Translating Global Vision into Local Reality:

Building the right knowledge and policy infrastructure

to support local sustainable development

Urban 20 White Paper

An SDSN contribution to the U20 process

Source: Compiled by IIHS

Authored by:
 About Urban 20
•
Urban 20 (U20) is a new city diplomacy initiative developed under the leadership of Horacio
Rodríguez Larreta, Mayor of the City of Buenos Aires and Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris and Chair
of C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40). Launched on December 12, 2017 at the One
Planet Summit in Paris, the initiative is chaired by the cities of Buenos Aires and Paris, and conve-
ned by C40, in collaboration with United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG).

What U20 seeks, is to highlight the expertise of cities in a range of global development challen-
ges and to raise the profile of urban issues within the G20. U20 will offer solutions and clear
recommendations to national leaders for their consideration ahead of the 2018 G20 Summit. The
first year of the U20 initiative will culminate in the inaugural U20 Mayors Summit in Buenos Aires,
October 29-30. With this event, U20 will remain a stepping stone toward ensuring an ongoing
dialogue between cities and the G20.

In 2018, 26 cities have participated in Urban 20: Barcelona, Beijing, Berlin, City of Buenos Aires,
Chicago, Durban, Hamburg, Houston, Jakarta, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Madrid,
Mexico City, Milan, Montreal, Moscow, New York, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, São Paulo, Seoul,
Sydney, Tokyo, and Tshwane.

For more information, please visit: www.urban20.org

About the White Papers

Urban 20 is proud to present a series of White Papers from our Strategic and Advisory Partners
that highlight the most relevant topics on the cities development agenda and the forthcoming
urban trends. These papers define the challenges that local governments are currently facing
and offer open recommendations supported by relevant, up-to-date research and data. The
intention of this work is to broaden the understanding and perspective of decision makers and
stakeholders as to enhance their ability to tackle these most pressing issues. The White Papers
also represent the hard work and dedication of these agencies and organizations to keep the
public well informed about the ongoing efforts to address the present and future challenges we
share as humankind.

Image: Orbon Alija

LOCAL DEVELOPMENT | URBAN 20 WHITE PAPER

“Translating Global Vision into Local Reality: Building the
right knowledge and policy infrastructure to support local
sustainable development” is a White Paper prepared by
SDSN as a voluntary contribution to enrich the discussions
of the Urban 20 process.

About the Authors

Jessica Espey
Jessica is a Senior Advisor to the United Nations Sustainable
Development Solutions Network (SDSN), based in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. She also directs SDSN’s TReNDS program on
data for sustainable development and SDSN’s work on
sustainable cities, including the USA Sustainable Cities Initiative.
Jessica is official liaison for the Scientific Steering Committee of
the IPCC Conference on Cities and Climate Change, is a member
of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data’s
Technical Advisory Group, and is a member of the Group on Earth
Observation’s Expert Advisory Board.
Jessica previously served as a special adviser on the post-2015
agenda within the Office of the President of Liberia, supporting the
work of The High Level Panel of Eminent Persons (of which
President Sirleaf was co-chair) and the development of the
Common African Position on the Post-2015 Agenda. She has also
worked as a senior researcher at Save the Children UK, the
Overseas Development Institute (ODI), and the British Institute in
Eastern Africa (BIEA). Jessica holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with
Honours in Modern History from the University of Oxford and a
Master of Sciences degree in the Political Economy of
Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies,
University of London. She has lived and worked in Liberia, Kenya,
Rwanda, the UK and the US.

Aromar Revi
Aromar Revi is the founding Director of the Indian Institute for
Human Settlements (IIHS), a global expert on Sustainable
Development; and Co-Chair of the UN Sustainable Development
Solutions Network (SDSN), from where he helped lead a
successful campaign for an urban Sustainable Development Goal
(SDG 11) as part of the UN’s 2030 development agenda. He is also
member of the Managing Board of Cities Alliance the global
partnership for sustainable cities and urban poverty reduction and
UNISDR’ Global Assessment of Risk, since 2008. Aromar is one of

LOCAL DEVELOPMENT | URBAN 20 WHITE PAPER

the world’s leading experts on global environmental change,
especially climate change. He is a Coordinating Lead Author of the
2018 IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C that
assesses the feasibility of mitigation and adaptation options and
defines potential implementation pathways and investment needs
to implement the Paris Climate Agreement.

