In adopting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015, all UN Member States committed to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a spirit of global solidarity—within their own countries and at regional and global levels. This commitment respects national policies and priorities, and acknowledges differences in realities, capacities, and levels of development. As they embarked on this collective journey in 2015 to free people from the tyranny of poverty and to heal and secure our planet, they pledged that no one will be left behind. However, a decade later, progress is alarmingly off track: only 17% of SDG targets are on course, nearly half show minimal or moderate progress, and over a third have stalled or regressed. In March 2025, the United States even withdrew their commitment to the 2030 Agenda, placing the SDGs under increasing pressure.

Achieving a just and sustainable transition that prioritizes human rights and well-being within planetary boundaries requires concrete actions to remove barriers and accelerate progress, including by questioning the dominant growth-centric development model and traditional poverty reduction strategies. One critical, yet often overlooked, dimension is the cross-border impact (positive and negative) of national policies—known as spillover effects.  

Spillover effects encompass the unintended global consequences of a country’s consumption, production, trade, and financial patterns on other countries. Thereby, these spillover effects are closely tied to policy coherence, as the alignment—or lack thereof—between different national policies can either mitigate or exacerbate these unintended global consequences. Often, these effects disproportionately impact low-income countries, reinforcing inequalities and neocolonial structures of economic domination. Thus, spillover effects are not merely an externality of national policies; they are an intrinsic challenge to the idea of growth as traditionally understood: in a world interconnected through global trade, finance, and technology, spillover effects create both risks and opportunities that extend well beyond the national context. Therefore, spillover effects of internal policies must be recognized, and policymaking processes must be designed in such a way that the unintended consequences are considered and acted upon not only at national level (thereby enhancing policy coherence), but also across borders.  

The Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s (SDSN) Spillover Index highlights this disparity between low-, middle-, and high-income countries: while high-income countries lead the SDG rankings, they score poorly in the Spillover Index due to unsustainable practices, whereas many low- and middle-income countries, though ranked lower for SDG progress, perform better in spillovers. This reinforces the urgent need to decouple growth from its negative externalities, turning spillover effects into a tool for fostering more equitable and sustainable development across borders.

To truly advance sustainable development and eradicate poverty, we must shift the lens from growth to one that considers the broader impacts of our actions. It is imperative to address  negative spillovers (e.g., unsustainable financial practices, inequitable trade) and create positive spillover effects (e.g., spillover effects of green innovations in other technology areas, raised local standards to regional and global levels) ) by designing policies that actively avoid hindering the implementation of the 2030 Agenda in other countries—particularly in the Global South—and move toward a future where national progress strengthens global well-being, rather than global inequality.

This submission to the Call for Submission under the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights’ initiative, “A Roadmap for Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth” aims to propose concrete policy actions on spillover effects by establishing stronger regulatory frameworks to prevent such exploitative practices and by emphasizing the role of multilateral institutions in fostering global partnerships across the diversity of sectors responsible for and impacted by spillovers. The objective is to operationalize global solidarity and a whole-of-society approach, with a focus on engaging diverse stakeholders, particularly those most affected by and those causing spillover effects, to define, measure, and mitigate these impacts and ensuring that impacted countries are consulted before regulations are designed to prevent unintended harm and promote benefits.

It is important to recognize that spillover-discussions are not entirely new; various sectors (such as supply chains, biofuels, or hydrogen) have already begun incorporating spillover effects into their policies. However, these efforts often remain reactive, becoming central only once problems are glaringly visible. The challenge, then, is to address spillover effects systematically and proactively from the outset—designing policies that anticipate rather than merely respond to their unintended impacts. Importantly, this approach aligns with the systems-thinking embedded in the 2030 Agenda, emphasizing the interconnectedness of the SDGs and the importance of policy coherence. As we transition beyond traditional growth metrics, addressing spillover effects becomes essential to understanding the true cost and benefit of national policies on a global scale.

The urgency to address spillover effects is gaining traction. This proposal contributes to the Call for Submission “A Roadmap for Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth,” particularly under Policy Area 5 on trade, finance, debt, and global solidarity, and its ongoing dialogue, as the dominant metric for progress, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), does not even account for these externalities. By addressing spillover effects, we can begin to move beyond the narrow measure of growth and toward a model that prioritizes sustainable and equitable development for all.

As part of the UN Beyond Lab’s “Spillover Innovation” Learning Journey, supported by the German government, we look forward to contributing to the ongoing dialogue to refine the proposed measures. The “Spillover Innovation” Learning Journey aims to equip policymakers and stakeholders with the tools needed to integrate spillover-conscious strategies into sustainability agendas.  By embedding spillover effects into global governance systems, we can move toward a truly sustainable and equitable future, where national policies contribute to global well-being and poverty eradication beyond growth, rather than shifting burdens across borders.

