Organizational capabilities and the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals in Brazilian municipal governments

This research focuses on the theoretical framework of scale-free and non-scale-free capabilities to analyze the factors that influence the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the municipal level. Additionally, it examines the interaction between the education of public servants and scale-free capabilities to achieve the same objective. We test whether these resources and capabilities affect the achievement of Goals 3, 4, 6, 8, 13, and 16 in Brazilian municipalities based on a multivariate regression model. The study identifies fiscal management, size of bureaucracy, educated civil servants, and governance networks as the strongest predictors of scale-free capabilities affecting outcomes across all Goals. Regarding non-scale-free capabilities, sectoral planning is the most important predictor. Finally, the findings suggest that higher levels of education among servants reduce the need for larger municipal bureaucracies to achieve SDG outcomes. This research offers theoretical and analytical insights that can be replicated and adapted to other contexts.