The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) has

been operating since 2012 under the auspices of the UN
Secretary-General. SDSN mobilizes global scientific and
technological expertise to promote practical solutions for sustainable
development, including the implementation of the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Agreement.
It aims to accelerate joint learning and promote integrated
approaches that address the interconnected economic, social,
and environmental challenges confronting the world. SDSN works
closely with United Nations agencies, multilateral financing
institutions, the private sector, and civil society.

LOCAL DEVELOPMENT | URBAN 20 WHITE PAPER

Contents
Executive summary..................................................................................................................................... 6
Glossary......................................................................................................................................................... 7
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................. 8
Chapter 1: The interdependence of the urban sustainable development agenda.................. 10
Chapter 2: Supportive national policy frameworks and processes............................................. 14
Chapter 3: Science-policy partnerships.............................................................................................. 18
Chapter 4: The role of the international community, including the UN and the G20.............. 21
Conclusion................................................................................................................................................. 23
Bibliography.............................................................................................................................................. 25
Acknowledgments................................................................................................................................... 27

The views, opinions, positions and recommendations expressed

in this White Paper are solely those of the individuals and their
organisations. They do not necessarily reflect those of Urban 20
or any of its chairs, conveners, partners and participating cities.

LOCAL DEVELOPMENT | URBAN 20 WHITEPAPER

Executive summary
As the world’s population grows, so too do its cities. This accelerating urbanization brings to the
surface simmering issues in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals–for example,
ensuring the most vulnerable (such as slum dwellers) are not left behind, and reducing the
overwhelming contribution of cities to carbon emissions (75 percent of global totals as of 2017)
and adapting to climate change and an increasing incidence of disasters. These issues cannot
be solved by a simple pen stroke from high-level policymakers and institutions. They must be
tackled through bold approaches to policies and partnerships alike.

This paper proposes three approaches; the building of knowledge around the
interdependencies of the SDGs and a new urban science, the creation of science-policy
partnerships to support evidence-based local planning, and the implementation of supportive
national policy frameworks. It also considers the crucial role of the international community
including the UN and G20. By utilizing such approaches, urbanization can become
science-based, responsive, and impactful, increasing the likelihood of achieving the 1.5 Celsius
climate target, and ensuring no one is left behind.

The G20 occupies a unique space in global policy-making. With decisive action it can
catalyze a new interdisciplinary urban science and encourage evidence-based urban
policy-making. In particular it should support the creation of a high-level panel on the new
science of urbanization, give local government leaders a seat at the table and clear
mechanisms through which to inform G20 deliberations, and should lay out a new local to
global urban strategy. This strategy must recognize that rapid urbanization is one of the most
significant opportunities to address some the more intractable challenges of our time, the
pivotal role local government leaders and institutional partnerships will play in addressing them,
and the necessity for more inclusive local and global leadership.

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 Glossary
EU
European Union
•
GDP
Gross Domestic Product

IIHS
Indian Institute for Human Settlements

IPCC
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

NUA
New Urban Agenda

NUP
National Urban Policies

SDGs
Sustainable Development Goals

SDSN
United Nations Sustainable Development
Solutions Network

UN
United Nations

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Introduction
In 2015, world leaders agreed upon a series of ambitious frameworks to set the world on a more
sustainable path. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) laid out 17 targeted yet
interdependent goals relating to environment, economy, and society. Two months later, national
governments again committed to action on climate change, promising to reduce emissions in
order to keep global warming well below a 2-degree Celsius rise in temperature through the
Paris Climate Agreement. This has been recently strengthened by a seminal IPCC report that
outlines multiple pathways to a 1.5 Celsius world (IPCC 2018a). Six months earlier, countries
agreed to put in place robust mitigation and adaptation strategies to manage disasters through
the Sendai Framework. Finally, leaders recognized the importance of including an urban
perspective in all of these agreements and subsequent action through Habitat III’s New Urban
Agenda. While all of these agreements have been negotiated by nation states, city
representatives actively supported these processes. They shored up support for a goal
explicitly focused on cities–SDG 11–and ensured that a strong, place-based narrative informs
the implementation of all of the agendas. Local and regional governments have remained active
on sustainable development since; for example, mayors in the United States are leading
national action around the Paris Climate Agreement through We Are Still In campaign, and
urban governments worldwide are institutionalizing efforts to implement the SDGs (see the
Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s (SDSN) Sustainable Cities Initiative and Local Data
Action project).

