Elaboration of a Toolbox for Localizing the Sdgs

Elaboration of a Toolbox for Localizing the SDGs

A holistic set of tools to support countries and territories in effectively

implementing the Sustainable Development Goals at the local level

The new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015, outlines a new plan of action to eradicate poverty, protect the planet and achieve sustainable prosperity for all. To do so,itdefines an ambitious set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals – the SDGs – and 169 related targets to be reached by 2030.

The proposal of the elaboration of a “Toolbox forlocalizing the SDGs”stemsfrom the UNDG-mandated “Dialogues on Localizing the Post-2015 Agenda”, promoted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) and theGlobal Task Force of Local and Regional Governments for the Post-2015 Agenda and towards Habitat III (GTF). The Dialogues showcased how the new Global Agenda could not be locally implemented without the strong leadership of local and regional governments. The Toolbox will aim at supporting local and regional governments to bring together all stakeholders in advancing the new global development 2030 Agenda within their territories, by identifying and proposing a set of mechanisms and instruments for an effective implementationof the SDGs at the local level, while in close coordination with the national efforts.The objective is to support, with practical examples, public managers and local actors to design development policies and efficiently implement them coherently with the SDGs.

Localizing the Sustainable Development Goals

The negotiation of the new SDGs started in 2013 with an unprecedented participatory process that gathered all relevant stakeholders to discuss the nature of the new priorities to eradicate poverty and provide opportunities for all.

In 2014, the“Dialogues on Localizing the Post-2015 Development Agenda” aimed at identifying the bottlenecks, opportunities and potential strategies to advance theimplementation of the SDGs at the local level. Rounds of consultations were organized in 13 countries, together with a number of regional and global dialogues.

Key messages on localization deriving from the dialogues of 2014:

Local and Regional Governments are critical for promoting inclusive sustainable development and for the implementation of the Agenda 2030;
Effective local governance can ensure the inclusion of local stakeholders, thereby creating broad based ownership, commitment and accountability;
An integrated multi-level and multi-stakeholder approach is needed;
Strong national commitment to provide adequate legal frameworks; institutional and financial capacity to local governments is required.

The full involvement of local and regional governments, local economic and social actors as well as communities is necessary to ensure the achievement of national development outcomes, by grounding development choices in the will of the people through popular participation and ownership.

In this context, localization does not only mean defining tools and mechanisms to efficiently implement and monitor development policies at the local level, but also putting the territoriesand their peoples priorities, needs and resources at the center of sustainable development.

Therefore, the search for the most appropriate tools and strategies for ‘localizing’ the SDGs is critical to the design, implementation and optimizing the success of the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development.

In the spirit of supporting countries and territories in facing these challenges andcapitalizing on their alliance,the GTF, UN-Habitat and UNDP are currently elaborating a Toolboxfor localizing the SDGs aimed to operationalize the guiding principles identified during the Dialogues on Localizing the Post-2015 Agenda.

The Toolbox

The Toolbox for localizing the SDGs aims at providing universal supportby settingadvocacy arguments and concrete mechanisms to address common global development challenges related to SDGs implementation at the local level. It willbe flexible enough to be contextualized to respect each territory’s interests, needs and particularities, avoiding static thematic pillars, but rather focusing on main conceptual areas that will constitute the base for the local implementation of the SDGs.

The Toolbox’s main goal is to propose an articulated set of tools able to supportlocal stakeholders and their networks,under the leadership of local and regional governments, in their advocacy activities and in the design and implementation of development policies within their territories,in coherence with the SDGs.

It will also serve other purposes essential for the process:

Stocktaking: The toolbox will analyze and review existing tools and systematizetheir main outputs. The Toolbox will put these findings at the disposal of policy-makers, local officers, experts and actors of local relevance in view of informing the elaboration of development policies and initiatives.
Awareness raising:The Toolbox will include the appropriate communication instruments to make local politicians and public officers conscious about the consequences oftheir decisions for the SDGs’ implementation. It will play a crucial role in conciliating the policies developed by the public local decision-makers with the overall objectives of the Global Agenda in mind.
Advocacy:The Toolbox can be very helpful in proposing concrete instruments and practices that point outwhy localizing is critical to the global effort put in the SDGs.It also will analyze how to create an enabling environment for local and regional governments and their stakeholders tosupport the localization process.
Technical support:The Toolbox aims at being a practical supportfor local stakeholders, and in particular local and regional governments, by providing suggestions and pointing out best practices that are reliable and replicable in order to make their decisions coherent with the SDGs’ attainment, while fostering territorial partnerships in support of a better quality of life for all citizens.

