Photo by Mauricio Martínez/PNUD El Salvador on Flickr
By Emilia González Carmona, Director, Center for Philanthropy and Social Investments
2023 marked the halfway point on the road towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set in the 2030 Agenda. Globally, only 18% of the goals have been achieved or are on their way to being achieved, 67% present limited or no progress, and 15% present a tendency to reversion1.
The scenario for Latin America is slightly different. According to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, 25% of indicators have been achieved, 48% are progressing—although slowly—towards the goal, and 27% have actually receded from their original levels2.
Considering the interconnection between the issues, solutions need to integrate and mobilise diverse sectors to be sustainable. In its initiative to transform philanthropy (Philanthropy Transformation Initiative), WINGS proposes an essential change for philanthropic organisations, shifting from working in silos to working with others on shared goals to achieve large-scale impact. The 2030 Agenda, as we will see below, is a good framework for philanthropy to work at the scale, complexity, and urgency proposed by WINGS.
How are Philanthropic Organisations (POs) approaching the SDGs in Latin America?
To explore how philanthropy organisations have localised SDGs, CEFIS produced case studies, and guides and hosted knowledge exchange opportunities for the Latin American region with the support of the C.S. Mott Foundation. The last product was the ‘Latin American Report on Philanthropy and Sustainable Communities: Localizing the SDGs’, an exploratory study to understand the triggers and barriers for SDG integration in POs. From the responses of over 130 philanthropic organisations, awareness of the 2030 Agenda is almost universal. Close to 80% declared that they integrate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into their work, although the depth of this integration varied significantly.
What makes a difference?
The report explored potential facilitators of and barriers to integration, identifying strategic definitions that would make some foundations more receptive to and capable of adopting transversal agendas such as the SDGs, climate change or gender equality in their philanthropic work.
There are different roles POs play when approaching an issue, and we classified them in terms of their capacity to advance the 2030 Agenda, once the SDGs were integrated.
- The first level is operational, which affects only the PO itself, and involves the roles of diagnosing, planning and implementing programmes using the SDGs.
- A second level considers supporting others’ adoption of the SDGs, which happens when POs fund and/or build capacities using an SDG lens.
- The final level involves catalysing the adoption of SDGs, which implies convening, articulating, advocating, communicating, measuring and reporting through an SDG lens.
But what influences the level of integration a PO achieves?
The culture of collaboration
Previously established strategies for collaboration, either internal, among different projects or topic areas within a foundation, or external, among different organisations and sectors, act as a predictor of the level of integration of SDGs in an organisation. As many organisations put it, a culture of collaboration makes POs more permeable to external influences, such as the SDGs.
An enabling environment
There is a direct relation between the value a community places on the SDGs and the level of integration POs exhibit. In this scenario, POs created with the purpose of advancing the 2030 Agenda have a key signalling role. The Alliance for the Development of Antioquia, created by different actors in the business community to give ‘muscle and coordination’ to the localisation of the 2030 Agenda in these territories, has developed local capacities for collaborative work between different sectors, public, social and private, facilitating a favourable environment for ‘SDG talk’.
Shared data is key, but the most difficult to achieve
Ironically, where Latin American foundations least integrate SDGs is in measuring and reporting. The main barriers cited for this are the limited availability of local data and the inherent complexity of the 2030 Agenda metrics.
The Corona Foundation, through the Cómo Vamos Cities Network, is an initiative to provide local government actors with SDG measurement and monitoring capabilities throughout Colombia, developing reportability technology and hosting events to discuss and communicate advancement, leading to increased transparency and accountability for both the public and philanthropic sectors. Another example of developing local indicators related to the SDGs is the Merced Querétaro Foundation. With the support of Comunalia, they have applied the Vital Signs system to prioritise the 2030 Agenda at the local level, allowing progress in a coordinated manner between multiple local actors.
Territories matter
Community and corporate foundations present a higher level of integration, compared to family and independent foundations, as the local nature of their work and relations predisposes them to use the SDGs. In Latin America, corporate foundations are usually linked to geographic areas of influence. As Minera Los Pelambres Foundation explains, the SDGs have given a working framework to its different initiatives in the territories of influence of Antofagasta Minerals, the mining corporation they are affiliated with, facilitating coordination with local governments and corporate and philanthropic initiatives.
Hardware and software
The main barrier to either starting or furthering the integration of the SDGs is a perceived lack of capacity or knowledge to integrate the SDGs in the different roles of localisation we presented. Unpacking these responses, two levels of required capacity building were identified: one has to do with the 2030 Agenda itself, understanding its principles, indicators and interconnections (software), and the second is the capacity to develop the localisation roles, i.e., convening a community, diagnosing and prioritising issues with different stakeholders, and measuring impact collectively. This is what we have called hardware. Developing these hardware capacities will allow POs to increase their readiness to tackle any kind of shared agenda.
With a group of WINGS members, namely the Association of Family and Business Foundations of Colombia (AFE Colombia), the network of community foundations in Mexico, Comunalia, the Mexican Center for Philanthropy (CEMEFI), the Group of Institutes, Foundations and Corporations of Brasil (GIFE), the impact investment network for Latin America and the Caribbean, Latimpacto, and the network of regional corporate foundation, RedEAmérica, we are committed to continue our efforts to support Latin American POs as they engage with global efforts to face the challenges ahead.
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- Sachs, J.D., Lafortune, G., Fuller, G., Drumm, E. (2023). Implementing the SDG Stimulus. Sustainable Development Report 2023. Paris: SDSN, Dublin: Dublin University Press, 2023. 10.25546/102924, page 24
- Presentation by Luis Yañez, ECLAC’s General Secretary, at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez Seminar on October 25th, 2023, available at https://noticias.uai.cl/assets/uploads/2023/11/cepal-uai-ods-a2030-ly.pdf
For more information, read the ‘Latin American Report on Philanthropy and Sustainable Communities: Localizing the SDGs’ in Spanish or English.
Emilia González Carmona is the Director of the Center for Philanthropy and Social Investments, CEFIS, of the School of Government of the Adolfo Ibáñez University.
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