Adapting the Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda to the city level: Initial reflections from a comparative research project

Valencia, S. C., Simon, D., Croese, S., Nordqvist, J., Oloko, M., Sharma, T., … Versace, I. (2019). Adapting the Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda to the city level: Initial reflections from a comparative research project. International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development, 1–20. doi:10.1080/19463138.2019.1573172

Platform
Global
Publication type
Scientific article (peer-reviewed)
Projects
Implementing the New Urban Agenda and The Sustainable Development Goals: Comparative Urban Perspectives
DOI Title
Adapting the Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda to the city level: Initial reflections from a comparative research project
Journal
International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development
ISSN/ISBN
1946-3138 1946-3146
DOI
10.1080/19463138.2019.1573172
Author(s)
Sandra C. Valencia David Simon Sylvia Croese Joakim Nordqvist Michael Oloko Tarun Sharma Nick Taylor Buck Ileana Versace
Published year
Subject
Geography, Planning and Development Development Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law Urban Studies
Tags
Sustainable Development Goals New Urban Agenda cities Transdisciplinary research knowledge co-production Urban SDG SDGs SDG 11 Urban rights

 

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda recognise the role of cities in achieving sustainable development. However, these agendas were agreed and signed by national governments and thus implementing them at the local level requires a process of adaptation or localisation. In this paper, we analyse five aspects that practitioners and researchers need to consider when localising them: (1) delimitation of the urban boundary; (2) integrated governance; (3) actors; (4) synergies and trade-offs and (5) indicators. These considerations are interrelated, and while not exhaustive, provide an important initial step for reflection on the challenges and opportunities of working with these global agendas at the local level. The paper draws on the inception phase of an international comparative transdisciplinary research project in seven cities on four continents: Buenos Aires (Argentina), Cape Town (South Africa), Gothenburg (Sweden), Kisumu (Kenya), Malmö (Sweden), Sheffield (UK) and Shimla (India).

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