The structure

The toolbox will include tools, instruments and innovations that can support the localization of the SDGs around the following main components:

Initializing the SDGs process

Awareness raising
Diagnostic
Strategies and plans
Monitoring and evaluation

Enabling institutional arrangements for SDGs implementation

Multilevel governance
Territorial multi-stakeholder approach
Accountability
Development cooperation effectiveness

Capacity strengthening

An inclusive process

The Toolbox is being produced thanks to an intensively participatory process: gathering inputs from key stakeholders of global, national and local relevance including practitioners from national and local governments, civil society, academia and the private sector. A Steering Committee composed by UNDP, UN Habitat and the Global Task Force (GTF) is guiding the elaboration process based on the experiences acquired thanks to the localization of the Millennium Development Goals.

The elaboration of the Toolbox has begun with apreliminary identification and review of the already-existing tools and mechanisms and is being informedthrough participatory workshops in different regions of the world.

The technical participatory workshops at different levels (local, national and global in different regions of the world) aim to reflect the diverse views and experiences of an experienced audience of local governance stakeholders. The inputs obtained from these participatory sessions areand will be captured and systematized by the Steering Committee.

Some examples of tools under elaboration

Tool / Description
A roadmap to localize the SDGs / The roadmap proposes guiding principles and solutions to create an enabling environment for the effective implementation and monitoring of the SDGs at local and regional level. It is developed by the Global Task Force of LRGs, in collaboration with UNDP and UN-Habitat.
Guide for local authorities on the first steps towards the localization of the SDGs + Systematization of Valencia’s experience / The guide aims at outlining first steps of the process to localize the SDGs. It builds on the experience of the Regional Government of Valencia and highlights the importance of involving all territorial actors in the process. The guide is a brief summary of the regional experience, which is fully analyzed and described in a second product, a systematization.
A tool to help localize the SDGs at subnational level in Asia-Pacific (diagnostic tool) / The tool intends to be a simple diagnostic instrument to help cities, subnational governments and non-state actors initiate discussions on the SDGs, define priorities, institutional arrangements and build partnerships.
PRISME / A tool developed by French actors to bring technical guidance to integrate the theory of change in local strategic planning
Platform Rhone Alps Rule of Law / The tool aims at providing practical support to integrate human right approach in strategic planning, facilitating the integration of issues related to Rule of Law, Democratic Governance, and access to rights for everyone (with a special gender focus).
Monitoring the SDGs at local level / Building on the Brazilian experience, the tool aims at guiding and explaining the selection of most relevant indicators for the local level and the development of appropriate monitoring systems.
Energy cities / Based on more than a hundred local best practices, Energy Cities' Proposals for the energy transition of cities & towns intends to be a source of inspiration to empower local stakeholders, reasonably and efficiently use their territories’ resources, rethink financing solutions, invent new suitable governance models, and use urban planning as a tool towards a sustainable, low-carbon future.
Citizen participatory budget as a tool for integration of local communities for development / Building on Poland’s experience, a tool on how to facilitate participatory budget as a democratic discussion and decision-taking process where each municipality – village inhabitant decides how a part of the public budget shall be spent.
Training for LRGs on basic concepts of localizing the SDGs / A training on what it means localizing the SDGs for LRGs. It will consist of an online module combined with a one week in-person training. It will be developed in collaboration with UIM and it is funded by AECID.

How to get involved?

