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This paper aims to explore if, and how, business schools globally have been engaging their students in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), both inside and outside the classroom, since the SDGs were agreed upon in 2015 until mid-2020.

The data is collected from information submitted as part of reporting requirements to the United Nations Principle for Responsible Management Education over the time in question. This paper outlines the range of approaches being reported on which specifically relate to students and explicitly mention the SDGs.

The results show that although there are a growing number of innovative approaches that could become the basis for the way management education approaches the SDGs moving forward, the majority of schools are not engaging their students in the SDGs. Of those schools that are, most offer limited evidence of it being embedded into the core of what students are learning or of it being approached in an interdisciplinary way. Business graduates are not being exposed to the SDGs in a way that connects them to “business as usual”. This is a missed opportunity for the students, the universities and the global community, given the important influence that management education, and the business sector by extension, has the realisation of the goals.

The results can help inform and inspire higher education institutions to engage students in the SDGs. A methodology to measure the degree of engagement is presented, which can then be used as a tool to benchmark progress.

This study explores how problem-based learning (PBL) programs can address Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) via the higher education (HE) curriculum, teaching materials and relevant assessments, supporting learning at scale for HE institutions.

Employing SDGs and their indicators as the coding framework, our two-phase study evaluates the curriculum and teaching materials of seven PBL programs at a leading higher education institution (HEI). The first phase involved a content analysis to assess the degree of sustainability integration in 156 relevant courses. The second phase applied a semi-automated mapping protocol to analyze learning and teaching materials in 120 relevant courses.

The school aligns with 17 SDGs (100%), covering 94 indicators (55.62%). On average, each program within the school addresses over ten of these goals and incorporates more than 24 associated indicators. However, the study reveals an imbalance in the incorporation of SDGs, with some goals not yet deeply and comprehensively embedded in the curriculum. While there is a substantial focus on sustainability theories, the practical implications of SDGs in emerging countries, particularly through case studies and assessments, require significant enhancement.

Mapping SDGs allows HEIs to identify strengths and gaps in SDG integration, thereby improving the PBL approach to enhance student work readiness in sustainability-focused careers.

Through the lens of transformative learning theory, this study provides evidence of SDG integration into PBL curricula. It highlights a mapping methodology that enables HEIs to evaluate their sustainability readiness in curriculum, teaching materials and relevant assessments.

Although the value of community capacity building is widely accepted within scholarly literature, these initiatives thus far appear to have achieved very little impact in the achievement of community development aspirations. This paper aims to increase knowledge regarding specific priority areas which when targeted will result in more effective pathways towards sustainable development.

This study was performed through utilization of a qualitative strategy, which involved the combination of a number of qualitative methods and techniques including individual interviews, surveys, focus groups, literary review and policy analysis.

The investigation found that improving identified CSD priority areas, aligned with the sustainable development goals (SDGs), seems to be the most effective strategy to enhance the ability of local communities to overcome sustainability challenges over time. SDGs 9, 4, 15, 16, 17 and 8 were identified as the areas of greatest significance for practical community capacity building for sustainable development (CSD).

This paper answers scholarly literature’s call for greater investigation into bringing sustainability research closer to society, to clearly define research direction and agenda. It also recommends ways to action the global goals locally.

Higher education institutions (HEI) play a critical role in developing student leaders equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to mobilize societal changes that the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call for. To broaden this understanding, this study aimed to engage with student leaders of a grassroots, student-led initiative at the University of Calgary, the Sustainable Development Goals Alliance (SDGA), to better understand the experience of students who took on leadership roles in organizing SDG engagement activities.

A qualitative thematic analysis was used to understand the experiences of 12 student leaders involved in SDG programming. Semi-structured interviews asked participants to reflect on their key learnings, skills development and overall student’s experiences of leaders involved in SDG programming. Thematic analysis was applied to determine emerging themes.

Analyses showed that taking a leadership role in the SDGA empowered students to deepen their engagement with the SDGs and overcome barriers such as lack of knowledge and feelings of powerlessness. Secondary findings showed that community-building, flexibility and a sense of ownership were key strengths of the program and contributed toward student leaders’ feelings of hopefulness, self-confidence and inspiration.

