Integrated policymaking: Institutional designs for implementing the sustainable development goals (SDGs)

•Societal engagement and vertical coordination across state levels are under-institutionalised in most countries’ SDG-implementation frameworks.•SDG implementation efforts are frequently headed by the top executive with a strong role for ministries of foreign affairs and the environment.•Higher socio-economic development positively impacts the adoption of more integrated institutional designs for SDG implementation.•This article's typology of integrated governance will help determine if new SDG institutions integrate sustainability policies or are in fact “potemkin villages.”•Development cooperation should foster the involvement of key line ministries in the national institutional design for SDG implementation.