The centrality of cities to the success of the world’s sustainable development agenda is clear.
Cities are home to the majority of the world’s population; “today, 55 percent of the world’s
population lives in urban areas, a proportion that is expected to increase to 68 percent by
2050…with close to 90 percent of this increase taking place in Asia and Africa” (UNDESA 2018).
As cities expand to accommodate this population growth, so too will urban slums and informal
settlements. Today, 863 million slum dwellers are based in cities and urban areas. The informality
of these settlements, most without adequate and safe housing, proper sewerage and sanitation,
presents a major health crisis that is essential to address in order to accomplish SDGs 3 and 4.
Cities concentrate energy poverty (SDG 7), are also the major drivers of unsustainable
consumption and production patterns (SDG 12), including contributing more than 75 percent of
carbon emissions from global final energy use (SDG 13) (Acuto, Parnell and Seto 2017).

Yet the dynamism of cities, with their concentrations of people, institutions, knowledge,
innovation and capital, also present a huge opportunity to tackle the challenges presented
within the SDGs. Today, cities are the world’s economic centers, generating more than 75
percent of global GDP (Acuto, Parnell and Seto 2017). By getting urban development right, cities
can create jobs and offer better livelihoods; increase economic growth; improve social inclusion;
promote the decoupling of living standards and economic growth from environmental resource
use; protect local and regional ecosystems; reduce both urban and rural poverty; and drastically
reduce pollution. Sound urban development will accelerate progress towards achieving all of
the SDGs, including the end of extreme poverty (SDSN 2013).

On the other hand, mistakes made in managing urban growth are very hard to undo.
Infrastructure investments, urban land-use systems, and layouts are literally cast in stone–with
impacts that may be difficult to alter for many decades. Without adequate management and
investments, slums may expand and cities may fail to generate the jobs necessary to improve
livelihoods. Cities are potentially the largest and most challenging ‘stranded assets’ to address in
responding to climate change and weather extremes, as event after event across the globe have
demonstrated. As a result, inequalities, exclusion, and violence may increase. Countries may fail
to decouple economic development from resource use, and cities will not provide economic
opportunities to surrounding rural areas, rendering all increasingly vulnerable to climate and
other environmental changes (SDSN 2013). To ensure that the benefits of urbanization are fully

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shared and inclusive, policies to manage urban growth need to ensure access to infrastructure
and social services for all, focusing on the needs of the urban poor and other vulnerable groups
for housing, education, health care, decent work, and a safe environment.

Addressing this “dark side” of urbanization will require bold new approaches (Revi 2016). Local
and national governments will need to undertake long-term planning exercises with all
departments of government, working across sectors not only to reimagine and redesign cities,
but also to question current governance and funding models to ensure there are the right
incentives for sustainable urban development. National governments have a pivotal role to play
by supporting cities and local government to step up and lead on these challenges. Notably,
this can be achieved through national urban policies that empower local and regional
government leadership. To encourage long-term, evidence-based planning and policy
innovation, cities should strengthen their institutional capacities for inter-departmental and
interdisciplinary problem solving for they need strong expert and academic partnerships,
encouraging a new science of urban planning. Finally, city leaders should lean upon the
capacity and cross-country learning of a fit-for-purpose UN, as well as its affiliated knowledge
networks and institutions, like the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN).

