Scotland’s Budget and the Sustainable Development Goals

This is the final blog in our Budget 2025-26 series by Dr Alison Hosie, Research Officer at the Scottish Human Rights Commission.

The context of this blog is shaped by ongoing discussions about a potential overhaul of the National Performance Framework (NPF). This could create opportunities to better align Scotland’s budget and performance framework with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) enhancing transparency and accountability in delivering both domestic and global goals.

Scotland’s SDG Promise: Is the Budget Delivering?

In 2015, Scotland pledged its commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), integrating them into domestic priorities through frameworks like the National Performance Framework (NPF). The reflects this ambition, addressing issues like poverty, health equity, and renewable energy. Yet, while overlaps with SDG objectives are evident, the Equality and Fairer Scotland Budget StatementEFSBS) often fails to explicitly map budget decisions to specific SDG targets, leaving gaps in transparency and accountability.

Possible NPF reform could bolster Scotland’s ability to explicitly link its budgetary decisions with SDG targets. By embedding these connections, the NPF could serve as a bridge, ensuring that Scotland’s commitments to the SDGs are fully reflected in its domestic policies and international leadership.

Where the EFSBS Shows Promise

Some budget allocations align directly with the SDGs. The Scottish Child Payment supports Goal 1 (No Poverty) and Goal 10 (Reduced Inequalities), while renewable energy and transport investments align with Goals 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and 13 (Climate Action). International contributions through the International Development Fund address global challenges under Goals 1 and 2 (Zero Hunger).

However, the EFSBS misses an opportunity to explicitly connect these investments to the SDG framework, limiting Scotland’s ability to demonstrate leadership on the global stage. A reformed NPF could enhance this alignment, ensuring that Scotland not only meets its SDG commitments but sets an example for integrating global goals into national budgets.

But Does It Deliver?

Familiar criticisms from earlier analyses of human rights and the NPF resurface here. The EFSBS mentions critical issues but often lacks measurable indicators to assess progress:

• No Explicit SDG Framework: Links to specific SDG targets are rarely articulated, even for areas like health (Goal 3) or education (Goal 4).
• Leaving No One Behind: The EFSBS does not evaluate how budget measures address disparities for marginalised groups.
• Environmental Gaps: While Scotland has made progress in renewable energy, the EFSBS does not detail its contributions to Goals 14 (Life Below Water) or 15 (Life on Land).
• Weak Global Focus: The EFSBS offers little detail on how international contributions align with Goal 17 (Partnerships for the Goals).

A potential overhaul of the NPF could address many of these gaps by providing a stronger, clearer framework for linking budgetary decisions to SDG progress and establishing a robust mechanism for tracking and reporting outcomes.

What Needs to Change

To strengthen its SDG leadership, Scotland must:

• Explicitly Map Spending: Link budget decisions to specific SDG targets and create a clear narrative of Scotland’s contributions.
• Adopt Outcome-Based Reporting: Use SDG indicators to measure the impact of public spending.
• Deepen Intersectional Analysis: Apply the SDG principle of “leaving no one behind” to evaluate the impact of budget measures on disadvantaged groups.
• Break Down Silos: Show how interconnected spending areas—like housing, health, and transport—advance multiple SDGs simultaneously.
• Expand Global Focus: Provide greater transparency on Scotland’s international contributions to SDG targets.

Embedding these changes into both the EFSBS and a reformed NPF would help Scotland transform its budget into a model for SDG-aligned governance.

Walking the Talk on the SDGs

Scotland has the tools and ambition to lead on the SDGs, but ambition alone is not enough, it must translate into action. By explicitly connecting the EFSBS to the SDGs, Scotland can transform its budget into a roadmap for a fairer, greener future, ensuring no one—domestically or globally—is left behind.

The SDGs are more than global goals; they are a universal call to action. For Scotland, answering that call means embedding the SDGs into every corner of its budget. The EFSBS has the potential to lead this charge. Coupled with a reimagined NPF, Scotland has a unique chance to align its domestic and international aspirations with global benchmarks. The question is: will it?

This is the fifth and final blog in our series called 'Rights at the Heart of Scotland’s Budget?' that explores the the Equality Fairer Scotland Budget Statement (EFSBS) through the lens of the National Performance Framework. Blogs 3 and 5 use the lenses of Human Rights and the Sustainable Development Goals. The series will finish with summary human rights review of each budget portfolio.

Find out more about Human Rights Budgeting on the dedicated page on our website.