The elaboration of the Toolbox is an open process, involving as many stakeholders as possible. Each partner contributes according to its own resources, expertise and availability. Stakeholders are invited to share their relevant documentation or to conduct stocktaking exercises on their past experiences in localizing the MDGs. If you are interested in joining us in this common effort, do not hesitate to let us know. Some of the possibilities for participation at this stage are:

Sourcing of documents / sharing already existing publications, best practices and experiences and uploading them in the toolboxonline platform

Activities: As part of the Toolbox elaboration process, an online platform will be established to facilitate the process of gathering, analyzing and reviewing existing tools, guides and instruments. The platform will allow participants to directly support the stocktaking by uploading relevant documents and tools to the interactive site. It will also provide the opportunity to all partners to have a direct access to the Toolbox’s components and to discuss with other peers the challenges related to the SDGs’ localization.

Thus, partners are invited to contribute to this effort by sharing and uploading relevant documents and tools to the online interactive platform. Information may include already developed tools for the MDGs’ implementation and their localization, documents produced on the development and the implementation of the SDGs, in particular at the local level, and existing strategies and processes related to the localization of development policies.

Information may also include experiences on the role of certain key actors, such as Local and Regional Governments (LRGs), civil society, private sector, and academia with regards to the localization of the SDGs and more specifically in their relationship to the key mechanisms identified. Finally, as the online Toolbox is expected to grow over time to become the platform of reference for tools and guides related to the implementation of the SDGs at local level, partners are encouraged to utilize it in launching relevant online discussion, sharing stories and experiences, and posting information regarding related events.

Contribution to the toolbox: As part of the Toolbox elaboration process, an online platform will be established to facilitate the process of gathering, analyzing and reviewing existing tools, guides and instruments. The platform will allow participants to directly support the stocktaking by uploading relevant documents and tools to the interactive site. It will also provide the opportunity to all partners to have a direct access to the Toolbox’s components and to discuss with other peers the challenges related to the SDGs’ localization.

Participating in technical workshops and/or meetings

Activities: Partners shall be invited to participate in the Toolbox’s technical workshops/expert meetings, and bring the experiences and lessons learned of their territories to the process.

The dates and locations of the workshops and meetings will be shared and announced on the Toolbox online platform.

Contribution to the toolbox: The Toolbox elaboration process is further informed through the discussion emerging from workshops and focus expert meetings, organized in different regions and territories of the world. They will build upon territorial processes and enrich the set of tools and experiences compiled through the Toolbox exercise. They are geared to advance the debate on localization and provide specific and targeted inputs in line with the key mechanisms and elements identified.

Organizing workshops/ expert meetings

Activities:Partners are invited to mobilize the expertise of their territory or institution and organize an input-gathering process (workshop or expert meeting) around a pre- specific area or mechanism of the Toolbox.

Partners are also encouraged to use the Toolbox online platform as a mean to promote the event and engage a wider online community in the discussion.

Contribution to the toolbox: Partners, with the support of the institutions promoting the Toolbox elaboration process, will synthesize the outcomes and recommendations of this event to enable their systematization, and thus informing the Toolbox.

Taking the lead in developing the conceptual basis and tools of one of the Toolbox key areas/ mechanisms

Activities: Partners taking on this activity will lead efforts to develop a mechanism or a tool aimed at contributing to localization. Mechanisms and tools will be identified together with the Toolbox Steering Committee among the five areas indicated above, and will correspond to the technical expertise of the partner and their area of interest. Partners will initiate the process by identifying relevant best practices, case studies, and operative procedures’ samples. They will also mobilize expertise and organize workshops and events geared at developing the understanding and content of the identified mechanism and tool. This effort will be concretized by the systemization and conceptualization of the relevant experiences and the production of an action based guidance, and practical materials to be included in the Toolbox and its online platform.

Contribution to the toolbox: The developed specified mechanism or tool will propose an articulated set of measures able to guide local development actors in the design and implementation of development policies in their territories. This indicates “localizing” the instruments to facilitate reaching the targets of the SDGs: from institutional, strategic, and managerial perspectives.

Contact Information

For further information and discussion on how to get involved in the process, please contact the members of the Steering Committee:

UNDP ART Initiative: ;

UN HABITAT: ,

Global Task Force of Local and Regional Governments:

And visit the online space: (to be launched soon)

1 | Page