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CHAPTER 1: THE INTERDEPENDENCE
OF THE URBAN SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT AGENDA

Source: Compiled by IIHS

LOCAL DEVELOPMENT | URBAN 20 WHITE PAPER 10

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals is a complex challenge; among the global
development agendas adopted in 2015 and 2016, this agenda alone consists of 17 goals, 169
targets, and more than 240 indicators for monitoring progress. The goals and their
accompanying targets are focused on discrete sustainable development topics such as health,
education, and urbanization. Yet the preamble of the 2030 Agenda (which includes the SDGs)
includes a firm commitment to recognize the interdependence of the goals and employ
cross-sectoral strategies to implement them. Notably, this commitment must consider the
inherent tradeoffs across goals–for example, the necessity to promote growth and create jobs
(SDG 8), but only within clean industries (SDGs 9, 12, and 13), or the necessity to reduce hunger
(SDG 2), but not do so at the expense of sustainable land use (SDG 15) or biofuel production to
meet climate targets under SDG 13 and the Paris Agreement.

Population growth and urbanization are likely to exacerbate these tradeoffs. For example,
demands for freshwater, energy, and food are all expected to increase by 30 percent or more
by 2030 due to the cumulative effects of population growth, mobility, urbanization, and climate
change. For many, the availability of electricity and groundwater pumps has been revolutionary
for enhancing agricultural productivity and food production and would therefore be a logical
way to cope with higher demands for water and food. But employing these practices at scale
threatens groundwater depletion (Mainali et al. 2018) and deepens the dependence on fossil
fuel-driven pumps. Hence, new cross-sectoral solutions are needed to wrestle with emerging
sustainable development challenges that quantitatively measure and assess tradeoffs. Without
proper understanding of and accounting for tradeoffs and synergies across different
sectors, cities run the risk of developing incoherent policies that adversely affect one
another, lose the potential for positive synergy effects, and result in delayed sustainable
development outcomes (Mainali et al. 2018).

Figure 1 provides a preliminary mapping of the interdependencies among the SDGs. SDG 11 on
cities is linked to nearly all of the other goals; building sustainable cities and communities is an
outcome in and of itself, but cities and urban areas will also be the sites for implementation of
many, if not most, of the other goals.

Figure 1. Mapping interdependencies among SDGs

Source: Le Blanc, D., (2015).

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Other city-specific SDG interactions include the relationship between informal housing (SDG 11)
and health outcomes (SDG 3). As more and more people move to cities, housing issues will
intensify with profound public health effects; “863 million people live in slums and informal
settlements, lacking durable housing, sufficient living space, security of tenure, sanitation and
infrastructure, and clean water” (ICS 2017). The high density of their living encourages rapid
disease transmission, which not only affects the slum dwellers but also heightens health risks for
those in the surrounding urban and peri-urban area.

Another example is the relationship between health (SDG 2) and public transit (SDG 11.2) (see
Figure 2). Improving access to public transit not only reduces pollution (SDG 13) and road
traffic, but also encourages physical activity (SDG 3.4), access to healthcare, education, and
employment (SDGs 3,4, and 8) (ICS 2017) and helps reduce fossil fuel use and hence limit
carbon emissions from transport (SDG 13).

Figure 2. Interactions between SDG 3 and SDG 11 on transport and health outcomes

SDG + SDG 11

TARGETS KEY INTERACTIONS SCORE POLICY OPTIONS

+2
3.4 11.2 Improving transport and Ensure that transport systems
particularly supporting active connect active and public transport
travel modes, promotes physical modes, and encourage cycling
activity and helps to mitigate and walking through measures
or prevent non-communicable appropriate to the local context,
diseases such as street lighting, traffic
slowing measures, footpaths,
cycle lanes, shading, and
pedestrian crossings

+3
3.6 11.2 Improving road safety, with Design infrastructure that
particular regard to vulnerable prioritises safety and protects
road users such as cyclists vulnerable road users. Ensure
and pedestrians, will reduce comprehensive road safety
harm from traffic accidents legislation

+2
3.8 11.2 Transport systems support Ensure that public and active
access to healthcare, transport systems are integrated
employment, family and and well-connected to homes,
friends, and education jobs, and services

+3
3.9 11.2 Compact cities with well- Promote policies for compact,
designed public transport, accessible mixed-land use urban
cycling and walking networks development in order to reduce
enable reduced car use and car dependence and carbon
contribute to reductions in intensity of urban transport and
carbon emissions and reduce encourage physical activity
exposure to air pollution

Source: ICS 2017.

