The Alliance is a unique example in the Italian landscape and its aim is to increase the awareness of the Italian society, economic stakeholders and institutions about the importance of the Sustainable Development Agenda, and to mobilize them in order to pursue the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), agreed by the United Nations.

The Alliance's activity are coordinated by the Secretariat. The Secretariat's main function is to coordinate and lead the Alliance's members activities. In fact, ASviS' main focus is to coordinate and promote the activities of his members, which already operate SDGs fields. The Alliance brings together all this social actors, permitting them to work together, because of the integrated dimension of SDGs.

The Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development regards capacity building and technology transfer as a fundamental pillar for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.In ensuring a sustainable, coherent and robust building of capacities targeted to the SDG, the ASviS will rely on a two-pronged approach:- Regular meetings and seminars to be held jointly with the leading functions in the Ministries and in the Parliament. These meetings serve the purpose of ensuring a constant and consistent attention paid by the policy-makers in the two Government branches towards the development and approval of proposals pursuing the SDGs.- Engaging, fruitful and steady participation in the global debate concerning the SDGs, setting forth papers, proposals and recommendations spanning the entirety of the SDGs at different levels. In doing so, the ASviSwill rely on its extensive and integrated network of institutions and stakeholders, which include research centres, think tanks and foundations that are at the forefront of scientific research in their respective fields.The former component of the approach is set to ensure that there is an established avenue of consultation with those wielding the constitutional power to promulgate policies.The latter component of the approach pursues instead the engagement of the brightest institutions and scholars beyond ASviS, fostering and enhancing the scope and quality of the development of proposals and recommendations.

The Alliance's activities are carried out by a Secretariat that is composed of 21 members among professionists, teachers, students and volunteers. The Secretariat's activities are leaded by Prof. Enrico Giovannini, Full Professor of Statistics and Economics at the University of Rome - "Tor Vergata". The Secretariat works in workgropus: one for each SDG.

The Alliance brings together more than 100 among the most important civil society institutions and networks, like: o Associations representing the social partners (business, trade union and third sector associations); o Networks of civil society associations pursuing specific Goals (health, well-being, education, employment, quality of environment, gender equality, etc.); o Associations of local public administrations; o Public and private universities and research centres, and their respective networks; o Associations of stakeholders working in the fields of culture and information; o Foundations and networks of foundations; ​ o Italian organizations that are members of international associations and networks, dealing with SDGs.