This open access handbook analyses the role of development cooperation in achieving the 2030 Agenda in a global context of ‘contested cooperation’. Development actors, including governments providing aid or South-South Cooperation, developing countries, and non-governmental actors (civil society, philanthropy, and businesses) constantly challenge underlying narratives and norms of development. The book explores how reconciling these differences fosters achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Global policy frameworks such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) require collective action across national, regional, and global levels and different policy areas.
At a time when multilateralism is increasingly being contested, it is crucial to develop constructive ways for intensifying cooperation across these levels to achieve the 2030 Agenda. In order to identify improved governance structures
for SDG cooperation, our handbook contributes to a better understanding of contested narratives, norms, and institutions.

The authors pleased to present this handbook—a collaborative effort of international researchers and practitioners across disciplines. The book features chapters that provide unique perspectives on the conceptual and practical challenges for achieving the SDGs. The findings are most relevant to the policy field of development cooperation, but they also address broader questions currently being discussed in global governance research. The chapters in this
book examine different forms of cooperation and contestation but also exemplify that contestation does not necessarily result in gridlock. In line with the current debates on the 2030 Agenda, our authors were invited to present a diversity of perspectives, including critical views and disagreements. We believe that a key contribution of this handbook is to present different perspectives on how to govern the implementation of the SDGs. As a result, this handbook
will hopefully advance discussions among both practitioners and researchers and lead to new commonly shared ideas.

The 2030 Agenda is a universal agenda that needs to be translated for, and implemented in, heterogeneous contexts across the world. Given these pluralistic settings, contributors to this handbook apply varying perspectives as well as normative assumptions, depending on the contexts they are analysing.
Similarly, the chapters in this handbook are of different lengths to allow for a sound analysis of the different types of questions under investigation.
This diversity notwithstanding, the introductory chapter serves to identify common analytical foundations and puts forward overarching findings and lessons learnt.

Examples of how the SDG targets can be achieved through the implementation of activities spelt out in developing countries’ NDCs include: SDG 2 (zero hunger) through climateresilient agriculture; SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation) through ensuring water access and integrated water management, improvement of sewerage systems, and wastewater treatment; SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy) through the proliferation of renewable energy and energy-efficiency technologies; SDG 9 (industry, innovation, and infrastructure) through improvement in production processes and the development of low-emission infrastructure; and SDG 15 (life on land), which is addressed by more than 90 per cent of the NDCs from developing countries that indicate actions on forest and land management issues. The report also includes case studies of South-South and triangular cooperation from those areas that feature most prominently in developing countries’ NDCs, namely energy, land-use, transport, waste, agriculture, and water, showcasing how the achievement of specific SDGs is supported in each case.