The (anti-)politics of policy coherence for sustainable development in the Netherlands: Logic, method, effects

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), agreed in 2015, chart an integrated and universal policy agenda to be realised by 2030. To this end, policy coherence for sustainable development is embedded in the SDGs as both an end in itself and a means through which to ensure that the fulfilment of some goals does not come at the expense of others. Yet, as a transformative process and outcome, policy coherence, as articulated in the SDGs, is narrowly predicated on technical means to address incoherencies that are inherently political. Using the case study of the Netherlands, where the concept of policy coherence has animated the development policy discourse for decades, we question whether such means necessarily improve policies for sustainability, asking what institutional arrangements established for the SDGs do through their (re)configuration and operation, and to what ends. Drawing on an extensive document analysis and a series of semi-structured interviews, we show that the means established to resolve policy incoherence in the Dutch context cast an apolitical façade that limits, if not prevents, possibilities for transformation. In particular, the focus on ‘neutral’ institutional arrangements and ‘win-win’ constructions in coherence building privileges the appearance of coherence over the more fundamental issue of its sustainability, decentring the key political question of what is, or is supposed to be, sustained.