Advancing the governance of cross-sectoral policies for sustainable development: a metagovernance perspective

Sustainable Development (SD) and its pillars are well known, and the need for integrating the social, economic and environmental aspects in development is widely accepted. A topic currently gaining momentum is the improvement of the institutional framework, as called for through the ongoing global processes for SD. This study probes into three successful cases of solutions for SD that effectively used metagovernance elements, that is, integrating and fusing different modes of governance. Metagovernance elements in policy mixes bring together, through coordination, formal conventions and less formal agreements of what is acceptable and appropriate administratively and policy-wise, to solving complex issues in SD.