Advancing Global Governance for the SDGs: Key Insights From the SDSN’s High-Level Webinar on the Post-2030 Agenda

More than a decade after the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), global progress in fulfilling them remains off track, with fewer than 20% of the targets expected to be achieved by 2030 . As the 2030 deadline rapidly approaches, attention is now increasingly focused on how global governance, monitoring, and financing frameworks should evolve beyond 2030.

Against this backdrop, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) convened a high-level online webinar on April 1, 2026, to explore pathways for a more effective post-2030 global framework. The event attracted more than 1,500 participants worldwide, with lively exchanges of views. Mine Yoichi , Executive Director of the JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development (JICA Ogata Research Institute), participated as a panelist, sharing perspectives grounded in Japan’s development experience and field-based research.

The webinar opened with keynote remarks by Jeffrey Sachs, President of the SDSN, who stressed that success depends on effective implementation through planned systemic transformation, enhanced regional cooperation, and large-scale, well-structured investment enabled by a stronger global financial architecture. The subsequent roundtable discussion, moderated by Guillaume Lafortune, Vice President of the SDSN and Head of SDSN Asia, reflected on lessons learned from negotiating and implementing the 2030 Agenda and considered how those lessons should inform a more effective post-2030 global framework. Discussions covered issues related to global governance, financing, accountability, and the implications of emerging technologies like AI.

Panelists included Ambassador David Donoghue (former Ambassador of Ireland), Mehdi Paryavi (Chairman, International Data Center Authority), Vera Songwe, (Chair and Founder, Liquidity and Sustainability Facility), Romina Boarini (Director, OECD Centre on Well-being, Inclusion, Sustainability and Equal Opportunity), Sachs and Mine.

During the discussion, Mine announced that the JICA Ogata Research Institute and the SDSN had recently signed an Agreement to jointly develop a report on the post-2030 monitoring framework. The collaboration aims to combine the SDSN’s global knowledge network and analytical expertise with JICA’s extensive field-based development experience to propose a more streamlined, practical and policy-relevant global indicator framework. The initiative will draw lessons from the SDG indicator framework, analyze persistent data and reporting challenges, and put forward more streamlined and practical approaches to measuring sustainable development progress, with the aim of generating evidence-based insights to inform global debates on the future of sustainable development monitoring.

During the webinar, Mine also introduced the Institute’s three research priorities related to the post-2030 agenda, which include: 1) identifying a global core indicator set building on the experience with the SDG indicator framework while allowing for local adaptation; 2) developing a human security dashboard to capture multidimensional vulnerabilities; and 3) producing a flagship Human Security Report to inform international policy debates.

He concluded his remarks by reaffirming the enduring relevance of human security—leaving no one behind, respect for human dignity, solidarity, and trust—and underscored Japan’s continued commitment to supporting cross-cutting UN mechanisms, such as the Human Security Unit and Trust Fund.

A recording of this webinar is accessible via the link below on the SDSN YouTube Channel.