It will be less than 10 years to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, and new research shows that local and regional authorities are still often marginalized in the monitoring and national coordination of the implementation of global benchmarks.
Leaders usually quickly make verbal commitments to the importance of local governance in achieving the goals of the United Nations. Global goals, This aims to become “the blueprint for peace and prosperity of mankind and the earth now and in the future.”
“Local authorities are a key player in mitigating the complex and multifaceted impact of the pandemic and moving forward better,” the G20 development ministers said in a joint communiqué following the meeting in Italy last month.
The leaders stated that they are committed to working with governments at all levels to support local authorities in their efforts to achieve these goals, adding that they “intend to promote innovation and knowledge co-creation with all stakeholders, especially local participants, to advance local Chemistry. Sustainable Development Goals.”
However, policymakers still have a long way to go in translating good intentions into reality, and local and regional governments (LRG) are calling for greater participation in efforts to achieve their goals.
in a Joint Statement be ahead of meeting In the UN’s core platform for monitoring the implementation of the global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, LRG stated that they want a system that allows them to “have a permanent seat on the decision-making table representing the people they serve.”
The statement added that they also called for “the establishment of a strong international community and an updated United Nations system to reflect the current situation, including LRG at all stages of the decision-making process.”
Although local authorities have always requested that their national counterparts be included in the plan, the vast majority of local governments have not yet participated in the country’s institutional mechanisms for implementing the sustainable development goals.
Sabine Drees of the German City Association emphasized the importance of cooperating with higher-level governance. He said, “Be part of the story. It’s not as obvious as you might think, just like a local partner.”
“You see in high-level political forums that it is still a state parliament. It is not too easy for our German municipality to obtain shares and sit at the decision-making table,” she told Online event last week.
Only Austria engages local participants by regularly participating in the decision-making process as an equal partner. This is the most recent one. Learn The findings of 39 towns and regional associations in 29 European countries were surveyed.
Six local and regional authority associations stated that they did not participate at all, while 14 said they were only temporarily involved. Another 16 people said that although they are often consulted, they have no decision-making power.
Although the participation of local participants has been promoted, the same dynamics are reflected on a global scale. Tend to enjoy The public trust is higher than that of domestic counterparts.
The study found that over time, local governments were only slightly more involved in the preparation of national reports on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. These reports are called voluntary national reviews (VNRs).
Globally, the proportion of local and regional governments that conduct in-depth consultation on the target is 37% Learn The findings of a joint organization of cities and local governments announced last week. Compared with 2016, the proportion of consultations this year has only increased by 5%.
There seems to be a similar and worrying trend in the national coordination mechanism for local governments to participate in the implementation of goals.
Globally, between 2016-2020 and 2021, the proportion of LRGs that are heavily involved in national structures has dropped from 29% to 21%.
The study also found that local and regional governments must take more measures to become a knowledge center for implementing goals on the ground.
Although 77% of the staff of European local and regional government associations at least understand and refer to the Sustainable Development Goals in their work, only 36% use them as an important benchmark for planning.
For 13% of associations, their employees do not understand the importance of global goals, and in one in ten associations, few people are familiar with them.
[Edited by Josie Le Blond]
