scholarly journals How far are the metropolitan areas in Brazil from achieving the sustainable development goals? An analysis based on SDG dashboards

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernanda Silva Martinelli ◽  
André Lindner
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Metropolitan Areas ◽  
National Level ◽  
Gender Inequalities ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Implementation Challenges ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
And Gender

AbstractCities comprise the major challenges for sustainable development and are key contributors to sustainability indicators in a country. However, research assessing sustainability performance often focuses on the national level, overlooking the role of urban areas. To evaluate the city performance toward a sustainable pathway, this paper proposes the sustainable development goals (SDGs) Dashboard for Brazilian Cities, with a comprehensive assessment of their specific challenges based on the SDG Index methodology (UNSDSN). The 19 country’s most populous metropolitan areas (MAs) were considered, which comprises 41% of the population. From 17 SDGs, this paper evaluates 8 of the 12 SDGs defined with a social and environmental profile, covering data from 34 indicators. Results show that all MAs have a long way to achieve most of the analyzed SDGs, especially regarding inequalities (income and gender). Inequalities of performance are also observed among the country into a clear north–south distinction, where the GDP richest regions perform better toward the SDGs. However, cities with a good performance in education (SDG 4) are less unequal (SDG 10), indicating interrelations between SDGs. Despite the inequalities, MAs are doing relatively well in reducing poverty (SDG 1) and providing water and sanitation (SDG 6). The SDG Dashboards for Brazilian Cities can be used as a framework for action and help urban leaders address implementation challenges across cities.

scholarly journals Defining and Quantifying National-Level Targets, Indicators and Benchmarks for Management of Natural Resources to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Dickens ◽  
Vladimir Smakhtin ◽  
Matthew McCartney ◽  
Gordon O’Brien ◽  
Lula Dahir
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
National Level ◽  
Resource Quality ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Country Level ◽  
2030 Agenda ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Global Indicators

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), are high on the agenda for most countries of the world. In its publication of the SDGs, the UN has provided the goals and target descriptions that, if implemented at a country level, would lead towards a sustainable future. The IAEG (InterAgency Expert Group of the SDGs) was tasked with disseminating indicators and methods to countries that can be used to gather data describing the global progress towards sustainability. However, 2030 Agenda leaves it to countries to adopt the targets with each government setting its own national targets guided by the global level of ambition but taking into account national circumstances. At present, guidance on how to go about this is scant but it is clear that the responsibility is with countries to implement and that it is actions at a country level that will determine the success of the SDGs. Reporting on SDGs by country takes on two forms: i) global reporting using prescribed indicator methods and data; ii) National Voluntary Reviews where a country reports on its own progress in more detail but is also able to present data that are more appropriate for the country. For the latter, countries need to be able to adapt the global indicators to fit national priorities and context, thus the global description of an indicator could be reduced to describe only what is relevant to the country. Countries may also, for the National Voluntary Review, use indicators that are unique to the country but nevertheless contribute to measurement of progress towards the global SDG target. Importantly, for those indicators that relate to the security of natural resources security (e.g., water) indicators, there are no prescribed numerical targets/standards or benchmarks. Rather countries will need to set their own benchmarks or standards against which performance can be evaluated. This paper presents a procedure that would enable a country to describe national targets with associated benchmarks that are appropriate for the country. The procedure builds on precedent set in other countries but in particular on a procedure developed for the setting of Resource Quality Objectives in South Africa. The procedure focusses on those SDG targets that are natural resource-security focused, for example, extent of water-related ecosystems (6.6), desertification (15.3) and so forth, because the selection of indicator methods and benchmarks is based on the location of natural resources, their use and present state and how they fit into national strategies.

scholarly journals Will South Asia Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030? Learning from the MDGs Experience

2020 ◽  
Vol 152 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Niaz Asadullah ◽  
Antonio Savoia ◽  
Kunal Sen
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Income Poverty ◽  
Poverty Eradication ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Institutional Challenges

