A scoping review of the sustainable development goals and indigenous peoples : direction for a post-2030 agenda

Abstract

In this paper, we present the results of a scoping literature review that was conducted to assess the ways in which the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are (mis)aligned with the needs, values, and rights of Indigenous peoples. Despite purported commitments to engage Indigenous peoples, those efforts proved ineffectual, resulting in the erasure of Indigenous cultures and dereliction of Indigenous rights. Yet the literature shows that Indigenous communities and organizations are mobilizing self-determined movements, empowered by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, that challenge the universality of the SDG framework. This includes developing their own goals and indicators to inform development priorities and to mitigate the detrimental governance effects of global goal setting. In developing these goals and indicators themselves, Indigenous peoples are challenging the normalizations of the SDGs by offering their own conceptions of sustainability and the cultural virtues that can inform self-determined forms of development.