This Policy Insight paper places the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the context of good governance. It explores what constitutes Good Governance, from a public administration perspective, and charts the manner in which SDGs and good governance are linked, before suggesting ways in which governments may achieve the aims of the SDGs. It argues none of the other 15 SDGs can be achieved without the coordination and delivery of SDGs 16 and 17. These are at the core of effective public administration and the provision of good governance. Without sufficient numbers of appropriately trained, competent and incorrupt public administrators, working at the local level, none of the other SDGs are widely achievable. We need to recognise, however, important political issues and definitions of good governance are socially constructed and culturally bound; to seek to impose one version on all others risks failure. The paper discusses some of the criteria used by different stakeholders to judge standards of public services. There is a short discussion about how actual and desired levels of performance are set and by whom and to what extent improvement can be measured by a rise or fall in service standards. In other words, whether perceptions of improvement can be objectively measured. The paper draws on cases from the UN’s annual public service innovation awards as examples.

中文翻译：

---

可持续发展目标及其与良好治理的契合

这份政策洞察文件将联合国的可持续发展目标 (SDG) 置于良好治理的背景下。它探讨了什么构成良好的治理，从公共行政的角度，并在提出政府实现可持续发展目标的方式之前，绘制了可持续发展目标和良好治理的联系方式。它认为，如果没有可持续发展目标 16 和 17 的协调和交付，其他​​ 15 项可持续发展目标都无法实现。这些是有效公共行政和提供良好治理的核心。如果没有足够数量的受过适当培训、称职且廉洁的公共行政人员在地方一级工作，其他可持续发展目标都无法广泛实现。然而，我们需要认识到，重要的政治问题和善治的定义是社会建构和文化约束的；试图将一个版本强加于所有其他版本可能会失败。本文讨论了不同利益相关者用来判断公共服务标准的一些标准。关于如何设定实际和期望的绩效水平以及由谁以及在何种程度上可以通过服务标准的上升或下降来衡量改进，有一个简短的讨论。换句话说，改进的看法是否可以客观地衡量。本文以联合国年度公共服务创新奖的案例为例。