New Guide to help Local Authorities deliver the UN Sustainable Development Goals (#SDGs)

The Local Government Association (LGA) in collaboration with the UK Stakeholders for Sustainable Development (UKSSD) have recently launched a Guide to help local authorities engage with the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals at a time when many are starting to re-think the role of local government in leading places and empowering people.

Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, sets out 17 sustainable development goals (#SDGs) and 169 associated targets. It was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015 and came into force on 1 January 2016. A few months later, in October 2016, the New Urban Agenda (NUA) – a roadmap to support countries achieve the SDGs – was unanimously adopted at the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Development (Habitat III).

As I pointed out in a recent blog for the Royal Town Planning Institute, many countries, regions and cities are looking at how SDGs can be implemented both nationally and locally. However, five years on, implementation in the UK has been patchy. This is evident from the recent Voluntary National Review  of progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals produced by the UK Government (June 2019). This new guide therefore, is a most welcome publication.

This joint guide produced by the LGA and UKSSD reinforces the need for coherent decision-making between all levels of government at a time of growing consensus regarding the importance of an economically and environmentally sustainable recovery.

The guide provides examples of where local authorities that have been working towards achieving the SDGs. For example, these include:

• Newcastle City Council made a political commitment to mainstream the SDGs in its policies, activity and programmes in 2019. Working closely with SDG experts at University of Newcastle, it is now embedding the SDGs in the work of the City to shape the it’s renewal following the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Bristol City Council, in partnership with the University of Bristol, launched the UK’s first Voluntary Local Review of progress with SDGs in 2019 and has embedded the Goals in its One City Plan to work with stakeholders across the city towards a more coherent plan for the future. A follow-up handbook for use by other cities wanting to undertake similar local voluntary reviews has also been produced.
• Liverpool City Council’s forthcoming City Plan contains a clear commitment to the SDGs from all partner organisations. The council has worked with the 2030hub in Liverpool to inform the selection of aims, priorities and metrics for the City Plan.

Despite facing enormous pressures and sustained funding cuts, LGA members continue to look at how they can work closely with the Government to achieve its aspirations, including the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. However, in the absence of a clear and coherent approach nationally it is likely that local authorities (and the planners working in them) will continue to take the lead in delivering the UN SDGs and realising the goal of Sustainable Development.