This work offers a window into the experiences of student leaders who have worked to advance SDG engagement within their institution. Our findings suggest that student-led initiatives represent untapped potential for HEIs to prioritize and support to help deliver on their SDG implementation and engagement efforts. As HEIs offer a vital space for innovation, policy and capacity building towards implementation of the SDGs, this work demonstrates how student leadership can yield grassroots influence on HEI commitments and responses to the needs of students.

The purpose of this study is to explore knowledge management (KM) initiatives for achieving sustainable development goal (SDG) 4.7 and to investigate enablers and barriers to insert KM to prepare higher education institutions (HEIs) ready to contribute to SDGs’ performance. At the end, this paper provides a practical perspective of KM initiatives for higher education for sustainable development (HESD).

This is an exploratory study. It applies a descriptive-interpretative-qualitative approach. The analysis is based on the opinions collected from 170 HEIs’ stakeholders. Discussions among participants have been organized through zoom meetings, telephone interviews and focus group discussions in three phases. In the first phase, a total of 113 informants took part in the discussion on various dates. In the second phase, 10 interviews were conducted with university officials using three open-ended questions; and in the third phase, three focus group discussions were organized to interact about the effectiveness of the Masters in Business Administration in Global Leadership and Management programme and curriculum with teachers, students and the programme initiators.

From the analysis of stakeholders’ views, it appears that Nepalese HEIs have yet to move forward with integrating KM activities into their aims, structure and functions to address the government’s policy guidelines applicable to maximizing SDG’ performance. A KM cultural framework that values intellectual capital is urgently needed to fill the knowledge-doing gap for the benefit of society. HEIs appear to require multidisciplinary teaching, learning and research methods to play a civic role in society. They have to improve their rules and regulation, develop a boundary-spanning structure from a conventional structure and apply KM initiatives to support achieving SDGs’ performance. Understanding and inculcating these initiatives in the academic programmes could provide a value-adding higher education in the country.

This paper is entirely based on the perspectives of stakeholders in higher education. So, understanding their points of view and perspectives may have resulted in vague explanations. Furthermore, because the setting of Nepal’s HEIs differs from that of developed countries, the results should only be interpreted in Nepalese contexts.

This paper acknowledges the gaps and complexities in Nepalese HEIs from the standpoints of HEIs’ leaders, teachers and students for the application of KM initiatives to reform HEIs, with HESD in consideration, and enhance SDGs’ performance.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the paper is the first of its kind in the context of Nepal, exploring KM initiatives for SDGs. It provides a new perspective on KM and comprehends KM initiatives in the case of Nepalese HEIs transformation into HESD for achieving SDG 4.7.

This paper aims to explore the role of public sectors auditors in strategically responding to institutional pressures to conduct a performance audit of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) implementation in Ghana.

To gather in-depth and rich empirical data, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 senior and middle management auditors of Ghana's Supreme Audit Institution (SAI).

The findings indicate that the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions, the government, auditees, political executives and the Audit Service Board all exert institutional pressure on Ghana's audit of SDG implementation. In response to these pressures, the SAI deploys acquiescence, compromise and manipulation strategies that result in the coupling, and in some cases, the loose coupling of SDG audit practices.

Observation method of data collection would have given the researchers first-hand knowledge of the role of auditors, the institutional pressures to SDG audit and the strategic response to the institutional pressures. The authors were unable to accompany the public sector auditors to their field audits. This would have aided in obtaining more detailed empirical data.

The findings suggest that external and internal factors affect public sector audit of SDG implementation. Because the SAI of Ghana is dependent on the central government for budgetary allocation and auditees for miscellaneous logistics, it is under coercive pressure to meet rent seeking demands of political executives. As a result, SAIs in emerging economies must revisit the other side of accountability by reinforcing a constructive dialogue with those held accountable, particularly politicians and auditees.

This study's contribution is the exploration and application of institutional theory and Oliver (1991) model for responding to institutional pressures to a novel research area, namely, SDG implementation audit by public sector auditors in an emerging economy.

This paper aims to evaluate the progress made in achieving sustainable development goal-2 (SDG 2) in India, with a focus on ending hunger, ensuring food security, improving nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture. The assessment uses data from SDG Index reports, which offer a comprehensive overview of the advancements made by 28 states and 8 union territories (UTs) in India.

