Public health and integrated governance across the sustainable development goals beyond 2030
A six-function framework
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22433494 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nurah Alamro (0000-0001-9489-3994, King Saud Medical City, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Publication date | 2026-07-17 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Frontiers in Public Health (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2296-2565 • E-ISSN: 2296-2565 |
| Publisher | Frontiers Media SA (PUBLISHER • CH) |
| DOI | 10.3389/fpubh.2026.1892248 |
| OpenAlex | W7169582095 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 33 |
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) define sustainable development as integrated and indivisible, yet implementation remains organized largely through sectoral mandates, budgets, indicators, and accountability systems. This fragmentation is especially consequential for public health because progress on SDG 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing) depends on policy choices across social, economic, environmental, and fiscal domains. The institutional capacities required to act on these interdependencies remain insufficiently specified. This review synthesizes evidence from SDG-interlinkage research, policy coherence for sustainable development, public health governance, health-system strengthening, implementation science, and governance theory. It compares three pathways for the period beyond 2030: enhanced interlinkage reporting; stronger policy-coherence and multisectoral mechanisms; and integrated governance supported by explicit institutional functions. Integrated governance for sustainable development denotes arrangements that bring cross-sector effects into decision-making, financing, measurement, accountability, and learning. The proposed framework comprises six functions: coherence, arbitration, shared-outcome financing, interlinkage-aware measurement, equity-sensitive accountability, and adaptive learning. The analysis focuses on public health because health outcomes and inequities reflect the cumulative effects of decisions across sectors; the framework may also inform other policy domains characterized by similar interdependence. The review specifies the institutional capacities needed to govern interdependencies already recognized within the SDG framework.
Accountability · Corporate governance · Interdependence · Public health · Sustainability · Sustainable development · Global Public Health Policies and Epidemiology · Healthcare Facilities Design and Sustainability · Human Rights and Development · Health Policy
Policy
The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change
Studying complexity in health services research
A Systematic Study of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Interactions
Republished research: Implementation research: what it is and how to do it
Physical activity in relation to urban environments in 14 cities worldwide
Safeguarding human health in the Anthropocene epoch
Food in the Anthropocene
Closing the gap in a generation
Polycentric systems for coping with collective action and global environmental change
Health in the sustainable development goals
Recurring patterns of SDG interlinkages and how they can advance the 2030 Agenda
Global governance by goal-setting
Implementing the “Sustainable Development Goals”
Prioritising SDG targets
Integration
Mapping interactions between the sustainable development goals
Towards Integration at Last? The Sustainable Development Goals as a Network of Targets
An Integrative Framework for Collaborative Governance
Collaborative Governance in Theory and Practice
| Highly cited | No |
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