Interactions between Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): A systematic literature review focusing on SDG 2 and SDG 6

Abstract

We have ten more years to achieve the ambitious 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set up by the United Nations in 2016. Looking at the 169 target and 230 indicators under the 17 SDGs, we see they are interconnected and interdependent. This correlation between the SDGs and also the in- dicators within them could be both positive and negative. SDG 2 aims at zero hunger, for which there is a need to increase production, and for that, we need more water, but SDG 6 talks about sus- tainable management of water. Therefore, the two goals have a conflicting relationship, which is also termed a tradeoff. This study aims to understand this interaction between SDG 2 and SDG 6 by performing a Systematic Literature Review. A total of 59 articles were identified for the study, after going through the title and abstracts of 1925 results found from keyword searches on various data- bases. 13 articles out of the 59 have taken a quantitative approach towards studying the interaction. In contrast, the remaining 46 articles have a thematic approach. We also found that there were no local-level studies done to understand these interactions but only country and global level studies. Local level studies are essential as the same pair of targets might have a synergistic relationship in one region and conflicting in other. We found that SDG 2 and SDG 6 are highly interconnected, and there are key water-food linkages that need to be given more attention. More research in the field and both quantitative and qualitative studies are required to come up with an integrated approach to leverage the synergies and overcome the tradeoffs between the SDGs.