All Publications (from new to old)

Navigating the Narrows: Strategies for SDG Governance

Louis Meuleman and Ingeborg Niestroy are the guest editors of a Special Issue of the Journal Sustainability, to be published after the summer of 2023. The theme is about strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to strategic governance for sustainable development, such as strategic planning, strategy as a learning process, and strategising for trade-offs and synergies in different (supranational, national, or subnational) contexts. More information and how to contribute can be found here. […]

Public administration, institutions, and governance for evidence-informed policymaking

JULY 2022 – In the report “Constructing assessment indicator dashboards for evidence-informed policymaking: Insights from the perspective of public administration, institutions, and governance”, Ingeborg Niestroy discusses the effectiveness of evidence-informed policymaking mechanisms from the perspective of policymakers, using the lenses of public administration, public management and (sustainability) governance. The report was prepared for the European Commission’s Joint Research Center and published online on 19 July 2022. It contains substantial input from Louis Meuleman. […]

What about the governance of evidence-informed policymaking?

JULY 2022 – How can policymakers make the best of the science they are offered to prepare new policies and laws? This question, focusing on the ‘demand’ side of science-policy-society relations, is less often asked than how the ‘supply’ side can be improved. Louis Meuleman argues in a Blog written for and published by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, that the demand side needs to be taken more into account, and that a dedicated governance framework would definitely support this. The Blog builds on a report Ingeborg Niestroy wrote for the JRC. […]

Contribution of CEI to UN Agenda 2030 and its implementation in CEI Member States

In the framework of the 5th anniversary of the adoption of Agenda 2030, the Central European Initiative, a collaboration of 17 countries, launched the report “Contribution of CEI to UN Agenda 2030 and its implementation in CEI Member States”, made by a Public Strategy for Sustainable Development team with Ingeborg Niestroy (lead), Sally Nicholson and Gaetane Charlier, in cooperation with the CEI-Executive Secretariat. […]

Latest book now free viewing online

Louis’ latest book “Metagovernance for Sustainability: A Framework for Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals” (Routledge – 2019) is now available for free online access until 14th of June. According to Routledge, those who have signed up by 14th June for [...]

Economics and governance for sustainability

With Louis and Ingeborg as guest editors, the open access Journal of Public Sector Economics published on 1st December 2019 a special issue on ‘Economics and governance for sustainability’, with six topical articles and an introduction by the guest editors.  [...]

Short reads on sustainability challenges

Here are all seven 2-page articles on SDG-related challenges which we published online as guest articles at iisd.org during the last years, put together in easily readable downloads: Why we need ‘real-time’ multi-level governance for the SDGs. Meuleman, L., 2019. Guest article, [...]

Why we need real-time multilevel governance for the SDGs

Top-down and bottom-up relations between levels of government are both characterised by slow transfer of innovative ideas. For implementation of SDG issues, which are complex, urgent and relate to several administrative levels, we need to add a third approach and thus [...]

What makes effective governance?

How does one know when countries have implemented good governance? Although a cornerstone of all developmental efforts and the sine qua non of sustainability, governance is often nebulous. As a concept, it is hard to decipher. As a practice, it [...]

Contribution to 2019 HLPF

UN CEPA submitted a contribution to the July 2019 High-level Political Forum in the SDGs, stating among others that public institutions are not ready to curb the trend of disempowerment, and that we need to move from blueprint thinking to [...]

CEPA Discusses Institutional Aspects of SDG 16

By Natalie Risse/IISD — On 8-9 April, CEPA participants discussed the institutional aspects of SDG 16, namely on effectiveness, accountability and inclusiveness, which are the key components of the “Principles of effective governance for sustainable development,” agreed at CEPA 17 [...]

