Mainstreaming, Institutionalizing and Translating Sustainable Development Goals into Non-governmental Organization’s Programs

After the introduction of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) become a prime mover of SDGs in representing the diverse range of organizational interests and broadening the social aspects of civil society beyond the other sectors. The existence of NGOs not only represents the voice of the civil society but also fills the gaps when the constituencies of the government and industry sectors are limited. However, the capacities of NGOs are influenced by their uncertainties, especially in the transition from single-sector approach to cross-sector approach to increase trade-offs between the SDGs. Thus, mainstreaming and institutionalizing SDGs are very important in translating SDGs into NGOs’ program implementation. In this chapter, an international NGO based in Malaysia, the Global Environment Centre (GEC), is taken as a case study whereby a framework has been proposed, consisting of three strategies to streamline NGOs’ programs toward achieving the SDGs. The framework is instrumental to guide NGOs to implement SDGs through bottom-up approach by translating every SDGs into action-oriented programs, forging hybrid governance for cooperation among NGOs’ partner institutions and making social value the essence of fostering environmental citizenship. As NGOs have unmeasurable capacities, this strategy can help NGOs in mainstreaming, institutionalizing and translating SDGs into their projects as a measurement of project performance and can be standardized despite diverse project scope and eventually help to achieve the SDGs at large.