It is widely assumed that the fragmentation of global governance can affect coordination efforts among international institutions and organisations. Yet, the precise relationship between the fragmentation of global governance and the extent to which international organisations coordinate their activities remains underexplored. In this article, we offer new empirical evidence derived from the so-called custodianship arrangements in which numerous international organisations have been mandated to coordinate data collection and reporting for 231 indicators of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These complex custodianship arrangements provide a fertile testing ground for theories on the relationship between fragmentation and coordination because the institutional arrangements for each of the 17 SDGs have emerged bottom–up with varying degrees of fragmentation. Through a comparative approach covering 44 custodian agencies and focusing on the most and least fragmented custodianship arrangements, we make three key contributions. First, we offer a novel operationalisation of institutional fragmentation and coordination. Second, we present empirical evidence in support of the claim that fragmentation negatively affects coordination. Third, we provide nuances to this claim by identifying factors that affect the strength of this relationship. Based on our analysis, we suggest further steps that might facilitate coordination in global sustainability governance.

中文翻译：

---

国际组织作为可持续发展目标的“监护人”？可持续治理的碎片化与协调


人们普遍认为，全球治理的碎片化会影响国际机构和组织之间的协调努力。然而，全球治理的碎片化与国际组织协调其活动的程度之间的确切关系仍未得到充分探讨。在本文中，我们提供了来自所谓托管安排的新经验证据，在该安排中，许多国际组织被授权协调 17 个可持续发展目标 (SDG) 的 231 项指标的数据收集和报告。这些复杂的监管安排为碎片化与协调之间的关系理论提供了肥沃的试验场，因为 17 个可持续发展目标的制度安排都是自下而上出现的，碎片化程度不同。通过覆盖 44 个托管机构并重点关注最分散和最不分散的托管安排的比较方法，我们做出了三项关键贡献。首先，我们提供了一种新颖的机构分散和协调的运作方式。其次，我们提出了经验证据来支持碎片化对协调产生负面影响的主张。第三，我们通过确定影响这种关系强度的因素来提供这一说法的细微差别。根据我们的分析，我们建议采取进一步措施，以促进全球可持续发展治理的协调。