Conference Agenda

The influential 2008 Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Commission called for governments to move beyond a narrow focus on GDP growth. To achieve this, they advised that “Round-tables should be established, with the involvement of stakeholders, to identify and prioritise those indicators that carry the potential for a shared view of how social progress is happening and how it can be sustained over time.”

In response, international organisations, governments and other actors have established ‘wellbeing and sustainable development’ frameworks: interrelated sets of goals, indicators, espoused values and expected ways of working used to recentre policymaking and decision making. But many studies report a substantial implementation gap. The UN Sustainable Development Goals have largely failed to institutionalise (Biermann et al. 2022), and while some national frameworks (such as in Wales and New Zealand) have seen meaningful implementation, the majority have achieved only a superficial impact (French and Wallace 2024; Battaglio 2025).

This paper considers how decisions made in the design and development of wellbeing and sustainable development frameworks can maximise opportunity for their meaningful integration. It reports the results of a modified Delphi study involving senior officials and responsible officers for 11 leading wellbeing and sustainable development frameworks operating internationally.

The Delphi had four stages. First, a policy review of frameworks in eight countries uncovered 25 methodological components used in the creation of wellbeing frameworks. Next, an expert group was assembled involving 39 senior officials from governments, their partner agencies and scrutiny organisations from 11 countries. The expert group undertook two survey rounds, where quantitative ratings and linked qualitative commentary were procured. Curated feedback was provided in the second survey, whereupon participants had the option of reconsidering their ratings (N=35). Finally, third-round participants (N=27) engaged in an exploratory workshop to explore remaining tensions and disagreements.

The highest rated elements with greatest consensus were: ensuring community engagement, prioritising citizen feedback alongside scientific evidence in setting goals and indicators, developing frameworks in close partnership with external stakeholders, and seeking external buy-in beyond the central implementing organisation. These factors emphasise the inclusive and relational dimension of framework construction, which are practiced by only a small proportion of frameworks internationally. Study findings provide important guidance for designers, architects and managers of wellbeing and sustainable development frameworks and other ‘mission-oriented’ governance frameworks.

This paper elaborates on the broader understandings of peace as the governmental respect for human rights, which is a key factor in the achievement of positive peace (Diehl, 2016) and the achievement of SDGs, by focusing on the transfer of international gender equality norms. While accentuating the need for a localization process, in which local agents reconstruct the norms to enhance the appeal to the society’s prior institutions (Acharya, 2004), I analyze the impact of cooperative activities between international organizations (IOs) –mainly the UN; UNOG and the OHCHR– and local civil society actors, specifically NGOs on the transfer of global gender equality norms and policies, and the gender sensitive institutional change, which I define as the domestic implementation of Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and CEDAW recommendations related to the women’s rights.

With the specific focus of the UPR and CEDAW reporting processes and actors involved at the international level, I answer the following question: “What are the dynamics affecting the formation and implementation of UPR and CEDAW recommendations related to women's rights?”. The main analysis includes the issuing of the UPR and CEDAW recommendations to the States, modalities of those meetings and various actors involved, which shed important light on the dynamics affecting the functioning of the global mechanisms such as the UN human rights mechanisms and as a result, the transfer of international gender equality norms and the implementation of the SDG 5 on gender equality. Regarding the research design, I focus on what happens in Geneva (the human rights hub of the UN) through a participant observation period as an intern at the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) and various interviews carried out with the representatives of UN agencies, international NGOs (INGOs) and State delegations, by benefiting from the Structure, Institution, and Agency (SIA) framework of analysis. This paper emphasizes the necessity to reframe those norms, meaning the SDGs, in conformity with the existing knowledge on gender equality within society by accentuating the role of civil society and the partnership between global and local actors.