UN sustainable development goals, good governance, and corruption: The paradox of the world's poorest economies

Abstract

The first objective of this study is to demonstrate that the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) remain beyond reach for the world's poorest economies by analyzing the trends in the worldwide governance indicators (WGIs), corruption perception index (CPI), the GDP per capita, and the human development index (HDI) using the case of 10 former European colonies (e.g., Burundi, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Guinea‐Bissau, Haiti, Madagascar, Niger, Sierra Leone, Togo, and the Democratic Republic of Congo). Second, this study compares three‐panel regression models (pooled OLS model, fixed‐effects model, and random effects model) to examine the influence of the WGIs on CPI, GDP per capita, and HDI and then derive the most appropriate model. Based on the results of these two objectives, a theoretical framework is drawn to provide specific recommendations to overcome some of the challenges to sustainable development in the selected countries.

Quality of Government, Democracy, and Well-Being as Determinants in Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

“…Thus, for example, the SDG Index averages 51.7 in low-income countries, 62.6 in lower-middle-income countries, 69.9 in upper-middle-income countries, and 76.7 in highincome countries. The above supports what Mombeuil and Diunugala [26] stated regarding poor countries' difficulty in achieving the SDGs, making them a practically utopian challenge. Table 6 shows the results of the correlation analysis using the Pearson coefficient.…”

“…This underscores the immense challenges that poorer countries face in achieving the SDGs, even if they strive to emulate the progress of high-income countries. Given the prevailing conditions in these nations, it is a daunting task [26]. Therefore, following the premise of the "Beyond GDP" initiative, this article has sought to contribute to the field of study that explores the factors that contribute to achieving the 2030 Agenda by incorporating factors from the social sphere, specifically, the welfare variable.…”

“…By contrast, when there is no institutional capacity, there is government inefficiency and poor regulatory quality, the rule of law and the fight against corruption are put at risk, which hinders progress towards the goals of the 2030 Agenda [26] because corruption leads to the circumvention of laws and regulations, an increase in public spending, and a decrease in tax revenues [27]. By analyzing ten former European colonies classified as highly corrupt, Mombeuil and Diunugala [26] find that the lack of capacity of governments to reduce corruption hinders the achievement of the SDGs and affirm that the goals of the 2030 Agenda appear to be out of reach of the poorest economies. Similarly, Ahmed and Anifowose [27] analyze the impact of corruption on sustainable development through various ordinary least squares models considering a pool of data from 2017 to 2021 for 42 African countries.…”

“…When analyzing the previous literature on the determinants of achieving the 2030 Agenda, it is observed that the first two currents have been addressed. Various studies focus on exploring the institutional factors linked to institutional capacity and governance at the country level [19][20][21], finding that institutional quality and governance have a positive influence on achieving the SDGs [22][23][24], while other research finds that higher levels of corruption negatively affect progress toward sustainable development [25][26][27][28]. Regarding the influence of the political component, studies carried out by [21,22,[29][30][31] show that democracy and government stability contribute significantly positively to the SDGs.…”

Quality of life as a factor influencing corruption

“…Рассмотрение вопроса повышения эффективности антикоррупционной политики в данном контексте особенно важно для стран с низким уровнем жизни. Наиболее бедные страны имеют минимальные шансы на достижение глобальных целей (в том числе искоренения коррупции) в условиях нехватки ключевых ресурсов, институционального и человеческого капитала [15]. Очевидно, что для более эффективной борьбы с коррупцией как с явлением нужно действовать комплексно, направляя ресурсы на повышение уровня жизни.…”