Scotland’s new Programme for Government (PfG) is different from those we have seen in recent years. Rather than setting out priorities for a single year, it establishes the Government’s programme for the full parliamentary term, from 2026 to 2031.
For those of us working on sustainable development, there is much to welcome. Its four central priorities, eradicating child poverty, growing the economy, tackling the climate emergency, and delivering a stronger NHS and public services, have clear connections to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Across the PfG, those connections extend much further.
Commitments on child poverty, social security and food affordability speak directly to SDGs 1 and 2. Investment in health, education and skills connects to SDGs 3 and 4. Fair work, the Living Wage and a just transition align with SDG 8, while housing, homelessness, transport and community empowerment relate to SDG 11. Commitments on climate, renewable energy, biodiversity and nature restoration speak to SDGs 7, 13, 14 and 15.
Importantly, many of these commitments are not presented in isolation. The PfG recognises connections between poverty, health, housing, employment, inequality and the environment. That matters. At the heart of the SDGs is the recognition that sustainable development cannot be achieved by tackling social, economic and environmental challenges separately.
There are particularly welcome commitments on equality and human rights. The prominence given to violence against women and girls (VAWG) is significant, including recognition that ending VAWG requires action on women’s wider inequality. Commitments on prevention, specialist services, domestic abuse and misogyny have relevance not only to SDG 5 on gender equality, but also to poverty, health, education, decent work and access to justice. This is particularly welcome given concerns the SDG Network has previously raised about the limited visibility of VAWG within Scotland’s National Performance Framework.
The wider rights commitments are also important. The PfG addresses children’s rights, disability and racial equality, LGBTQI+ equality, refugees and asylum seekers, access to justice and community cohesion. It also commits to a new Human Rights Bill, aiming for introduction in Year 2 of this Parliament. International commitments on development funding, humanitarian assistance and climate justice further reflect the global dimensions of sustainable development.
Taken together, there is a strong substantive connection between the PfG and the ambitions of the SDGs. Yet two important frameworks are conspicuous by their absence: neither the SDGs nor Scotland’s National Performance Framework (NPF) are explicitly referenced in the Programme for Government.
This matters because the NPF is intended to provide Scotland’s overarching vision of national progress, with National Outcomes aligned to the SDGs. There have also been welcome developments in its reform. Following concerns that the existing Human Rights Outcome would be removed, the Scottish Government has now proposed a new Fair outcome, committing Scotland to a fair and equitable national and global society, free from discrimination, where human rights are respected, protected and fulfilled. This is a positive change of direction, but it also highlights a wider problem. We now have a five-year programme setting out what the Government intends to do, alongside a revised national framework setting out the outcomes Scotland wants to achieve, without a clear explanation of how the two connect.
The SDGs themselves are more than a list of 17 desirable policy outcomes. Agreed by every UN Member State in 2015, they represent a shared recognition that poverty, inequality, human rights, environmental protection and peaceful, inclusive societies are interconnected responsibilities. Their importance is both domestic and global. The principle of Leave No One Behind asks not only whether progress is being made, but who benefits and who remains excluded. The universality of the Goals also reminds us that Scotland’s responsibilities extend beyond its borders, including the impacts of its decisions on people and environments elsewhere. This is particularly relevant to the timeframe of the PfG. The SDGs run to 2030, while the PfG extends to 2031. Scotland’s programme therefore covers the crucial final years of the 2030 Agenda and the transition to whatever international framework succeeds it.
That raises important questions. How will Scotland use these remaining years to accelerate progress towards the SDGs? How will we assess whether improvements are reaching those most at risk of being left behind? And how will Scotland’s domestic priorities and human rights commitments connect to the international agenda beyond 2030?
The revised NPF could provide the answer to much of this. Its National Outcomes should provide the long-term direction against which government policies are developed, budgets allocated and progress assessed. The new Fair outcome is encouraging, but its real significance will depend on whether those commitments influence decisions and improve people’s lives. This is not simply about aligning documents or adding references to international frameworks. It is about making the connection between policy intentions, public spending and the outcomes Scotland has committed to achieving. A stronger NPF could help ensure that the PfG’s commitments are assessed not only against what government delivers, but against whether they contribute to equitable, inclusive and sustainable progress.
There is therefore something paradoxical about this Programme for Government. In many respects, it reflects the ambition of the SDGs, recognising the connections between economic, social and environmental wellbeing. Yet neither the international framework that brings those ambitions together nor Scotland’s own framework for measuring national progress is explicitly acknowledged.
As Scotland approaches 2030, the challenge is to turn that shared ambition into coherent action and accountability. The revised NPF offers an opportunity to connect what government intends to do with the outcomes it wants to achieve, while ensuring Scotland contributes meaningfully to the global effort to deliver the SDGs and shape what comes next.