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

Valencia, Sandra; Simon, David; Croese, Sylvia; Nordqvist, Joakim; Oloko, Michael; Sharma, Tarun; Buck, Nick Taylor; Versace, Ileana

doi:10.1080/19463138.2019.1573172

Cited by 230 publications

(163 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…In doing so, the resilience strategies that have been produced through these assessments represent a potentially useful tool in implementing multiple development agendas that have resilience at their core while building coherence among these different agendas by integrating and institutionalizing resilience in wider city planning and practice. This is important because, while cities are acknowledged as crucial actors in the implementation of global development goals and agendas, most of them have been designed by and for national governments, posing a range of challenges for their planning, monitoring, and implementation at the local level [9,10]. Their implementation therefore requires a process of "localization" or the process of adapting, implementing, and monitoring SDGs at the local level [11,12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Localizing the Sustainable Development Goals Through the Lens of Urban Resilience: Lessons and Learnings from 100 Resilient Cities and Cape Town

2020

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Urban resilience is increasingly seen as essential to managing the risks and challenges arising in a globally changing, connected, and urbanized world. Hence, cities are central to achieving a range of global development policy commitments adopted over the past few years, ranging from the Paris Climate Agreement to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, knowledge of the ways in which cities are going about implementing resilience or of how such efforts can practically contribute to the implementation of global agendas is still limited. This paper discusses the experience of cities that were members of the 100 Resilient Cities (100RC) network, an entity pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation. It reviews the resilience strategies developed by 100RC members to show that 100RC cities are increasingly aligning their resilience work to global development policies such as the SDGs. It then draws on the case of the city of Cape Town in South Africa to illustrate the process of developing a resilience strategy through 100RC tools and methodologies including the City Resilience Framework (CRF) and City Resilience Index (CRI) and its alignment to the SDGs and reflects on lessons and learnings of Cape Town’s experience for the global city network-policy nexus post-2015.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Localizing the Sustainable Development Goals Through the Lens of Urban Resilience: Lessons and Learnings from 100 Resilient Cities and Cape Town

2020

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“…That said, the adaptation of the SDGs to the urban context will require the participation of relevant stakeholders from multiple sectors [57]. The implementation of the SDGs in cities may highlight synergistic relationships among the goals that could provide efficient policy pathways towards the achievement of the SDGs in the urban context [58]. The relationship between household size and food security in this study suggests that food insecurity increases at an increasing rate for each additional household member.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Linking the Sustainable Development Goals through an Investigation of Urban Household Food Security in Southern Africa

Sgro¹,

Frayne²,

McCordic³

2019

J Sustain Res

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Background: It has been theorised that there are a network of relationships linking the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), whereby achieving one SDG may have spillover effects for other SDGs. This discussion is relevant to the multidimensional stressors experienced by poor urban households in Sub-Saharan Africa. Methods: We evaluate whether variations in the gender of a household head (SDG 5), education level of a household head (SDG 4) or household wages (SDG 8) are predictive of household food security (SDG 2) among over 6000 poor urban households surveyed in eleven cities in Southern Africa. These comparisons are made using regression analysis and machine learning techniques while controlling for, and comparing against, the contribution of household size, the age of the household head, and the number of household dependents to household food security prediction. Results: Of the variables investigated, our study finds that household wages and the education level of the household head are important predictors of food security among the surveyed households. This investigation also identifies a potentially indirect relationship between the gender of the household head and household food security when other variables are controlled. Conclusions: These findings suggest a predictive relationship between SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) while highlighting a curious indirect relationship between SDG 5 (Gender Equality) and SDG 2 among poor urban households in Southern Africa. By understanding these relationships, it may be possible to chart efficient policy pathways towards SDG achievement in Southern African cities.

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“…As we argue by presenting our coded database of official UN texts, we should not underplay the extensive advocacy, hallway diplomacy and non‐governmental efforts that have gone into making the global ‘case’ for cities concrete in major UN frameworks like the Paris Agreement. Yet often the resulting multilateral documents, such the New Urban Agenda (NUA) or even the SDGs, have been criticised by many due to their attempts to clarify the normative and operational goals that had been left unspecified in the SDGs (Garschagen et al, ; Parnell, ; Valencia et al, ). Numerous commentaries point already at key challenges to the implementation of the urban dimension of the SDGs and even more so of the NUA, flagging shortcomings in the use and availability of indicators and timings for the evaluation process, limits in funding and many unanswered questions as to the role of cities in UN programmes (Barnett and Parnell, ; Caprotti et al, ; Klopp and Petretta, ; Acuto et al, ).…”

Section: Cities and The United Nationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acknowledging Urbanization: A Survey of the Role of Cities in UN Frameworks

2020

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Cities are playing an increasingly vital role in global sustainability. Yet there is still little systematic and international evidence on the recognition and formal role of cities in multilateral affairs. Where and how are cities acknowledged as part of global efforts? How do the United Nations frame this 'urban' contribution to major international processes and agendas? To offer some initial evidence-based pointers to this set of problems, we present an analysis of explicit references to cities in major UN frameworks (n = 32) underpinning the current Agenda 2030 on sustainable development. We investigate how cities are cited to determine the role, key themes and contextual trends framing the engagement between United Nations and cities. Contra arguments for the uniqueness of the current 'rise' of mayors, our review demonstrates a weak rise in the recognition of cities over time in UN frameworks and shows historical continuity in this acknowledgement since the 1970s. Our review confirms that two prevailing themes determining this are those of 'development' and the 'environment' but other issues (like 'infrastructure' and 'health') are following closely behind. It also highlights acknowledgment of cities as 'actors' is on the rise since the 2000s and raises fundamental questions as to the status of cities internationally. We argue it becomes imperative to more systematically and strategically think of the role of cities in the UN system, but also flag that raises fundamental challenges for multilateral governance. Policy Implications• Diplomats need to speak of and to cities more regularly: rather than a 'novelty', cities have been repeatedly called upon by the United Nations over the last 50 years, with a growing formalised recognition as international 'actors'.• When establishing 'cities'-oriented projects and programmes, UN agencies and diplomats need to engage with a vast and already existing variety 'urban' recognitions, accounting for at least 1,246 acknowledgments in 32 UN frameworks since 1972.

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

Cited by 230 publications

References 49 publications

Localizing the Sustainable Development Goals Through the Lens of Urban Resilience: Lessons and Learnings from 100 Resilient Cities and Cape Town

Localizing the Sustainable Development Goals Through the Lens of Urban Resilience: Lessons and Learnings from 100 Resilient Cities and Cape Town

Linking the Sustainable Development Goals through an Investigation of Urban Household Food Security in Southern Africa

Acknowledging Urbanization: A Survey of the Role of Cities in UN Frameworks

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