Fertile Ground: Implementing the 2030 Agenda in U.S. Cities

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development promotes sustainable global prosperity by encouraging the coordination of social, economic, and environmental policies and good governance reforms. Cities are expected to play an essential role in implementing the 2030 Agenda. Local programs are to be implemented by multi-actor governance systems (including government agencies, businesses, nonprofits, and philanthropic organizations) that operate across multiple policy domains and provide extensive opportunities for stakeholder participation. Local program finance may require a combination of public, private, and philanthropic resources. We analyze the prospects for local implementation of the 2030 Agenda in large U.S. cities by examining local capacity to plan and carry out cross-sectoral collaborative initiatives. We review sustainability planning in the cities that participated in the Sustainable Development Solutions Network planning demonstration. We analyze an inventory of urban revitalization initiatives to assess local capacity to carry out collaborations. We show that local capacity is associated with having an active local environmental agenda and making progress toward achieving sustainable development goals. However, local capacity appears to be concentrated in larger cities. Although the demands on local governance are daunting, our examination of local capacity to plan and execute cross-sectoral collaborative initiatives in large U.S. cities creates guarded optimism.

Neighbourhood Resilience and Community Hubs in Ontario

This paper explores neighbourhood resilience in Ontario, and introduces recommendations for neighbourhoods interested in enhancing their resilience. Neighbourhoods are dynamic, complex, and experience variations of social, environmental and economic challenges. Resilience standards provide a lens that addresses the interconnected nature of these challenges. For the purpose of this paper, resilience focuses on a neighbourhood’s ability to proactively respond and adapt to changes, emphasizing local capacity building, and meeting the neighbourhood’s essential needs. The overall goal of neighbourhood resilience is to enhance well-being while experiencing stress, as well as after. Through a review of resilience-focused literature, projects and approaches, it is clear that neighbourhoods are continuously changing, and require a holistic, comprehensive approach that fosters civic engagement and community connections. Ontario’s Community Hub Strategic Framework and Action Plan, 2015 provides a foundation to support the flexible nature of community hubs in addressing neighbourhood resilience and meeting specific needs on a local-scale.

Neighbourhood Resilience and Community Hubs in Ontario

This paper explores neighbourhood resilience in Ontario, and introduces recommendations for neighbourhoods interested in enhancing their resilience. Neighbourhoods are dynamic, complex, and experience variations of social, environmental and economic challenges. Resilience standards provide a lens that addresses the interconnected nature of these challenges. For the purpose of this paper, resilience focuses on a neighbourhood’s ability to proactively respond and adapt to changes, emphasizing local capacity building, and meeting the neighbourhood’s essential needs. The overall goal of neighbourhood resilience is to enhance well-being while experiencing stress, as well as after. Through a review of resilience-focused literature, projects and approaches, it is clear that neighbourhoods are continuously changing, and require a holistic, comprehensive approach that fosters civic engagement and community connections. Ontario’s Community Hub Strategic Framework and Action Plan, 2015 provides a foundation to support the flexible nature of community hubs in addressing neighbourhood resilience and meeting specific needs on a local-scale.

Revisiting Integrated Coastal and Marine Management in Canada: Opportunities in the Bay of Fundy

Limited progress has been made in implementing integrated coastal and marine management (ICM) policies globally. A renewed commitment to ICM in Canada offers an opportunity to implement lessons from previous efforts over the past 20 years. This study applies three core ICM characteristics identified from the literature (formal structures; meaningful inclusion; and, innovative mechanisms) to identify opportunities for operationalizing ICM from participants’ lived experiences in Atlantic Canada. These characteristics are employed to assess and compare ICM initiatives across two case studies in the Upper Bay and the Lower Bay of Fundy. The assessments are based on semi-structured interviews conducted with key participants and a supplementary document analysis. The following insights for future ICM policies were identified: adaptive formal structures are required for avoiding previous mistakes; a spectrum of approaches will support meaningful engagement in ICM; local capacity is needed for effective innovative mechanisms; and, policy recommendations should be implemented in parallel. Although these insights are relevant to each of the two sub-regional case studies, the paths taken to incorporating and realizing them appear to be location-specific. To account for these site-specific differences, we suggest more attention be given to strategies that incorporate local history, unique capacity of actor groups and location-specific social-ecological systems objectives. We provide the following recommendations on policy instruments to assist in moving toward enhanced regional ICM in the Bay of Fundy, and that may also be transferable to international ICM efforts: update policy statements to incorporate lessons from previous experiences; strengthen commitment to ICM in Federal law; create a regional engagement strategy to enhance involvement of local actor groups; and, enhance the role of municipal governments to support local capacity building and appropriate engagement of local actors in ICM processes.

Using a multiple-delivery-mode training approach to develop local capacity and infrastructure for advanced bioinformatics in Africa

With more microbiome studies being conducted by African-based research groups, there is an increasing demand for knowledge and skills in the design and analysis of microbiome studies and data. However, high-quality bioinformatics courses are often impeded by differences in computational environments, complicated software stacks, numerous dependencies, and versions of bioinformatics tools along with a lack of local computational infrastructure and expertise. To address this, H3ABioNet developed a 16S rRNA Microbiome Intermediate Bioinformatics Training course, extending its remote classroom model. The course was developed alongside experienced microbiome researchers, bioinformaticians, and systems administrators, who identified key topics to address. Development of containerised workflows has previously been undertaken by H3ABioNet, and Singularity containers were used here to enable the deployment of a standard replicable software stack across different hosting sites. The pilot ran successfully in 2019 across 23 sites registered in 11 African countries, with more than 200 participants formally enrolled and 106 volunteer staff for onsite support. The pulling, running, and testing of the containers, software, and analyses on various clusters were performed prior to the start of the course by hosting classrooms. The containers allowed the replication of analyses and results across all participating classrooms running a cluster and remained available posttraining ensuring analyses could be repeated on real data. Participants thus received the opportunity to analyse their own data, while local staff were trained and supported by experienced experts, increasing local capacity for ongoing research support. This provides a model for delivering topic-specific bioinformatics courses across Africa and other remote/low-resourced regions which overcomes barriers such as inadequate infrastructures, geographical distance, and access to expertise and educational materials.