For the good of all mankind

The world faces unprecedented challenges – climate change, rapid urbanisation and, most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic – that will have long-lasting socioeconomic ramifications on society. In response, we must redouble our efforts to meet growing development needs, as outlined in international commitments like the 2030 Agenda, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Paris Agreement. This will not only require trillions of dollars in investment, but also a renewed dedication to sustainability across all practices.

It is imperative to ensure a proactive approach to tackling these challenges as we strive to realise these global agendas. As many of these will be achieved through the delivery of projects, it is crucial to take a hard look at how we plan and deliver projects and manage their outputs in the long term. The local impact of a project can ultimately expand to have a national influence. The way in which we manage a project will determine whether this influence is positive or negative – and to what degree.

Shifting our understanding of project outcomes is key to maximising their positive impact and guiding progress towards the achievement of national development goals and international commitments. Yet the success of a project is not only indicated by outputs delivered on time and within budget and scope. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) give us an opportunity to look at projects through a different lens, moving away from the traditional constraints of the iron triangle of time, cost and scope to consider a wider set of benefits.

SDGs and the global agenda

The SDGs were adopted by UN member states in 2015. There are 17 goals, with a total of 169 targets, and their purpose is to guide global development until 2030. A global indicator framework for the SDGs has 231 indicators at regional and national levels by which to measure progress – although a challenge project managers face when trying to support countries in achieving the SDGs is that this framework is not designed to measure project impact.

The SDGs are part of a global agenda that requires all of us to support UN member states in achieving the targets outlined by commitments like the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda. The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) aims to help people build better lives and countries achieve sustainable development by providing peace and security, and humanitarian and development solutions through five core service lines: infrastructure, procurement, project management, financial management and human resources. Based on this mandate and on our understanding of infrastructure’s influence on the SDGs, I will use infrastructure projects as the lens through which to discuss project management.

Infrastructure as a key example

There is a strong link between infrastructure and the SDGs, as infrastructure sectors influence all 17 goals and 92 per cent of their targets, according to our own research. Project outputs can also influence multiple SDGs. This establishes a significant connection between infrastructure project outputs and progress towards achieving the SDG targets. Based on decisions made during the project life cycle, the output will contribute to long-term sustainable development either positively or negatively.

In this way, the SDGs can indicate project success beyond economic aspects or even the triple bottom line, as they allow those involved in project management to target impacts in key development areas (eg poverty elimination, gender equality and the empowerment of women, environmental protection), providing a clearer idea of how projects can contribute to wider sustainability efforts.

To contribute to these global efforts, UNOPS created the SustainABLE tool (sustainable.unops.org) to support infrastructure project developers in identifying activities to undertake during the project to positively influence the achievement of the SDG targets. By using the SDGs as a lens to consider the potential impact of a project, managers and project developers can therefore create more holistic and integrated approaches to support countries and their beneficiaries to achieve these global agendas.

The importance of an integrated approach

UNOPS works in challenging environments to implement projects; each year, more than 50 per cent of countries in which the organisation works are classified as fragile and conflict-affected states. Most UNOPS projects have two essential characteristics in common. First, they have potential high risks due to the uncertainty of context, depending on the country profile and specific project context. And second, they hold high-potential opportunities to help people build better lives while contributing to a country’s development.

Beyond the life cycle

An integrated approach considers all management perspectives simultaneously and interdependently from the outset and continues to gradually and iteratively embed each perspective during the project lifespan. This can ensure fewer difficulties during implementation, produce project outputs that are fit for purpose and, most importantly, achieve a higher contribution to positive outcomes and impacts at all levels.

This approach is crucial because no project exists in isolation; rather, it is part of a very specific operational context. This includes political, environmental, social, economic and security factors, which together influence the project and the degree of its impact. A project that adopts an integrated approach based on international standards mitigates risks and has higher probabilities of success and a positive impact on global commitments like the SDGs.

This is particularly important to infrastructure projects as, beyond the project life cycle, the possible service life of a building designed by UNOPS is between 30 and 40 years, or more, locking certain sustainability practices into place for decades. Measuring project success through the SDGs can expand short-term project lifetime thinking to cover the whole life of the output, which can ensure more sustainable practices and benefits in the long term.

How to integrate SDG thinking into projects

An integrated approach to project management takes several perspectives into account from the start of the project. Perspectives are interdependent thematic areas that cover different aspects of project management activities, and those applied by UNOPS projects are:

Management control
Sustainable results management
Finance management
Stakeholder management
Risk management
Governance
Resource management
Quality management
Technical management

Actions taken during project planning and delivery can also encourage progress towards the SDGs. The project development stage provides a chance to engage in advocacy with clients (eg governments and partners) and to embed standards into proposals. Another key action is early definition of operating/maintenance requirements and clear benefits realisation linked to development themes encapsulated in the SDGs. Activities undertaken during implementation may include aiming to gain a thorough understanding of the project context, increasing professional collaboration and stakeholder engagement, familiarising oneself with the supply chain, prioritising the use of appropriate materials and technology, ensuring environmental and social protection safeguards are in place, and thinking about considerations of gender and inclusivity.

By undertaking these activities, indicators of success can be expanded to consider aspects such as carbon neutrality, fair wage and labour practices, women’s empowerment and workplace flexibility. Together, these perspectives, actions and targets can contribute greatly to supporting countries in achieving the SDG targets.

Final thoughts

Project management practitioners have an important role in ensuring aspects of sustainability are present throughout their project life cycles, as sustainability should be at the heart of everything we do. The SDGs provide a framework for project teams to take an integrated approach to project planning and delivery in a holistic way, helping them think differently and understand how their actions can have wider consequences.

At UNOPS, sustainability is at the core of our projects, and we work to support our partners across the world in developing good practice, including in project management. With this sentiment, we welcome our collaboration with APM to highlight the importance of integrating sustainable development considerations in project management in our mutual endeavours to tackle impending global challenges.

Further reading: Professor Peter Morris, Climate Change and what the project profession should be doing about it: a UK perspective (apm.org.uk/blog/climate-change-and-project-management-re-thinking-the-relationship/)
Steve Crosskey writes about real-life infrastructure projects where the UN’s SDGs have been put into practice for APM at apm.org.uk