The Shared Score: How Unified Policy Platforms Terminate the Policy Noise of NGO Competition

This post was created following a discussion with Mette Müller Kristensen of Global Focus in Copenhagen, Denmark. To learn more about Global Focus, head to the bottom of the article!

*The information shared is only for context and does not constitute an official endorsement of Internatnotes Blog.

Introduction

When examining the intricacies of global order, some may envision its characteristics in the form of orchestrated harmony. During a given year, thousands of orchestras—consisting of the most talented virtuosos worldwide—come together to align their individual strengths and skills, and further contribute to a sweet-sounding melody. 

Still, that appealing result could have been entirely thwarted if not for the role of an efficient conductor and their tools. Imagine a scene in which these skillful, hard-working musicians, without proper sheet music, rehearsal, and a conductor, can thrive. In the majority of cases, this would have led to a cacophony of noise, lacking the same, moving music that brings joy.

While the work of NGOs may veer away from the world of concertos and recitals, the resemblance does reveal a similar objective: unified order. But in some cases, order is always prevalent: In a 2025 publication in the International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology, JA van Zanten and colleagues found that there were thirteen pairs from the seventeen development goals that had significant negative correlation. 

In the present environment, unity is essential, especially when considering that the United Nations has reported that over 18% of current SGD initiatives are moving in reverse.  Thus, it has become increasingly visible to refrain from solely having specialized, individual work, as it can cause cacophony. As a result, national policy platforms have emerged across recent years to ensure unified, efficient progress. 

The Rise of Unified Policy Platforms 

“When NGOs act separately, their voices call for attention,” stated Mette Müller Kristensen, Executive Director of Danish policy network Global Focus, in a recent discussion with me on these developments. A recent report from the Overseas Development Institute highlighted that “multiple aid channels can put great strain on beneficiary governments and implementing entities, and pile up excessive donor overhead costs" for aid. This reality highlights a significant concern:  current systems foster competition among NGOs for aid to address their specialized needs, rather than improving collaboration. 

This environment is what encouraged initiatives to act. For instance, Kristensen’s Global Focus serves on this very mission.  In 2014, the organization was formed through the merging of NGO Forum and Concord Denmark, and since then, it has provided a platform for over 75 Danish NGOs for cross-sector collaboration.

A specific example of this progress and effort is evident through the organization’s role as secretariat in the 2030 Panel. Based in Denmark, the advisory body of multi-stakeholders facilitates knowledge sharing and cross-collaboration, mitigating the risk of policy clashes that would occur without proper order. In discussion with Kristensen, she asserts that these processes build on “shared ownership and trust,” which she acknowledges has been a “missing ingredient” in weaker SDG development programs. 

In recent years, the 2030 Panel has made strides toward policy coherence through various mechanisms. Firstly, through collaboration with Statistics Denmark, the board has instituted a shared evidence board. This is now being utilized as a tool for national businesses and ministries in monitoring patterns in sustainable development.  

Secondly, the board has included local Danish municipality representatives to encourage SDG development at the local level. Since 2021, 90% of Danish municipalities have worked with the board in strategy planning. Many of these successful results are because of the open platform, collaborative  itself, in which Kristensen stated that “listening comes before negotiation.”

Additionally, this momentum has been encouraged in international models as well, diverging from just Danish developments. In 2016, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) developed the  "Framework for Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development (PCSD)" initiative, later renamed the Recommendation on Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development (PCSD), to further integrate effective policy. Back in Denmark, this policy was particularly advocated for across the 2030 Panel by stakeholders, and since then, has mitigated collaborative disorder. 

Specifically, the framework calls for alignment and direction by issuing a variety of mandates, such as government committees dedicated solely to SDG alignment, engagement of non-public parties (such as in business and academia). However, each state’s contributions to development must be adequately tracked to ensure the framework’s goals are coherent; this notion is manifested through reporting systems known as Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs). 

VNRs, in particular, emphasize momentum toward consistency in response to these challenges. They don’t do this by reporting on the sole impacts of each SDG initiative in a nation, but by interpreting how they actively interact with each other through peer-review systems. These systems, additionally, instill national accountability as nations must recognize how their policy structure serves as a whole towards SDG development. 

