FINANCING STRATEGIES, MACROECONOMIC FACTORS, INSTITUTIONAL QUALITY AND THE ACHIEVEMENT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS: A CRITICAL LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract

Purpose of the Study - The world through United Nations leadership has defined the post-2015 development agenda comprising of 17 goals, 169 targets and 230 global indicators, cutting across social, economic and environmental pillars, which when attained by all nations by the year 2030, will create the future the world needs. The purpose of this study is to critically review the existing literature on the effects of financing strategies, macroeconomic factors and institutional quality on the achievement of the development goals.

Findings - Africa has embraced the Sustainable Development Goals framework and relies on domestic finances, foreign direct investment, external debt, trade, official development assistance, financial and technical cooperation to fund various development programs. The implementation of the post-2015 sustainable development goals has shifted from global to national and local perspective. Most of the existing studies focused on the eight millennium development goals with a global perspective. As a consequence, the significance and effectiveness of the diverse and conflicting policy recommendations founded on Millennium Development Goals studies and their contribution to the achievement of the post-2015 SDGs remains doubtful. This paper concludes that Africa in particular, will require more than identification of appropriate financing strategies in order to achieve the target development goals. The success of the financing strategies on the achievement of development goals will depend on how African nations address macroeconomic factors and institutional quality factors in its quest to achieve the sustainable development goals by year 2030.

Implications – Africa will need policy intervention to address institutional quality factors such as political stability, corruption levels, financial market developments and human capital development. These factors affect the direction and or strength of the relationship between the financing strategies and development goals. In additional Africa nations need to address the macroeconomic factors such as the employment levels, income levels, inflation rates and economic growth. The microeconomic factors emerge to explain the impact of the financing strategies on the achievement of the development goals.

Value of the study - the study identifies and document existing knowledge gaps and proposes study approaches to address the gap thereby enriching existing body of knowledge. In addition, this study provide in-depth analysis that will inform the understanding of the direction and impact of the various financing strategies on the achievement of development goals, which can form the basis for the policy review.