Connecting global SDGs to local government: A Developing Country Case

This chapter explains how UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are now remaking public sector planning and control systems in a less developed country. In this case study, we reveal that this occurs through a process of embracement, enforcement, and legitimation. First, SDGs are embraced as superior global wisdom and a fiscal conditionality of development. Second, there are interwoven processes of cultural, political, and administrative enforcements of SDGs downward through the public sector hierarchy, manifesting a politico-ideological and managerial shift towards reframing public accountability. Third, SDGs are now providing administrators and civil servants with a 'legitimate' basis for them to 'counter' undue politicisation in the public service. The chapter relies on evidence gathered from a Provincial Council - a regional government authority in Sri Lanka. Overall, this effort is important for researchers who are interested in SDGs and accounting in developing countries in that it offers an overarching template for studying similar initiatives in other developing countries.