Taking SDG Interactions Seriously: African Perspectives on Policy Coherence, Trade-offs, Integrated Development

This interactive two-hour panel brings together African scholars, policymakers, practitioners, and international partners to collectively reflect on a central question: “How can African development policy better recognize, govern, and learn from interactions between development goals?”

Rather than promoting one solution, the panel creates space for open exchange between different perspectives, experiences, methodologies, and governance approaches emerging across the continent. Specific evidence will be presented regarding 1. the contribution of women’s empowerment on food and nutrition security at household level, and 2. the contribution of insurance schemes to preventing conflict among herders in the context of climate change.

Across Africa, policymakers, researchers, civil society organizations, and communities are increasingly confronted with the complex reality that development goals do not operate in isolation. Policies aimed at improving food security, climate resilience, energy access, gender equality, or economic growth often generate wider social, environmental, and institutional consequences – sometimes reinforcing one another, sometimes creating unintended trade-offs. At the same time, African countries face mounting pressures: climate vulnerability, debt burdens, fiscal constraints, demographic change, and shifting international development priorities. In this context, there is growing urgency to move beyond fragmented sectoral policymaking toward more integrated and context-sensitive approaches to development.

This interactive two-hour panel brings together African scholars, policymakers, practitioners, and international partners to collectively reflect on a central question: How can African development policy better recognize, govern, and learn from interactions between development goals? The session is inspired by emerging research on SDG interactions and policy coherence, but it deliberately moves beyond a single framework or model. Rather than promoting one solution, the panel creates space for open exchange between different perspectives, experiences, methodologies, and governance approaches emerging across the continent. The discussion will draw on examples from climate adaptation, food systems, social protection, gender policy, pastoralist livelihoods, and local governance, including recent research from East and Southern Africa.

Particular attention will be given to:

• How unintended policy effects emerge in practice

• How local institutions and communities navigate complexity

• How African policymakers balance urgent priorities with long-term wellbeing

• What kinds of governance innovations are needed to strengthen integrated development approaches