Accountability in International Governance and the 2030 Development Agenda

After revisiting the concept of accountability in national governance, this paper analyzes the challenges of its application to international governance, including an assessment of some of the modalities it has assumed. It then proposes a bottom-up multilayered and multistakeholder accountability framework for the 2030 Development Agenda: national follow-up processes at the base of the pyramid, consultations and possibly peer reviews at the regional level, a global accountability system led by the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) and supported by the ECOSOC system, United Nations and other international organizations, and active participation by civil society and the private sector with their own accountability frameworks in place.