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Designing policies that consider both interdependencies and long-term trends requires a very
different way of working within and across government, that encourages cross departmental
collaboration (to break down sector silos) and partnerships with universities and other expert
groups to enable modelling and long-term planning. Planning exercises need to consider
long-term trends and enable multi-dimensional feasibility assessments that take into account
population growth, economic development, technological and socio-cultural factors (IPCC 2018a).

There are three mechanisms that can help to enable this. First, supportive national policy
frameworks that recognize the necessity of working across multiple scales of government and
empower local governments to address local, complex problems. Second, cross-sectoral
collaborations, for example by each department or sector bringing to the decision-making table
evidence-based plans that can be evaluated and assessed alongside each other to ensure
coherence across government policy. Third, science-policy partnerships, with local universities
and other sustainable development experts. These partnerships will be essential to bolster
government capacity for developing evidence-based, long-term plans that consider
demographic changes, technological change and innovation. The following chapters unpack
these mechanisms, as well as considering the role of the international community in supporting
an effective knowledge and policy infrastructure to support local sustainable development.

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CHAPTER 2: SUPPORTIVE NATIONAL
POLICY FRAMEWORKS AND
PROCESSES

Source: Compiled by IIHS

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A crucial mechanism through which to empower cities to lead on the implementation of
sustainable development agendas is a national urban policy (NUP). NUPs can provide a
coordinating framework for the management of challenging issues pertaining to rapid and
informal urban development, such as slum management, access to land, secure and
adequate housing, basic services, delegation of authority to national and local governments,
the transfer of financial flows, urban mobility, and urban energy requirements. NUPs
approved at the highest level provide a reference for ministries, government departments, and
service providers on how to operate within cities and liaise with local government. They can also
be a reference for legislative institutional reform (UN-Habitat 2018).

Brazil and South Africa provide examples of effective national urban policies that have been
central to addressing sustainable development (see Box 1, below). OECD nations have adopted
NUPs, while the European Union (EU) has launched its own Urban Agenda for the EU
(https://ec.europa.eu/futurium/en/urban-agenda). Additionally, countries like China and Australia
are currently “rolling out ambitious roadmaps for new strategies to manage urbanization trends
and harness urban growth” (Acuto, Parnell and Seto 2017). Even in Africa, a continent that has
traditionally under-invested in infrastructure and not encouraged devolution, many countries are
now encouraging a strong focus on sustainable urban development. As of 2017, one in every
three African countries was in the process of developing a national urban policy, most of which
with a strong emphasis on infrastructure and jobs (Acuto, Parnell and Seto 2017).

Generally, the anticipated results from central governments developing a NUP are: a clearer
identification of how urban development can support equitable social and economic growth that
is environmentally sustainable; guidance on the future development of national urban systems
and land use; and better intergovernmental coordination across sectors and levels of
government (UN-Habitat 2018).

NUPs can also play a transformative role in supporting better fiscal transfers between layers of
government, as increasing coherence at the policy level can improve administrative
effectiveness and resource flows at the metropolitan level. NUPs can also clearly lay out
parameters for resource flows to empower local government with adequate resources and
capacities, including specifying the level of local government autonomy over taxes, revenues,
and expenditures, particularly with respect to the collection of regulation of land and related
taxes, user charges and fees to cover expenditures (UNGA 2016).

BOX 1: Integrated Urban Development Framework

for South Africa
South Africa is in the midst of tackling the impact of rapid urbanization. 60 percent
of the population lives in urban areas and this number is expected to increase to
70 percent by 2030 and 80 percent by 2050 (Pieterse 2017). This is significant
acceleration. It is therefore important to guide the growth and management of
urban areas in ways that unlock the potential of cities and towns and address acute
spatial injustices, which have persisted since apartheid.

The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, under the

direction of the National Development Plan (NDP), designed the Integrated Urban
Development Framework (IUDF) in 2016 in response to South Africa’s urbanization
trend. The IUDF seeks to manage the scale and growth of South African cities and
towns. It aims to foster shared understanding across government and society to
achieve the goals of economic development, employment creation, and improved

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 living conditions by addressing current urban inefficiencies as outlined in the NDP. It
is a tool for reorganizing urban systems to make cities and towns more inclusive,
safe, productive, and resource-efficient, thus becoming good places to work and live.

