SDGs in the Arctic High-Level Dialogue Series. A Project by Polar Research and Policy Initiative (PRPI).

In line with the priorities of the Finnish chairmanship of the Arctic Council and in support of the UN's 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development, Polar Research and Policy Initiative (PRPI) has taken the lead in convening high-level dialogues on ‘Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Arctic’ since October 2017. The project recognises that the 17 SDGs provide not only a valuable overarching framework that crucially integrates the human, environmental and economic dimensions of the Arctic that are indeed interconnected, interdependent and indivisible, but also a useful shared vocabulary that enables different stakeholder groups to communicate their concerns, coordinate their activities and cooperate on priorities along the lines of mutually-intelligible goals and indicators. Through its high-level dialogues, PRPI seeks to encourage the entire gamut of Arctic stakeholders globally to integrate more effectively within their Arctic discourse, decisions and agenda a commitment to the SDGs, whereby climate security remains an integral and indispensable goal, but without an accompanying neglect of issues such as energy, food and water security, as well as access to education, employment, housing, healthcare, transport, telecommunication and infrastructure.

Each high-level dialogue brings together key policymakers, academics, industry executives, civil society leaders and community representatives to identify the needs, opportunities and challenges in a particular focus area in line with the SDGs.

Thus far, PRPI has convened high-level dialogues in Iceland (October 2017), Finland (November 2017), Canada (December 2017), Australia (January 2018), UK (February 2018), US - Boston (March 2018), US - Seattle (April 2018), Norway (April 2018), Faroe Islands (May 2018), India (June 2018) and Denmark (November 2018), as well as stakeholder briefings in Hawaii (August 2018), Alaska (September 2018) and Finland (October 2018).

The dialogues comprise the single largest and most influential project to date on how the world imagines, understands and engages with the Arctic. Each dialogue brings together the world’s leading decision makers and experts to identify the needs, opportunities and challenges in a particular focus area (whether Arctic tourism, transportation or telecommunications) in line with the SDGs, and to explore what role the different sets of stakeholders might play. The discussions in each session are either transcribed or summarised and published as proceedings thereafter. As a result of the dialogues and the wider movement they triggered, the SDGs now form the dominant framework for Arctic engagement by all regional stakeholders.

Each dialogue brought together stakeholders from various sectors and nations, and always involved the participation of government and non-government institutions in the host country. The overall cost of each dialogue was split between organisations that came on board also as co-hosts, though the venue and direct event costs were provided by the host institution or government. This combination allowed for multi-stakeholder co-ownership and collaboration in the project, while also making it feasible and easily replicable for different national contexts.

Moreover, by ensuring we hosted a dialogue or two every month, we were able to sustain interest in and engagement with the topic over a longer period of time than might have been possible with just a single high-level conference. The sustained efforts meant that the project would not end without the SDGs being adopted as a priority by almost every Arctic state. That being said, Finland and Denmark both hosted two high-level conferences on 'SDGs in the Arctic' in Rovaniemi (November 2017) and Copenhagen (December 2017), in both of which we participated, and which provided a boost also to the multi-stakeholder dialogues. The combination of government-organised high-level conferences and NGO-led, government-supported multi-stakeholder dialogues proved to be most effective and indeed an excellent example of the multi-track diplomacy advocated by the project since its inception.

The format of the dialogues proved really effective, and, as each dialogue focused on 1-2 SDGs and generally built on the previous dialogues, it avoided duplication of discussion, while helping the stakeholders gathered to advance a meaningful discussion about how the SDGs might be realised. The multi-stakeholder support also made the dialogues feasible and easily replicable for different national or regional contexts.

What the dialogues have established thus far are how the 17 SDGs provide for a timely and necessary re-articulation of global discourses on the Arctic by advancing a unifying, overarching and mutually intelligible framework into which the human, environmental, and economic dimensions in the Arctic can be integrated, with their complementarity, connectedness, and comprehensiveness duly acknowledged. By enabling a move away from the false dichotomies and unhelpful polarisations that recur in prevalent Arctic discourse and providing a valuable shared vocabulary, they also free different stakeholder groups to move forward in communicating their concerns, coordinating their activities and cooperating on priorities along the lines of shared and mutually-intelligible goals and indicators—when beneficial, through multi-level, multi-stakeholder partnerships. The 2030 Agenda allows stakeholders to have universal, defined and measurable goals that, moreover, are interrelated, interdependent and indivisible, and to hold people, governments and businesses accountable to those goals.

The Arctic Yearbook 2018: 'The Sustainable Development Goals & Student Entrepreneurship in the Arctic'
https://arcticyearbook.com/arctic-yearbook/2018/2018-scholarly-papers/276-the-sustainable-development-goals-student-entrepreneurship-in-the-arctic

2018 North Pacific Arctic Conference Proceedings (East-West Center and Korea Maritime Institute): https://www.eastwestcenter.org/system/tdf/private/2018arctic.pdf?file=1&type=node&id=37008

University of Tromso, Norway: Sustainable Arctic Tourism: How might Arctic Tourism tie in with the SDGS?
https://en.uit.no/tavla/artikkel/573336/sustainable_arctic_tourism_how_might_arctic_tour

University of Washington, US: Canadian Studies Center, Polar Research and Policy Initiative host high-level dialogue on Arctic Transportation
https://jsis.washington.edu/canada/news/canadian-studies-center-polar-research-policy-initiative-host-high-level-dialogue-arctic-transportation/

University College London, UK: Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Arctic: 5th High-Level Dialogue and Reception
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/global-governance/events/2018/feb/sustainable-development-goals-sdgs-arctic-5th-high-level-dialogue-and-reception

Trent University, Canada: Sustainable Development Goals in the Arctic
https://www.trentu.ca/about/news-events/19949

Fletcher School, Tufts University, US: Fletcher Arctic VII Conference speaks about science diplomacy, sustainability
https://tuftsdaily.com/news/2018/03/12/fletcher-arctic-vii-conference-speaks-science-diplomacy-sustainability/

Nordregio, Nordic Council of Ministers: Nordregio joins 8th High-Level Dialogue in Tromsø
http://www.nordregio.org/events/nordregio-joins-8th-high-level-dialogue-in-tromso/

Danish Agency for Higher Education, Denmark, and UArctic: Sustainable Tourism Development in the Nordic Arctic Project
https://research.uarctic.org/news/2018/12/sustainable-tourism-development-in-the-nordic-arctic-project/

Australian Institute of International Affairs, Canberra, Australia: Sustainable Development Goals in the Arctic Roundtable
http://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/news-item/sdgs-arctic/

Arctic Circle Assembly, Iceland: Proceedings of 'SDGs in the Arctic' High-Level Dialogue Series, Session I: Arctic Circle Assembly 2017, Iceland
http://www.arcticcircle.org/assemblies/2015/breakout-sessions/session/sustainable-development-goals-sdgs-and-the-arctic
http://polarconnection.org/session-1-sdgs-arctic/

Lapland University of Applied Sciences, Finland: Proceedings of ‘SDGs in the Arctic’ High-Level Dialogue Series, Session II: Arctic Spirit Conference 2017, Finland
http://polarconnection.org/sdgs-arctic-finland/