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Short-term actions (2-3 years): establishing foundations for spillover-conscious policymaking

Objective: Engage and strengthen structured platforms for knowledge exchange, capacity-building, and innovation to address spillover effects in policymaking.

Policy actions:

− Foster inclusive communities of practice (CoP) focused on spillover effects, based on a whole-ofsociety approach, bringing together policymakers with diverse stakeholders from academia, civil society (incl. community-based organizations and indigenous populations), the private sector, and international organizations to facilitate expert-led peer learning sessions creating an environment for knowledge sharing and innovative cross-sectoral collaboration (beyond governments' official development assistance (ODA) to include private sector investments and foreign direct investments (FDI)).

− Develop context-specific strategies, as part of official and existing governance structures, tailored to the needs of low-, middle-, and high-income countries, and embedded into policymaking processes to mitigate negative spillovers and/or promote positive spillovers— particularly in low-income and lower-middle-income countries, including in the context of the humanitarian-development-peace (HDP) nexus.

− Establish working groups for policymakers, as part of their governance structures, from low-, middle-, and high-income countries to facilitate real-time exchange of best practices, emerging insights, and challenges experienced early in the implementation process.

− Systematically integrate spillover-conscious findings/assessments into national, regional, and global sustainability strategies and policymaking processes, from the outset, creating indicators to better acknowledge, measure, and address spillover effects, to ensure a systemic approach to spillover-conscious policymaking. This could be done as part of multi-stakeholder consultations to better understand and assess the spillover effects of different policies during the policymaking process.

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Medium-term actions (5 years): embedding spillover-conscious innovation into regulatory frameworks

Objective: Move from knowledge-sharing to policy integration, ensuring that spillover-sensitive strategies, in consultation with diverse and impacted stakeholders, become a core component of decision-making.

Policy actions:

− Institutionalize existing spillover-focused advisory bodies and other structures within local, national, and regional economic and finance as well as ministries such as economic cooperation ministries, ministries for foreign affairs or ministries of justice (to ensure policy coherence of policymaking processes) to provide guidance on sustainable policy choices and enhance policy coherence.

− Support cross-sectoral spillover innovation labs to experiment with new economic and sustainable development models that enhance positive spillovers while reducing negative externalities.

− Expand spillover-sensitive public-private partnerships to drive sustainability-oriented investments and corporate accountability in global value chains.

− Strengthen regional and global mechanisms for policy alignment, ensuring coordinated responses to spillover effects and strengthening global solidarity, facilitated by regional and global organizations.

− Engage with local and national exchange platforms to discuss policy integration challenges, implementation barriers, and community engagement to foster a whole-of-society approach.

− Establish spillover-sensitive policies at national and regional levels to promote a unified and comprehensive approach to addressing both negative and positive spillover effects in selected areas (such as supply chains).

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Long-term actions (10 years): institutionalizing spillover-sensitive decision-making at the global level

Objective: Ensure spillover considerations become a standard feature of (future) sustainability frameworks and policymaking processes.

Policy actions:

− Mandate spillover-conscious impact assessments for local, national, regional, and global policies.

− Encourage global policy observatories to track, evaluate, and share insights on spillover effects across different governance levels, enhancing transparency and accountability.

− Institutionalize spillover-sensitive sustainability frameworks within UN-led processes to ensure that policies account for their broader impacts.

− Scale spillover-sensitive governance models, embedding accountability mechanisms in multilateral agreements.

− Integrate spillover considerations into key megatrends across all policy areas, for example urban planning to accommodate shifting global population dynamics.

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In addition to addressing the cross-border impacts of national policies, there is an opportunity for innovation in how we approach spillover effects. The concept of spillover effects can extend beyond geographic borders—as temporal or generational consequences can also be explored, considering the impacts of current policies on future generations and their potential for long-term sustainable development. By encouraging innovation in policy design, we can envision a future where policies are not only reactive to the challenges of today, but are proactive in shaping a more equitable world for current and future generations. There is an opportunity for innovative ways to apply spillover considerations across different dimensions—such or temporal (across generations). As policies evolve, it is vital to think about unintended consequences not only in the present but also in how they will affect the global community in the future, including through technological innovations, shifts in labor markets, or new trade dynamics. Fostering a culture of innovation in spillover-conscious policymaking can drive new approaches to development, encourage creativity in the application of sustainability practices beyond growth, and open new pathways to poverty eradication through long-term global solidarity.