“Sustainable Development: Trends, Challenges and Future Directions”
Overview:
As indicated within UN progress report 2024, only 17% SDGs actions are on target, 18% moderate progress 30% marginal progress whereas yet 35% are considered stagnation and regression. There is an increasing pressure on countries, government and non-government organizations to adopt sustainable practices that maintains a green and friendly environment as well as support societal impact and providing education quality leading to decent growth and health well-being. At regulatory level, organizations policies and procedures need to be revisited to guide the implementation of sustainable practices with considering environmental and ethical standards. However, such revisions also required in some cases governmental enforcement and regulatory standards, it also requires various stakeholder awareness and engagement at multiple levels. Sustainability requires advancement of technology and digital transformation; in undeveloped countries this is a global challenge that requires immediate attention. There is much variance in the capacity and capabilities of organizations considering the context in implementing sustainability practices. These challenges are global, complex and multifaceted, requiring strategic and innovative approaches for effective management.
Five years remaining to the UNSDGs commitment, yet there is more than 35% SDGs progress is considered stagnation and regression. Despite the efforts by different countries, regions in committing to UNSDGs yet some SDGs are still requiring a high attention. SDG 1, 6, 13 and 16 does not indicate any good progress target. There are different factors that have a major impact on the implementation of sustainability actions, including financial and economic implications, the need of digital infrastructure, cultural considerations and ethical standards and environmental etc. United Nations conducted different initiatives to extend the awareness for the need for sustainability actions including establishing voluntary reporting platforms to share commitment and actions annual events and reporting, establishment of platforms etc. Despite all the efforts made, yet there are multiple factors that impacts the achievements of UN commitments, specifically in some regions and context, the questions that are yet to be questioned some goals are they attainable at all? The special issue to open to allow sharing practices from different countries and societal impact, it is expected to gain insight on how societies were impacted negatively or positively in committing certain SDGs and what are the main challenges that could be resolved at national and global level. This special issue is designated to UNSDGs and hence all the articles should be directed towards all UNSDG17.
Research Topics:
- Challenges and future trends of sustainable education
- Ethical considerations for digital transformation for organizations
- Addressing socio-economic gaps in future professionals from a holistic perspective, including the concept of the circular economy as a pathway to achieve SDGs
- Utilization of Artificial Intelligence in addressing Sustainable Development issues
- Sustainable leadership and governance practices for organizations
- Measures for Sustainable Development
- Performance Measurements for assessing SDGs Impact
- Business Sustainability and Innovative Performance
Journal Information: Scopus Journal Q2, H-Index 12
Guest Editors:
- Dr. Esra AlDhaen
Associate Professor
Executive Director Strategy, Quality and Sustainability
Ahlia University, Kingdom of Bahrain - Professor Zahir Irani
United Kingdom - Professor Vishanth Weerakkody
Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Global Engagement and Partnerships
University of Bradford, UK
Important Dates:
- Open for full paper submission: May 1, 2025
- Full paper submission deadline: May 31, 2026
For more details refer here
