The Southern origins of sustainable development goals: Ideas, actors, aspirations

•The agency of Southern actors in global norm making was evident in the creation of the SDGs.•Ideas and actors from the South played a central role in the emergence of sustainable development concept in the 1970s and 80s.•Entrepreneurship of the South originated and promoted the idea of SDGs as distinct from continuing the MDG framework for development.•Three examples from SDG negotiations illustrate how ideas rooted in theories and realities of the South influenced the formulation of the SDGs.•Norms of international development are not static but dynamic, where mainstream norms are constantly being challenged.