Implementation of the IUDF (Figure 3) is driven by nine levers, which are intended to
support intervention and enable the achievement of strategic goals and objectives.
Financing the transformation involves the participation of multiple
stakeholders–government, the private sector, the public sector, nonprofits,
universities, and academia to retrofit the existing city footprints. To ensure inclusive
economic development, IUDF empowers stakeholders to increase enterprise
development, profitability, and skill development, and to mainstream the excluded
in the workforce. It emphasizes the importance of expanding the services sector,
encouraging industry and decentralizing production, whilst maintaining a focus on
green economy. The framework is designed to align the long-term revenues of the
municipalities with the performance of local economies. This approach ensures
that the municipalities work consistently to protect and enable economic growth
and that the revenues available to fast-growing, efficient local economies match
their expenditure needs.

Figure 3. IUDF Framework and Strategy

VISION STRATEGIC GOALS LEVERS

Integrated urban planning and management

Inclusion and
Liveable, safe, Access Integrated transport and mobility
resource-efficient
cities and towns STRATEGIC PRIORITIES
Integrated and sustainable human settlements
that are socially Inclusion
integrated, Integrated urban infrastructure
Growth
economically
inclusive and Efficient land governance and management
globally Effective Inclusive economic development
competitive, Governance
where residents
Empowered Active Communities
actively
participate in
Effective urban governance
urban life Spatial
Integration
Sustainable Finances

Source: IUDF.

The IUDF marks a “New Deal for South African” cities and towns, steering urban growth towards
a sustainable model of compact, connected, and coordinated cities and towns (Pieterse 2018).

Written by Rakhi Sahay (IIHS)

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Another mechanism which can be used to support subnational implementation of the SDGs is a
national SDG committee. Colombia has been heralded as a “poster child” for such a process
since President Juan Manuel Santos approved a decree (No.280) establishing the creation of an
Inter-Agency Commission for the Preparation and Effective Implementation of the Post- 2015
Development Agenda and the SDGs. The decree was passed in February 2015, long before the
SDGs were formally endorsed, demonstrating Colombia’s dedication to the agenda.

The Commission commits to work across ministries and sectors to support the 2030 agenda (as
highlighted by its multi-departmental composition of Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Environment,
Department of Social Protection, and National Statistical Office, among others). Since its inception
the Commission has launched a multi-stakeholder consultative process to identify priorities and
help design the national monitoring process. To facilitate this there is a CSO representative on the
Commission. The Commission is also attempting to establish a process for localizing the agenda
to different regions and municipalities. Above all the Commission aims to mainstream the SDGs
into Colombia’s other national strategies, including the National Development Plan and the Peace
Agreement (Wagner 2017). As a result, Colombian cities and municipalities have also made the
SDGs a core component of their local planning. For example, Medellín’s Mayor Federico Gutiérrez
empowered a youth department within the city to conduct extensive outreach to young people,
who represent more than one-quarter of the population. Their aim is to reduce the risks of
violence by improving school attendance, promoting public art, and providing support for training
and employment, among other services. The youth department (and all city departments)
benchmarks progress against SDG targets, regularly reporting on this (World Bank 2017).

Finally, local and national governments can do much to advance the SDG agenda by utilizing a
new planning approach which encourages cross-sectoral collaboration. A good example of
this is provided by New York City and its OneNYC plan (NYC 2018). OneNYC was the city’s 2015
sustainability plan. It pre-dated the final SDGs, but was heavily informed by discussions around
their creation. The strategy is focused on social, economic, and environmental concerns, as well
as having a dedicated pillar on resilience and disasters (notably, to address concerns about
disaster planning raised in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2012). The development of the
strategy was groundbreaking for five key reasons:

1. “OneNYC is an integrative strategy, which considers disparate impacts on neighborhoods and

populations, access to key public assets, environmental insecurity and economic growth, as well
as social and economic inclusion and mobility.
2. The plan harmonizes with global development efforts, while providing input on best practices
and metrics to inform the global development agenda.
3. Its long-term perspective on city sustainability planning sets ambitious long-term goals under
specific lead agencies, with coordinated budget planning and a monitoring framework to ensure
funding and accountability.
4. Nearly every city agency was active in the core design process, and the overall strategic
planning process consulted with city elected officials, an advisory board, private sector
roundtables, and residents.
5. OneNYC is data- and metrics-oriented, using specific indicators to evaluate progress toward the
city’s goals and reporting on this progress in an annual public update” (Espey and Mesa 2018).