Abstract This paper contributes to the debate on the Sustainable Development Goals progress by evaluating the MDGs achievements in South Asia and the policy and institutional challenges deriving from such experience. Using cross-country regressions and aggregate indicators of poverty, health, education and gender parity outcomes, we offer three sets of findings. First, comparative evidence shows that, while South Asia has converged with richer regions, there is still significant variation in gender equality, universal primary education, and income poverty achievements across countries. Second, projections based on past trends on where SDGs are expected to be by 2030 reveal that there is a long way to go, where emblematic targets as income poverty eradication may not be met in the populous South Asian countries. Finally, considering the expanded set of development targets in the SDGs and the growth slowdown in South Asia, we argue that further progress would simultaneously require increased public spending on health and education and reforms improving state capacity. A simulation exercise confirms that such a combination of interventions would deliver significant benefits in the region, particularly in areas that are critical to progress on the goals of ‘No Poverty’, ‘Quality Education’, ‘Gender Equality’, and ‘Inclusive Growth’.

scholarly journals University collaboration for co-designing sustainable urban areas

2021 ◽  
Vol 301 ◽  
pp. 03002
Author(s):  
Peter Čajka ◽  
Veronica Grebennikova ◽  
Hoang Manh Trung Vu ◽  
Van Tran Ngo
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activity ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact

Our article tackles the timely and important issue of the university collaboration aimed at shaping up the sustainable urban areas and contributing to their development through the teaching and research. Universities provided qualified labour force, yield novel research solutions and act as hubs for entrepreneurial activity in urban areas. In this article, we show that even though most of the universities are concentrated in large urban centres and capital regions, many of them are located in small rural areas and have a profound effect on them. We also demonstrate the impact of universities on the sustainable development which is done through the sustainable education as well as the R&D approaches. These effects are very relevant for the co-designing of sustainable rural areas that can follow the principles of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and the green policies imposed by the majority of the local and central governments around the world.

Women, Development, and Gender Inequality

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lena Dominelli
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
History Of ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
And Gender

Women have a lengthy history of fighting their oppression as women and the inequalities associated with this to claim their place on the world stage, in their countries, and within their families. This article focuses on women’s struggles to be recognized as having legitimate concerns about development initiatives at all levels of society and valuable contributions to make to social development. Crucial to their endeavors were: (1) upholding gender equality and insisting that women be included in all deliberations about sustainable development and (2) seeing that their daily life needs, including their human rights, be treated with respect and dignity and their right to and need for education, health, housing, and all other public goods are realized. The role of the United Nations in these endeavors is also considered. Its policies on gender and development, on poverty alleviation strategies—including the Millennium Development Goals and the Sustainable Development Goals—are discussed and critiqued. Women’s rights are human rights, but their realization remains a challenge for policymakers and practitioners everywhere. Social workers have a vital role to play in advocating for gender equality and mobilizing women to take action in support of their right to social justice. Our struggle for equality has a long and courageous history.

scholarly journals Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Development Targets: A Possible Harmonisation? Insights from the European Perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 926 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luigi Petti ◽  
Claudia Trillo ◽  
Busisiwe Ncube Makore
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
National Level ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Agenda 2030 ◽  
Development Framework ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
National Databases

The Agenda 2030 includes a set of targets that need to be achieved by 2030. Although none of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) focuses exclusively on cultural heritage, the resulting Agenda includes explicit reference to heritage in SDG 11.4 and indirect reference to other Goals. Achievement of international targets shall happen at local and national level, and therefore, it is crucial to understand how interventions on local heritage are monitored nationally, therefore feeding into the sustainable development framework. This paper is focused on gauging the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals with reference to cultural heritage, by interrogating the current way of classifying it (and consequently monitoring). In fact, there is no common dataset associated with monitoring SDGs, and the field of heritage is extremely complex and diversified. The purpose for the paper is to understand if the taxonomy used by different national databases allows consistency in the classification and valuing of the different assets categories. The European case study has been chosen as field of investigation, in order to pilot a methodology that can be expanded in further research. A cross-comparison of a selected sample of publicly accessible national cultural heritage databases has been conducted. As a result, this study confirms the existence of general harmonisation of data towards the achievement of the SDGs with a broad agreement of the conceptualisation of cultural heritage with international frameworks, thus confirming that consistency exists in the classification and valuing of the different assets categories. However, diverse challenges of achieving a consistent and coherent approach to integrating culture in sustainability remains problematic. The findings allow concluding that it could be possible to mainstream across different databases those indicators, which could lead to depicting the overall level of attainment of the Agenda 2030 targets on heritage. However, more research is needed in developing a robust correlation between national datasets and international targets.

