The African State and Sustainable Development Goals: A Public Policy Perspective

Abstract

Sustainable development is an idea of global awareness about the demand for natural resources for growth and development with obvious consequences on the environment, especially for the future. The idea now has a 17-goal agenda, which was adopted in January 2015, by the UNDP to be achieved within a time frame of 15 years, from 2015 to 2030. Even though Africa is not on the same level as the global North, in terms of development, all African countries now embrace the idea. Using public policy as a perspective in understanding the implementation of the 17 goals, because all the 17 goals are policy issues and the state is central to policy formulation and implementation, this paper, therefore, interrogates the nature of the African state in order to see the extent to which African countries can achieve the 17 goals. The paper observes that the nature of the African state must be put in a proper perspective in order to understand why African countries may not achieve even one of the 17 goals within the 15- year time frame. This is because the state is today, the problem with the African development process, for being in crisis and for operating with very weak institutions.