The COVID-19 pandemic has undermined the ability of many countries to achieve the Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs) by 2030. Here, we systematically assess the likely impacts of the pandemic on progress towards each SDG by 2030 at global, regional and national scales. In our analysis, we account for the social and economic shocks triggered by COVID-19 and their relative impacts on the SDGs. We also analyze the interconnections between SDG indicators during the pandemic to assess the indirect cascading effects of COVID-19 on the SDGs. We find that these indirect effects slowed progress much more than the direct initial disruptions. Globally, poverty eradication (SDG 1) is most affected by the pandemic. Regionally, SDG progress has been set back most in Latin America and the Caribbean, South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. We suggest that for high and upper-middle-income countries a focus on reducing inequality (SDG 10) would be most beneficial, whereas for low-income and lower-middle-income countries industry, innovation, and infrastructure (SDG 9) are a priority in the post-COVID-19 phase.
As implementers, public officials have historically enjoyed substantial influence in the public policy process, but little attention has been paid to the effect of psychological elements on their attitudes towards implementing policy instruments. The authors argue that from a behavioural public administration perspective, public officials’ attitudes towards implementing certain policy instruments are not rational, but instead biased. Using two survey experiments on 1,024 Chinese public officials, this study examines the cognitive and motivational bias of public officials’ attitudes towards implementing policy instruments. The findings indicate that when public officials are presented with risk information in a negative framing, they are more reluctant to implement indirect policy instruments than direct ones, and this phenomenon becomes more pronounced when their public interest orientation is activated, rather than their personal interest orientation. The findings contribute to the theoretical understanding of the effect of psychological biases on public officials’ attitudes towards policy implementation.
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