The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) sit at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and are the pillars of global developmental governance. In September 2015, when the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit adopted the SDGs, the international community made an advance from the Millennium Declaration of the year 2000 that embodied the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The eight quantifiable targets under the MDGs found a more holistic embodiment in the 17 SDGs targeted to be achieved by 2030. Just as the SDGs replaced the MDGs in 2015, we need a new set of goals in a post-2030 era—targets that will be guided by the progress so far, the persisting challenges, and evolving human aspirations.

As the 2030 deadline fast approaches, the world finds itself at a critical crossroads. The quest for the apparently irreconcilable trinity of sustainability, efficiency, and equity—represented by the SDGs’ environmental, economic, and social goals, respectively—remains the hallmark of the dominant global development governance paradigm. The 2023 mid-term SDGs review was a clarion call for urgent, accelerated action to meet the 2030 deadline, given that only a small percentage of the targets are on track to being fulfilled.1 This massive shortfall in progress is being attributed to cascading global challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and geopolitical conflicts. Yet, within these challenges lies an unprecedented opportunity—not just to fulfil the SDGs but to set our sights even higher in how we will approach global development after 2030.

It is in recognition of this pivotal moment that Reliance Foundation and Observer Research Foundation, in collaboration with UN India, conceived The Next Frontier: Charting the Contours of the Post-2030 Development Agenda. After the MDGs and the SDGs, the world will require new objectives beyond 2030 for a suitable global development governance framework. This volume builds on the momentum generated by our previous publication, Ideas, Innovation, Implementation: India’s Journey Towards the SDGs2—highlighting lighthouse lessons from India’s pioneering development efforts—and expands the conversation to confront what lies ahead.

The Next Frontier: Charting the Contours of the Post-2030 Development Agenda explores the strategies, innovations, and leadership required to forge a new global development agenda beyond 2030. The task calls for renewed ambition and innovative thinking from India and around the world. This publication comprises twenty-seven essays authored by a range of authors from the development, philanthropy, and think tank sectors, as well as policymakers and other thought leaders, carrying voices from both the Global North and the Global South.

This volume not only underlines the challenges that confront us but illuminates the pathways that can lead to a more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable world. To this end, the essays selected for this publication are organised around three themes: Inclusive Transformations, Resilient Progress, and Sustainable Evolutions. In these crucial endeavours, India stands as a beacon of leadership and innovation. With its advancements in domains such as digital transformation, health services, and inclusive growth, India is setting new benchmarks that could be replicated across the Global South, even as it also learns from the experiences of these other countries. Knowledge-sharing will be a valuable pathway for accelerating development, and this publication seeks to serve as a platform for such conversations.

• Developing and Emerging Economies
• Sustainable Development
• India
• 2030 agenda for sustainable development
• 2030 agenda on sustainable development
• sustainable development goals
• sustainable development goals 2030
• united nations sustainable development goals

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