Planning processes like OneNYC provide concrete examples of how to organize

cross-departmental, holistic sustainable development planning exercises within local and
national government to effectively manage synergies and tradeoffs between goal areas.

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CHAPTER 3: SCIENCE-POLICY
PARTNERSHIPS

Source: Compiled by IIHS

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The recent seminal IPCC report on 1.5 Celsius, identifies the urban transition as one of the four
pivotal processes upon which the success of the Paris Agreement and the implementation of
the SDGs rests (IPCC 2018a). It also highlights the role that local and regional governments and
partnerships will play in multi-level governance, building institutional capacities and enabling
technological and behavioral change required to accelerate climate action in consonance with
the SDGs. This is an important example, of the convergence of science, evidence-based policy
in addressing a complex challenge that demands local to global responses.

Increasing evidence is now available to show how, engaging scientists and experts in these
governmental planning processes is crucial to ensuring plans are evidence- and data-based,
and that they consider long term trends and dynamics. In part, the modelling work or other
long-term forecasting studies required for such plans are likely to be too time-intensive or
technical for local or national government staff. Given very few local and national governments
worldwide systematically collaborate with academia (something SDSN seeks to address), simply
making these connections is likely to provide immediate benefits, as demonstrated by the
CitiesIPCC Cities & Climate Change Science Conference held in Edmonton, Canada in 2018.

___

“The need for structured engagement between city stakeholders (governance,

policy-makers, planners, decision-makers) and the scientific community is long overdue, and
urban climate science is needed to provide the rigorous evidence-base for urban
policy-making” (CitiesIPCC 2018).
___

The CitiesIPCC conference was the first of its kind: a high-level conference endorsed by the
world’s leading climate researchers and member states and focused on local climate action
(IPCC 2018b). It brought together policymakers, practitioners, and urban and climate scientists to
discuss cutting edge urban climate science, and how this science applies to and will impact
upon policy. Significant value was derived from global science policy coalitions showing climate
transition pathways and mapping out the tools and techniques that can be used to help local
governments effectively plan and prepare for climate change effects. A major recommendation
from both local government representatives and academia was the necessity to encourage
science-based coalitions that work with local governments and communities. They would
support the capacity of policymakers and practitioners to address key areas identified by the
climate and urban research agendas. Another recommendation was that the global science
consortium, under the IPCC, be expanded to ensure more diversity and more policy relevance
so the science that is produced internationally speaks to local, contextual challenges.

Although these recommendations and this process were specific to the climate change agenda,
they are applicable to the whole sustainable development agenda. Academic and expert input
can make policymakers’ planning and practice more evidence-based, responsive, and impactful.
Such tripartite coalitions are starting to emerge worldwide. For example, SDSN’s regional and
national network, comprised of local universities and expert members, work with local and
national government to support SDG-oriented policy and planning, highlighting successful
interventions and helping to take them to scale. Additionally, SDSN’s USA Sustainable Cities
Initiative identifies local host universities to convene a dialogue with local government and
community on the relevance of the SDGs and their value as a planning framework. These
dialogues result in the mapping of city policies, plans, and data that align with the SDG
framework. Another example is provided by the City of Melbourne: Following the March 2018
Australian Sustainable Development Goals Summit, it began working with the State Government
of Victoria and three leading state-wide universities to build a planning partnership focused on
the SDGs.

Key criteria for effective tripartite planning processes are:

LOCAL DEVELOPMENT | URBAN 20 WHITE PAPER 19

3
 Multi-party, including policymakers, practitioners, and academics;
Multi-scalar, involving local, regional, and national government representatives;
Cross-sectoral, involving scientists and policymakers from diverse areas of sustainable
development (not just urban planning);
Including long-term forecasting and modelling exercises to account for demographic,
technological change and innovation and environmental trends; and
Informed by robust use of data, including Earth observation and georeferenced data, to
ensure a place-based approach to planning.

