Reconciling the Dichotomy between Developed and Developing Countries via Universality in Sustainable Development Goals: The Case of Italy versus Bangladesh

Abstract

The post-2015 developmental agenda and the SDGs have been formulated to advance holistic global progress and enable the adoption of quantitative targets for all countries by recognizing their respective national realities and capacities. This research examines how global ambitions can guide national policy formulation by selecting the Italian Republic and the People’s Republic of Bangladesh as models for analysis and comparison. On the basis of two issues that dominate the current political agenda in both countries, sustaining economic growth (Goal 8) and addressing cross-border migration (Goal 10), quantitative targets were determined via an indicator based framework on the backdrop of historical data and relative performance of their global economic association membership (i.e. OECD for Italy, BRICS for Bangladesh). The results indicated that, interconnectedness of both goals allows the creation of synergistic effects which in turn allows simultaneous fulfilment of both goals through spill over effects. Lastly, by considering the current political agenda, high-priority reforms being debated, new legislations that are underway, we depict a temporal transition pathway for both countries to realize our identified targets.