UCLG Africa, in close partnership with Shack/Slum Dwellers International, has promoted an innovative campaign – Know your city – that gathers citywide data on slums, using this information to build inclusive partnerships between the urban poor and local governments. At the global level, UCLG has been defining a short- and medium-term strategy for LRG reporting. In the short term, UCLG is presenting annual reports to contribute and complement the yearly assessment cycles carried out at the HLPF. In the medium term, UCLG will dedicate its next flagship Global Report on Local Democracy and Decentralization (GOLD) to a comprehensive analysis of the localization of the SDGs, in 2019. Various online platforms – such as LocalizingtheSDGs.org and UrbanSDGPlatform.org – are being developed to collect information on the activities and initiatives that LRGs around the world are carrying out at the national, regional and local levels. In conclusion, the development of reliable mechanisms for LRGs to take an active part in the follow-up process is still a pending task for most countries, especially in developing economies in which LRG associations still lack the capacities and resources to make any significant progress, and remain inevitably dependent on the mechanisms and tools developed (and controlled) by their national governments.
5.4 THEMATIC ANALYSIS BY GOALS AND TARGETS The following section presents a thematic analysis of progress in the localization of the SDGs, focusing in particular on those SDGs that the HLPF will assess in its cyclical evaluation in July 2017. The analysis – albeit incomplete and limited to a few key examples for some of this year’s goals – offers an overview of the efforts that LRGs around the world have put in these first steps towards the localization of the goals. This section focuses, specifically, on SDG 1, 2, 5 and 14. Local governments, LRG associations and networks such as UCLG are – at the same time – coordinating a much larger and more comprehensive effort to finalize a report on the localization of all SDGs by 2019.
5.4.1 Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere57 The United Nations recognize that the fight against poverty in all its forms is “the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development”. Sustainable Development Goal 1, Ending poverty in all its forms everywhere, aims to continue the process initiated by the MDGs. It aims to halve the population living in poverty according to national definitions; implement social protection systems and measures; achieve equal rights and access to economic resources and basic services; and build resilience of the poor, especially when vulnerable to climate-related events or social and economic shocks. Given its multidimensional nature, however, poverty in cities and territories relates to a wider range of SDGs,58 and the fight against it is ultimately related to the key principle of ‘leaving no one behind’, which underpins the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda.
57 The authors are grateful to Paula Lucci (Overseas Development institute), Diana Mitlin and David Satterthwaite (International Institute for Environment and Development) for their input and comments on the contents of this section. 58 Consider for instance SDG 2 on ‘Zero hunger’, SDG 3 on ‘Good health and well-being’, SDG 4 on ‘Quality Education’, and the SDGs related to access to public utilities and housing, such as SDG 6 on ‘Clean Water and Sanitation’, SDG 7 on ‘Affordable and clean energy’, and SDG 11 on ‘Sustainable and inclusive cities’ in relation to decent housing. See also on the multi-dimensional approach to poverty Alkire and Santos (2010) ‘Acute Multidimensional Poverty: A New Index for Developing Countries’. Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) Working Paper No.38. Oxford: OPHI; and Stiglitz et al (2008) Report by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress.
43