New review of ‘Metagovernance for Sustainability’

“General knowledge of the importance of the term metagovernance is relatively limited. Therefore, the recent publication by Louis Meuleman “Metagovernance for Sustainability” can be a significant contribution to a better general understanding of this concept.(…) This book in a very impressive and reasoned way presents the importance and complexity of metagovernance”. […]

New review of Metagovernance for Sustainability

Law professor Prof. Dr. Diane Desierto (JSD, Yale) reviewed Louis’ new book as one of the most interesting of 2018, in a selection of five books that includes Fukuyama’s ‘Identity’. The book “proved to be a constructive and refreshing read”. She [...]

Metagovernance as full SDGs toolbox

Louis published a guest article at IISD.org as short introduction to the book Metagovernance for Sustainability. It argues that successful decision makers do not stick to one governance approach; they think beyond the governance style that their organization or culture [...]

Let’s think beyond PPPs

The ‘Global Goals Yearbook 2018’ contains a short article by Louis on thinking beyond public-private partnerships for the SDGs. The article is based on an earlier publication by Louis Meuleman, Jan-Gustav Strandenaes and Ingeborg Niestroy as guest article at IISD. [...]

First reviews of “Metagovernance for Sustainability”

“This is both a theoretical masterpiece and practical handbook” (Bob Jessop). “This is a ‘metabook’ which will inspire and guide all those responsible for and studying the SDGs” (Geert Bouckaert). “This book will become the core text in this area” (Paul Jackson). “This book is an important read for every practitioner from developing and developed countries alike” (Geraldine J Fraser-Moleketi). “A book that is a must for those who strive for enhanced professionalism in governance for sustainable development” (Roel in ‘t Veld). “What makes this book a must-read is the emphasis on how to get to differentiated governance for the SDGs” (Guenther Bachmann). […]

Principles for effective governance

Louis co-authored a Guest article with an overview of 11 useful principles for the SDGs with examples of concrete strategies. Compiled by the Committee of Experts on Public Administration in April 2018 and Endorsed by UN ECOSOC on 2nd July. http://sdg.iisd.org/commentary/guest-articles/effective-governance-for-sustainable-development-11-principles-to-put-in-practice/

Input CEPA to the HLPF 2018: principles & coherence

On 2 May 2018, the UN Committee of Experts on Public Administration (CEPA) of which Louis is currently vice-chair,  submitted its contribution to the 2018 High Level political Forum (HLPF) on the SDGs. This contribution was based on the discussions [...]

Governance contexts and Strategic Environmental Assessment

Louis co-authored a research article in Environmental Impact Assessment Review  on the relationship between governance contexts and the development and outcomes of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). The main objective of this paper is to understand if, and how, the governance context [...]

Governance & IA in Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish

[March 2018] The short introduction (‘Fastip’) on governance and impact assessment Louis wrote in 2013 for IAIA and which was the basis for the journal article “Owl meets beehive: how impact assessment and governance relate” (2015) is now available in [...]

Interview in Unesco Courier

[April 2017] Louis was interviewed in the latest edition of the UNESCO Courier (April-June 2017) on the article authored with Ingeborg Niestroy and Jan Gustav Strandenaes on new SDG partnerships: “There is a need to progress from PPP to “ABC”, where Administration, [...]

Metagovernance in Central Asia (2017)

Louis co-authored an article in Development Policy Review: Steering the Poverty-Environment Nexus in Central Asia: A Metagovernance Analysis of the Poverty Environment Initiative (PEI). It presents a set of recommendations to improve governance coordination, while achieving more inclusive decision-making and ultimately [...]

From PPP to ABC Partnerships for the SDGs (2016)

Short article by Louis Meuleman, Jan-Gustav Strandenaes and Ingeborg Niestroy, published online on 11 October 2016 by IISD, claiming that Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) should not be the blueprint model for the new SDG partnerships. We need a more inclusive and [...]

Why the EU must do more to implement the 2030 Agenda (2016)

Inge co-authored a Briefing Paper of the German Development Institute (DIE). It concludes that given the scope and universal nature of the 2030 Agenda, its implementation requires a new quality of cooperation with greater inter-departmental work and whole-of-government approaches that [...]