As the 2030 deadline to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) fast approaches, the world finds itself at a critical crossroads. The 2023 mid-term SDGs review was a clarion call for urgent, accelerated action to meet the 2030 deadline, given that only a small percentage of the targets are on track to being fulfilled.

Yet, within this challenge lies an unprecedented opportunity — not just to fulfil the SDGs but to set our sights even higher in how we will approach global development after 2030. It is in recognition of this pivotal moment that Reliance Foundation and Observer Research Foundation, in collaboration with UN India, conceived this publication - The Next Frontier: Charting the Contours of the Post-2030 Development Agenda.

This volume builds on the momentum generated by our previous publication, Ideas, Innovation, Implementation: India’s Journey Towards the SDGs — highlighting lighthouse lessons from India’s pioneering development efforts — and expands the conversation to confront what lies ahead.

The Next Frontier: Charting the Contours of the Post-2030 Development Agenda explores the strategies, innovations, and leadership required to forge a new global development agenda beyond 2030. The task calls for renewed ambition and innovative thinking from India and around the world. This publication comprises twenty-seven essays authored by a range of authors from the development, philanthropy, and think tank sectors, as well as policymakers and other thought leaders, carrying voices from both the Global North and the Global South.

This volume not only underlines the challenges that confront us but illuminates the pathways that can lead to a more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable world. To this end, the essays selected for this publication are organised around three themes: Inclusive Transformations, Resilient Progress, and Sustainable Evolutions.