scholarly journals Leaving no one behind? The influence of civil society participation on the Sustainable Development Goals

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 693-712 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carole-Anne Sénit
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
National Level ◽  
Democratic Deficit ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Civil Society Participation ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Sustainability Governance ◽  
The Relationship

Spaces for civil society participation within intergovernmental negotiations on sustainability have multiplied since the 1992 Earth Summit. Such participatory spaces are often uncritically accepted as a remedy for an assumed democratic deficit of intergovernmental policymaking. I argue, however, that civil society’s capacity to democratize global sustainability governance is constrained by the limited influence of these spaces on policymaking. The article explores the relationship between the format of participatory spaces and their influence on the negotiations of the Sustainable Development Goals. It finds that civil society is more likely to influence within informal and exclusive participatory spaces, and when these spaces are provided early in the negotiating process, at international and national level. This reveals a democracy–influence paradox, as the actors with the capacities to engage repeatedly and informally with negotiators are seldom those that are most representative of global civil society.

Global Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Development Goals

2020 ◽  
pp. 104-130
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
National Level ◽  
Global Poverty ◽  
Policy Options ◽  
Poverty Eradication ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
The World ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Research Centres

The chapter examines the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals and its approaches to poverty eradication beyond economic deprivation. Results from the analysis of existing statistics from United Nation's reports, research centres and institutes, and Bureau of Statistics show that extreme poverty still exists at the global, regional, and sub-national levels of the world. The chapter identifies the challenges facing global poverty eradication to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals Agenda of 2030 and suggests solutions on how to eradicate poverty and hunger in the world. The chapter, therefore, examines the global multi-dimension of poverty and extreme hunger and the multi-dimension of poverty in developed and developing countries at a regional and national level with a focus on Nigeria's experience. Also, the challenges and policy options for eradicating poverty and hunger by 2030 are examined.

scholarly journals The emerging accountability regimes for the Sustainable Development Goals and policy integration: Friend or foe?

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (8) ◽  
pp. 1371-1390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvia Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen ◽  
Arthur L Dahl ◽  
Åsa Persson
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
National Level ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Shared Responsibility ◽  
Good News ◽  
Policy Integration ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Policy Integration ◽  
Development Goals

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the full Agenda 2030 in which they are embedded are aspirational and intended to be both transformational and integrative in a number of ways. The need for integration across policy domains is stressed throughout the agenda. The Sustainable Development Goals are also accompanied by an emerging system for follow-up and review centered on a long list of indicators that are intended to enable countries to be accountable towards their citizens. There is, however, in the accountability literature indication that some accountability mechanisms can be counterproductive for integrative policies. This paper is centered around the question whether an accountability regime, and if so how, is compatible with a high degree of policy integration both conceptually and in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals. We approach this question through looking both at the literature on integrative governance and some of the central concepts it covers such as (environmental) policy integration and mainstreaming, and the accountability literature. This enables us to provide an analytical framework for evaluating the potential of the emerging accountability regimes for the Sustainable Development Goals to enhance more integrated policy making and action. We conclude that there are little or no strong hierarchical elements of accountability relationships at the global level which can be good news for more integrative policies – but only if there is a strong sense of shared responsibility among actors at all levels, available information on the types of behavioural efforts that support integration, and accountholders that take an active interest in integration. At the national level, there may be hierarchical accountability mechanisms with sanction possibilities that may discourage integration. Here, those who hold actors to account can counteract this if they have deeper understanding of the underlying interlinkages among the goals and targets, and based on this, engage in accountability mechanisms.

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