals, adopts policies, and tracks progress to steer impacts; (2) a systems (nexus) logic that manages SDG interactions; and (3) a strategic logic that enables (microlevel) companies to develop strategies that impact (macro-level) policy goals. We discuss key hurdles that each of these SDG logics face. Transforming towards sustainable societies beyond COVID-19 requires that multinational enterprises and policymakers (better) apply these logics, and that they address operational challenges to overcome flaws in the present approach to the SDGs. Journal of International Business Policy (2020) 3,

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