Local 2030 - Localizing the SDGs

One year after the adoption of the 2030 Agenda, has the message reached the territories?

Moderated by Local2030, 30 October 2018 5

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In September 2015, world leaders from 193 countries adopted “Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.” The Agenda is offered as the new global framework to end poverty, promote prosperity and people’s well-being, and protect the environment. Through 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets, it defines an action plan for people, planet and prosperity, to be achieved by 2030.

The Agenda is the culmination of a global consultation process, which was carried out from 2012 to 2015, on the world that people want. Still, many are the challenges to ensure that everyone is on board and owns this agenda.

After one year since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, can we say that the message has reached the territories? Are local stakeholders - from local authorities to civil society, from the business sector to academia - well aware of the challenges and opportunities that the SDGs represent for all of us, and of the role they can play in the SDGs’ achievement?

Through this e-discussion, we invite you to share perspectives and experiences on raising awareness of the SDGs: the steps taken and difficulties encountered to facilitate a community buy-in and ownership of the agenda. Please share your territory’s experience in building the SDGs work, and reflect on the opportunities and restrictions of local stakeholders’ aptitude when integrating the SDGs into local development processes.

Photo Credit: UNDP Brazil

4 Responses Add Comment

Jan Goossenaerts, Malle Belgium ( 2950 Days Ago )

There certainly is more awareness than there has been before for "global development agendas", yet the ability to act is plagued by an information overload problem. People are flooded with information, yet the benefits they can receive from processing it and applying it to their own conditions, such benefits are hard to obtain. To remedy information flooding and to give information supply via social media and the internet more the characteristics of beneficial irrigation, that is the topic of my LinkedIn pulse post: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/wish-2016-collaboratively-scoping-information-coping-jan?trk=prof-post Behind the post there is a suit of "social media" tools which my small company Wikinetix has been creating over the past years. I would like to discuss adoption of these tools for the purpose of localizing the SDGs.

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Patrick Glenn, Birmingham United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland ( 2840 Days Ago )

Hi Jan, it's absolutely true that more united data sytemisation is vital to the progress of these goals. I elaborate on this point clearly in a Vlog entitled "Just How Fast Can the World Develop?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1Z-r6cC_ws

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JOSEPH BAZIBU , josephbazibu@gmail.com Uganda ( 2799 Days Ago )

Hello there... While Patrick Glenn & Jan talk about information overload, I will talk about no information at all. In Eastern Uganda where our organization works, almost all the people I have talked to do not have information about the 2030 Agenda. From local government employees to leaders in the CSO fraternity, to members of private sector, expressed lack of information & knowledge. But the good news is that those I talked with are willing to learn more about the 2030 Agenda. The challenge we have is limited capacity and knowledge on the 2030 Agenda. Many of the CSO leaders are self taught with regard to the 2030 Agenda. There is need for subsidised or free formal online trainings for CSOs involved in localizing to enable us to competently play our role. Joseph Bazibu(aeiou Foundation Uganda)

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Rafael Garcia Maties, valencia Spain ( 2750 Days Ago )

Para que el mensaje llegue a los territorios es necesario que llegue antes a las personas. Para ello el papel de las entidades locales, como administraciones más próximas a los ciudadanos, es esencial. La llegada de los ODS a los territorios a través de los entes subnacionales, hasta ahora es heterogénea. Los entes con mayor población y recursos y algunos mas innovadores conocen, están interiorizando e incluso planteando incluirlos en sus políticas cuando no los han incluido ya. En el resto, los avances son muy lentos, cuando se producen. A mi juicio hay algunas causas. La primera es que el hecho de que los ODS, constituyan metas a alcanzar interna y externamente, ha sorprendido a estos actores, porque lo que tradicionalmente se contenía en este tipo de declaraciones eran cuestiones de Solidaridad. Norte Sur. Nunca o en pocas ocasiones una declaración, unas recomendaciones, y unas metas, se proponían desde organizaciones internacionales a todos los actores, incluidos los entes locales. Ahora con esta doble aplicación, se ha podido producir una confusión, al apreciar que lo que antes eran acciones de Solidaridad ahora se solapan con las de actuación en el interior de las organizaciones. Otra cuestión importante es la sobrecarga de la agenda de los entes locales que, en general constituyen el banco de pruebas de cualquier innovación de la administración, lo que quizás ha provocado una perdida de interés hacia una nueva actividad. La tercera es la escasa cultura de la planificación y la evaluación en los entes locales menores. Y no es menor, el hecho de que los entes locales, con competencias que siempre exceden de sus recursos, ven ahora unas nuevas actividades para las que no tendrán, al menos inicialmente recursos adicionales, aunque es previsible que los futuros programas se orienten a los ODS. Sensibilizar a la población y formar a los responsables políticos y al personal de las entidades locales puede ser un magnifico instrumento

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