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AbstractOver a period of time sustainability and sustainable development goals (SDGs) are emerging as central theme and issue of concern for companies and stakeholders across the globe. The challenges are in the preview of regulatory requirements and compliance for environmental, social, and governance issues. The issues are varying from industry to industry and firm to firm as per the requirements and pressure from regulatory bodies, stakeholder groups, peers, and society. This is an inductive research design based exploratory study, revolves around most polluting and socially challenged textiles and clothing industry. The two Indian, global textile giant Birla Cellulose and Arvind Limited used as a case study exemplar for stakeholder value mapping for SDGs prioritization. The companies are considered for the study based on their sustainability reporting, social legacy, brand value, market capitalization, and global reach. Further, the discussions are explored in the preview of existing literature and well‐grounded stakeholder theory.

This paper briefly highlights key challenges faced in advancing women's rights in the last two decades. It draws attention to 'gains and gaps' in the implementation of the UN Beijing Platform for Action (1995) and the UN Millennium Development Goals (2000). It marks the evolution of a new compact on women's human rights and gender equality through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that has been universally endorsed by governments, donors, women's movements, civil society and other stakeholders. Women's groups have consistently been raising critical questions of how equality, inclusion and participation would be embedded in a world structured around grave inequalities and exclusions. While the framework of the paper is global, it throws light on two critical areas in India—the economic empowerment of women and ending violence against women—with pointers regarding how these commitments could be better realised in the implementation of the SDGs, especially SDG Goal 5. The paper concludes by sharing information on how some countries are developing mechanisms to advance SDG 5 and draws attention to the lack of data and monitoring measures for gender equality. It emphasises that for transformative changes, governments need to engage with women's organisations for policy development and implementation.

The research paper entitled 'Global Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs)' is an attempt to analyze the existing relationship between the global agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) in terms of key global macro parameters that are part of the global agenda and the international order to achieve the SDGs by the turn of 2030 slated by the United Nations. Though the scope of this paper has been limited and confined to the only study of the key global macro parameters, their interrelationships and inter-linkages, their role in achieving global sustainable development cannot be undermined. There is a lot of pieces of literature on the subject, but a lot more needs to be studied and analyzed to assess the intricacies involved in these key macro parameters and their role in achieving SDGs. It is understood that United Nations is the key international organization at the global level to perceive the concept of SDGs and the key global macro parameters such as international and foreign policies, climate action, education, reduced inequalities, poverty, global economic growth, violent conflicts, technology, housing, migration etc., that can be analyzed and assessed to figure out the key lacunae in implementation of these global parameters so that corrective measures could be taken to rectify these macro imbalances in order to achieve sustained international order and development. The review of literature has been dealt in this paper to the extent that the role and perceptions of United Nations in figuring out and in analyzing the key global macro parameters needs particular mention as it is the only international organization functioning at the global level to identify and perceive such new interrelationships and linkages existing amongst the key global macro variables in achieving the SDGs by 2030. It is felt that the SDGs are holistic concepts that cover almost all the aspects of human life and existence on this planet earth. The paper dwells into the aspects such as the SDGs facing strong challenges, slowing global economic growth, issues relating to inequalities, international migration, education, child and health care, climate change and climate risks, violent conflicts vitiating SDGs, inter-linkages between inequalities and climate action, small island economies and LDCs most vulnerable to climate risks, role of technology in achieving SDGs, energy security and global peace, world economic situation and prospects, global conversation and dialogue and role of global cooperation etc., The most important conclusion that could be drawn from this research study is that in order to achieve sustainable development goals and global sustainable development including international development the role and interrelationships, inter-linkages amongst these global macro variables is of paramount importance in building a new international order through global peace and inclusive societies.

AbstractFour years on from the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), countries around the world seek methods that provide simple but comprehensive narratives on their progress. Given the complexity of the agenda and its indicator framework, key questions that arise are what is an appropriate method to summarize information? and how to get everyone counted? This paper provides an overview of various existing methodologies for assessing progress towards the SDGs. It provides guidance on how to choose an appropriate method that is fit for the purpose of analysis. The paper also recommends an approach for measuring SDG progress that accounts for progress among the furthest left behind groups in order to fulfil the leave no‐one behind ambition of the 2030 agenda. Applying the new approach to data from countries in Asia‐Pacific region shows that, when disaggregated statistics are available, the inclusive measurement can significantly change the progress narrative and our understanding of priorities for SDGs implementation.

In September 2015, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly adopted a new global development agenda entitled, "Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development." The new targets set under the agenda are assumed to guide the member countries in their decisions about development issues over next 15 years. Pakistan's performance in the past, in terms of achieving Millennium Development Goals or MDG's has not been very encouraging. Thus, the situation demands for devising a robust strategy, which would involve and actively engage different social groups of Pakistani society towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs. To this, one important aspect relates to prevailing socio-political trends in Pakistani society, where Islamic beliefs and inclinations have always been an alive reality. Here, in this situation, the question arises whether these Islamic trends can help in developing a successful strategy for achieving the SDGs. This study is with reference to Pakistan only, however, its application may equally be valid for other Muslim societies considering local circumstances.
This paper is an extension of the two presentations that the author made on similar subjects in a UNOSD workshop held in Abu Dhabi from Oct. 27 to 29, 2015 and in Oslo University in a seminar on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Pakistan and Islam on January, 12, 2016. The author is particularly thankful to Syed Nadeem Farhat and Tauqeer Ahmad for their input during the course of writing this paper.

This article analyses the relevance of the SDGs to the needs of the Small Islands Developing States of the Caribbean Community. The article situates the SDGs within a critical interrogation of the social change logic of the universalizing global economic system. Thus, I argue that the SDGs, while recognizing some key economic and environmental concerns of the Caribbean Community, are hamstrung by their commitment to the unequal power structure of the neoliberal capitalist development model. Finally, this article calls upon regional and global social movements, and increased economic regionalism as ways of empowering Caribbean social change.

How can global governance shape a transformation toward sustainability? How can a transformation toward sustainability shape new forms and strategies on global governance? These questions grow increasingly important as the human impact on the environment increasingly exceeds the planetary boundaries (Rockstrom et al. 2009; Steffen and Smith 2013; Steffen et al. 2015). In addition, the prevailing approach to sustainability will only achieve sustainable futures for some, which would not be sustainable at all. In the post1992 era, roadblock after roadblock for global governance on sustainability was confronted and increased skepticism became warranted. In this context, the Rio?20 Conference in 2012 was seen as a conference with little substantive purpose (Andresen and Underdal 2012) and interest grew in efforts that ''tipped toward'' sustainability (Westley et al. 2011) rather than hard law-induced transformations. Global governance was seen to have the wrong processes and wrong ideas, animated by zero-sum interstate negotiations and a prioritization of the liberal international economic order over any alternatives. If we approached the question from a traditional effectiveness or influence perspective (Bernstein and Cashore 2012), such skepticism is understandable. Formal rules of the environment gave way to less legalistic approaches to sustainability in a muddled institutional context. Specifically, the Rio?20 process produced nothing in the realm of hard law, and the small-scale efforts appear scattered haphazardly without a core to organize global action. An alternative approach though would highlight that such outcomes have potential impacts primarily in changing global governance practices, defined as the techniques actors use to make sense of the world (Best 2014). Such an approach would be critical of the