The SDGs followed from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which had been adopted in 2000. The SDGs link the social objectives of the MDGs with the sustainability goals of the UN environmental and climate conferences (Copenhagen 2009, Rio+20 2012) and the climate agreement, which was adopted at the climate conference in Paris in December 2015 (Paris Declaration) and commits governments around the world to reducing global heating.

An innovative feature of the SDGs is the universality of the goals. This means that the goals apply to all countries - including industrialised ones. As a result, issues related to the social, economic and ecological development of the entire world, with all their interdependencies, take centre stage. Development co-operation is now just one of several policy areas with which global sustainable development is to be achieved.

OeFSE follows the international discourse surrounding the 2030-Agenda and also supports the Austrian discourse through publications, events and workshops. In this way, we contribute to the implementation of the 2030-Agenda within the scope of our possibilities as a research institution. In addition to the general discussion, we also analyse specific topics (e.g. development finance or global education) in the context of the 2030-Agenda. OeFSE is a member of UniNEtZ, an association of academic organisations and institutions of education in Austria supporting the implementation of the SDGs.