SDGs for and from the Global South: Challenges, Constraints, and Transformative Opportunities

The inaugural issue of the National Sustainable Development Review is dedicated to the theme “SDGs for and from the Global South: Challenges, Constraints, and Transformative Opportunities.” This theme responds to the reality that countries in the Global South face the most severe structural pressures in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Persistent poverty, widening inequalities, climate vulnerability, and limited institutional capacity, which are often rooted in historical and structural injustices, make the implementation of the SDGs considerably more complex than in the Global North.

This issue presents five selected articles employing quantitative, qualitative, and critical review approaches, fully aligned with the journal’s scope and the 2030 Agenda. Particular attention is given to SDGs that remain the most challenging yet decisive for the Global South, notably poverty eradication (SDG 1), inclusive economic growth and decent work (SDG 8), reduced inequalities (SDG 10), climate action (SDG 13), and strong institutions and governance (SDG 16).

Moving beyond universal and normative development frameworks, this issue positions the Global South not merely as a recipient of global development agendas (SDGs for the Global South), but also as a source of knowledge, innovation, and alternative development pathways (SDGs from the Global South). The articles critically examine the roles of the state, governance capacity, local and indigenous institutions, natural resource management, demographic dividends, and green transition strategies as both challenges and opportunities for sustainable development.

Grounded in empirical evidence from Indonesia and enriched by comparative perspectives from Southeast Asia, Africa, Central Asia, and Latin America, this inaugural issue affirms the National Sustainable Development Review as a critical, reflective, and policy-oriented platform for advancing sustainable development scholarship and practice in the Global South.