Are Sdgs Influential? An Institutional Pathway For Policy Integration Across Human Rights And Biodiversity Conservation

Integration of the three pillars – social, economic and environment – sits at the heart of sustainable development. Despite this, studies demonstrate that little evidence of policy integration has occurred. One of the core principles of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to address the interactions across the various goals. This article undertook an assessment on the influence of the SDGs’ interlinkages approach in translating it to domestic policy integration. It assessed if, how, and to what extent SDGs influenced policy integration across two issue areas and policy domains, namely, human rights (social) and biodiversity (environment). A causal mechanisms approach was adopted where a set of mechanisms that elucidate the pathways of how causal influence travels from SDGs to a domestic policy outcome is assessed. Specifically, a process tracing exercise was conducted where the SDGs was utilised to link biodiversity conservation and human rights during a special sitting on flood at the Malaysian Parliament. The findings suggested that firstly, the outcome was the culmination of an institutional pathway and attributed to the establishment of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on SDGs, which consisted of multi-stakeholders including parliamentarians, experts and CSOs. In particular, the role of non-state actors acted as a major force. Secondly, the extent of policy integration was found to be substantive, in the sense that there was consensus formed on normative and causal ideas, in particular, of the anthropogenic causes of the floods. This highlights that under certain conditions, the SDGs has the potential to be transformative in influencing domestic policy integration