The evaluation is based on information derived from three editions of the SDG Index reports, initially published in 2018 and subsequently in 2019 and 2020. These reports provide a detailed analysis of the status and achievements of different states and UTs in relation to SDG 2. The categorization of states and UTs into aspirant, performer, front runner and achiever categories serves as a crucial framework for assessing the progress.

Despite concerted efforts by India, the majority of states and UTs are positioned in the aspirant and performer categories, suggesting that significant challenges persist in achieving SDG 2 targets. The results emphasize the necessity for stronger measures to elevate states and UTs to the categories of front-runners and achievers. The persistent challenges of malnutrition, hunger and their economic ramifications require immediate and strategic interventions to address these pressing concerns.

This paper contributes to the existing literature by providing a comprehensive analysis of the progress towards SDG 2 in India, using the insights from the SDG Index reports. The categorization framework used in this assessment offers a nuanced understanding of the challenges faced by different regions, highlighting the original contribution of this study. The findings underscore the urgency of targeted efforts to address malnutrition, hunger and related issues, emphasizing the importance of sustained commitment to achieving SDG 2 for the overall well-being of vulnerable populations.

Implementing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) unarguably demands huge financial investments. However, the United Nations has acknowledged the huge financial gap militating against the implementation of the SDGs worldwide, leading experts to question the possibility of complete implementation of the goals by their terminal dateline of 2030. While the bulk of the finance currently outlaid on the SDGs comes from traditional sources including foreign direct investments (FDIs), there is the need to focus more attention on developing and exploiting impact investments that are more suitable for financing development programmes and projects. In this chapter, the SDG implementation profiles of the 12 Arab West Asia countries concerning the five most targeted SDGs were evaluated and sustainable finance issues were discussed. Secondary data were retrieved from World Bank's DataBank. The data were descriptively analyzed. Based on the profiles generated, debt relief is put forward as a possible impact investment mechanism suitable for funding the SDGs. Specifically, this chapter recommends that outright cancellation of debts based on the debt-for-SGD swap could serve as some of the impact investments needed to boost the global drive for a developed, peaceful, and just world.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how universities can play a pivotal role in implementing sustainable development goals (SDGs). It recognises the advantage that universities have in responding to social challenges through their functions and operations, mainly through research and innovation and academic prowess. Not much guidance is available on how they can contribute to SDG implementation. The research is a case study of the University of South Africa, a distance education institution. It showcases how its science campus in Johannesburg has incorporated SDGs in its operations.

Data were collected through interviews with campus operations managers and sustainability office managers, a survey with environmental science honours students was conducted and observations of the Unisa Florida campus environment were undertaken to establish practices that contribute towards SDG implementation. Document analysis assisted in complementing the data collection process. Data were analysed by aligning practices with SDG indicators.

The research revealed a number of practices that align with SDGs in teaching, research, community engagement and campus operations management. Unisa is however challenged by financial limitations and as an open distance education and learning (ODeL) institution, it struggles to involve students in these projects. The paper concludes that while the most obvious contribution of universities to SDGs is towards quality education (SDG 4), higher education, including distance education institutions, can play an active role in implementing other SDGs as well.

This research was limited to one institution, Unisa, owing to time limitations. While this might seem like the research was too selective, it was intentional, as the aim was to research a distance education institution. The research targeted staff involved in campus operations at Unisa’s Florida Campus, which is located in Johannesburg. Interviews were limited to students pursuing BSc Honours in Environmental Management. This was a methodological decision to contain the research, but making sure that the targeted respondents were the most informed. Individual case studies are often critiqued for being insufficiently representative to allow generalisations to other contexts (Jupp, 2006). This applies to this research in terms of “populations and universes” (Yin, 2003, p. 10), but generalisations to “theoretical propositions” (ibid) are possible.

There are few studies in Africa which researched implementation of SDGs in universities, let alone in ODeL institutions. The research revealed the challenge of involving students in sustainability practices in distance education institutions and serves as a testimony that such institutions can still have successful projects on and off campus. It suggests involving students in applied research based on the current sustainability projects on and off campus.