The sustainable development goals as a challenge and solution? Closing coordination gaps in three Argentine provinces

The paper explores virtues of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and some of the challenges faced by public administrations when they relate to them. It highlights that the SDGs offer guidance and horizons for public action, which challenges public administrations to close capacity gaps in coordination and articulation in order to achieve them. Without generalizing, the evidence gathered in three Argentine provinces suggests that the SDGs trigger and/or catalyze underlying processes of strengthening public planning, identifying the public value added by provincial administrations and, particularly, closing capacity gaps that allow strategically addressing the usual fragmented and sectoral functioning of public administrations.