At last, many of these nations’ findings are used at the annual High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), hosted by the United Nations, showcasing that these review processes are ongoing.  As of current reports, 190 out of the 193 UN member states have participated in some form of VNR reporting at some stage since its development in 2016, illustrating global participation in its objectives and improvements. 

The Challenges Posed by Geopolitics to Coherency

When I asked Kristensen what factor would challenge SDG collaboration in the coming years, I was informed that it would be one defining factor: geopolitics. “AI governance will add new layers of complexity,” says Kristensen, “but geopolitics is the deeper force because it shapes the room in which every other decision must be made.” 

This narrative was recently illustrated in the case of the Black Sea Initiative. On July 27th, 2022, Ukraine, Turkey, and Russia, facilitated by the United Nations, signed the Black Sea Initiative, an agreement that encouraged the transportation of grain resources to low-income countries—some of which were plagued by famine—worldwide. By increasing the supply of grain in these nations, food prices would become more affordable and combat the issues highlighted by SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) and SDG 10 (Combat Inequalities). 

However, it was a fragile collaboration, and Russia’s withdrawal, emphasized by its own sanction-related desires in the midst of ongoing conflict, demonstrated that a singular national entity could hinder SDG partnerships and collaboration.

Furthermore, these circumstances will continue to arise as conflicts emerge worldwide. Therefore, the progress and reform towards ensuring the growth of the SDGs can be significantly influenced by geopolitics if systems don’t adapt. Hence, some platforms have begun to take strides to mitigate these risks. One platform in particular is the Joint SDG Fund. 

Created in 2018, the fund serves as a mechanism to accelerate development through integrated solutions rather than individual, fragmented proposals. For instance, the Joint SDG fund advocates for strengthening the systems in nations, developing their national capacities, rather than solely providing aid. 

In the case of the Black Sea Initiative, this would include developing food supply systems in the low-income countries so that their well-being would be less susceptible to current global conflicts. 

The advancement to policy coherence may not always be as smooth as desired by parties, especially in light of the breadth of opinions and geopolitical influences in its pathway. However, by taking the effort to establish cross-sector and multi-stakeholder trust and evidence-based governance, one can find that the world’s initial discord of initiatives and desires is slowly being channeled into, at last, a moving, impactful melody.

A harmony can not be achieved through a singular entity, though. Contributions from international organizations, like the OECD and the Joint SDG Fund, promote systematic alignment. In comparison, parties such as the Danish 2030 Panel highlight the current collaboration on the national and local levels. Overall, these developments affirm the necessity of policy coherence and the need for stakeholder interests on all scales to be governed to ultimately promote global harmony. 

Bibliography

"About Global Focus." Global Focus, globaltfokus.dk/en/about-us.

Anderson, Edward. "Aid Fragmentation and Donor Transaction Costs." SSRN Electronic Journal, 2011, https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1852563.

Marquez, Maya. "Building Just Transitions: The UN Joint SDG Fund's Catalytic Investment in Jobs and Social Protection." Joint SDG Fund, 14 Nov. 2025, www.jointsdgfund.org/article/building-just-transitions-un-joint-sdg-funds-catalytic-investment-jobs-and-social.

"Recommendation of the Council on OECD Legal Instruments Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development." OECD, 2025, legalinstruments.oecd.org/public/doc/260/260.en.pdf.

"The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2025." United Nations, 2025, unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2025/The-Sustainable-Development-Goals-Report-2025.pdf.

Van Zanten, Jan Anton, and Maria Putintseva. "Evaluating Governmental Policies for the Sustainable Development Goals Using Hierarchical Clustering." International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology, vol. 32, no. 3, 6 Jan. 2025, pp. 322-40, https://doi.org/10.1080/13504509.2024.2448669.

"Voluntary National Reviews." United Nations, hlpf.un.org/vnrs.

Voluntary National Review 2021 - Denmark. Ministry of Finance, June 2021

What is Global Focus? Global Focus is the Danish platform for over 70 civil society organizations (CSOs) to advocate for international development and aid. It serves to strengthen the collaboration of its members through efficient policy advocacy and cross-sector dialogue. Ultimately, Global Focus amplifies and coordinates the voices of Danish NGOs in discussion with the Danish government, European Union (EU), and additional global partners.