Comparative study of sustainable development planning in Southeast Asia countries

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have become applicable since January 2016 and is expected to be fully implemented in 2030. This article examines how Indonesia, Malaysia, and Negara Brunei Darussalam (NBD) as three Muslim countries in Southeast Asia with different economic, social, and political conditions commit to respond to the SDGs. The study used content analysis method to analyze the long and medium-term development plan documents in three stages. The researchers interviewed the planners to get an overview of the process of achieving the SDGs. The results of this study showed that the three countries have their own specific institutional agencies that undertook similar steps in achieving the goals, i.e. aligning the existing plan documents with SDGs, examining the indicator and data availability for monitoring and evaluation, establishing communication, and building the capacity with all stakeholders. The three countries have already internalized the SDGs in their planning development. However, when it comes to SDGS targets and indicators, Malaysia and NBD have a lower score than Indonesia because as a country with a lower level of development, Indonesia has more desired outcomes with quantitatively explicit and specific indicators. © 2020 WITPress. All rights reserved.