An open-source framework of inner capacities, grouped under Being, Thinking, Relating, Collaborating and Acting, offered as the human counterpart to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Extended definition
The IDGs start from the observation that progress on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, adopted in 2015, has been slow, and propose that the missing ingredient is the inner capacity of the people doing the work. The first IDG report appeared in 2021 and set out 23 skills and qualities in five dimensions: Being (relationship to self), Thinking (cognitive skills), Relating (caring for others and the world), Collaborating (social skills) and Acting (driving change) [IC]. Among the initiating organizations were the Ekskäret Foundation, the 29k Foundation and The New Division, with academic partners including the Stockholm Resilience Centre and Lund University [IC]. The not-for-profit IDG Foundation is based in Stockholm. Its current Inner Development Guide, launched at the IDG Summit 2025, describes 25 capacities [TBV].
Tomas Björkman, who founded the Ekskäret Foundation in 2008 and chairs the IDG Foundation, is co-author with Lene Rachel Andersen of The Nordic Secret. The IDGs and the contemporary Bildung revival share that root [TBV].
Contrast with adjacent terms
- Bildung. The IDGs list capacities to develop. Bildung is the lifelong process of formation and the culture, institutions and places in which those capacities grow.
- Developmental stages. Stage models describe the order in which ways of making meaning appear. The IDGs describe skills that can be practiced at many stages.
Related terms
Sources
- Inner Development Goals Foundation. innerdevelopmentgoals.org
Provenance
Created 30 October 2026 with Bildung (concept), from the IDG Foundation’s published materials and public records. The 2025 capacity count and the Björkman link are tagged [TBV] pending a check against the Foundation’s own history page.