However, urban research and education also needs to be strengthened to best support these
processes. As noted by leading urban scientists Acuto, Parnell and Seto (2017): “[Despite] the
steady growth of urban areas worldwide, urban research and education fall short in key respects.
Across academia, urban knowledge is outdated and underfunded”. In order for urban
researchers and their research to respond to the demands of this new, complex sustainable
development agenda, they need to better draw upon all of the sciences while also linking to
practical, policy-relevant problems. To this end, the global urban scientific community needs to
make a conscious effort to collaborate with other sectors and sciences and to learn from
policymakers to best understand the interdependent nature of the challenges on which they all
work. The international community can drive this change by providing more funding for
interdisciplinary urban research. Additionally, it can establish a high-level panel focused on the
new science of urbanization, such as a High-Level Panel or International Committee of Experts
(further discussed below).

LOCAL DEVELOPMENT | URBAN 20 WHITE PAPER 20

3
CHAPTER 4: THE ROLE OF THE
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY,
INCLUDING THE UN AND THE G20

Source: Compiled by IIHS

LOCAL DEVELOPMENT | URBAN 20 WHITE PAPER 21

The international community has a crucial role to play in supporting a new policy and knowledge
system of urban science research in support of sustainable development. First and foremost,
the UN, the European Union (EU), the G20, and other multilateral processes should recognize
the importance of cities, regions and local partnerships for successful implementation of
sustainable development by giving them better representation in these forums, as well as
the crucial insights they can bring on local sustainable development challenges. Local
government authorities are currently only represented in UN discussions on sustainable
development through their one representative seat on behalf of their Major Group. City
networks, coordinated through the Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments,
should be awarded more opportunities for participation, both within the General Assembly and
in parallel forums such as the G20, to report on their progress to encourage local action. The
UN reform process is a great opportunity to assert the centrality of local governments for
successful implementation of these complex agendas, e.g., by ensuring local government are
included in regional and national UN committees and by providing more active technical
support to subnational actors.

Regional economic communities can do much to promote these issues by establishing

regional urban agendas, such as the Urban Agenda for the EU. The Urban Agenda for the EU
was launched in May 2016 as the Pact of Amsterdam. It represents a new, multi-level working
method promoting cooperation between Member States, cities, the European Commission, and
other stakeholders “in order to stimulate growth, liveability, and innovation in the cities of Europe
and to identify and successfully tackle social challenges” (EU 2018). The Agenda focuses on
three key pillars: better regulation, including supportive policy and policy coherence; better
funding, including innovative sources of funding (e.g., from the European Structural & Investment
Funds); and better knowledge, including improvements to and investments in better urban and
subnational data.

UN agencies like the UN Development Programme, UN-Habitat, UN-Environment and UNICEF

as well as affiliated global knowledge networks like SDSN, should also be utilized in support of
local government authorities. For example, these institutions can connect with the urban
planning programs or departments of local schools and relevant scientific institutions to better
understand the pathways to developing sustainable cities–cities that are
environmentally-sensitive, low-emitting, compact, and inclusive. For more, see SDSN’s USA
Sustainable Cities Initiative.

The G20 occupies a unique space in the global policy arena. Collectively, the G20 countries
and regions account for percent of the gross world product (GWP), 80 percent of world
trade, two-thirds of the world population, and approximately half of the world land area
(Australia G20, 2014). Decisive leadership by the G20 could therefore drive seismic changes
in sustainable urban development. To do this the G20 should consider three things; first, like
the EU, it should consider establishing a clear Urban Agenda, which not only articulates a vision
of sustainable urban development, in clear alignment with the Paris Climate Agreement and the
SDGs, which encourages countries to develop clear National Urban Policies and to give ample
space, support and financial resources to local governments. Second, it should consider a
standing mechanism through which local governments can provide input to G20 deliberations,
given that city leaders are on the front lines of the sustainable development challenge.

This could be achieved by strengthening and institutionalising the nascent U-20 process and
ensuring the participation of a local government representative within the G20 Secretariat.
Finally, it should also consider leading the shift in global urban knowledge and governance by
establishing a high-level group of champions (a High-Level Panel), affiliated with the G20 to help
articulate a vision for a new science and policy of urbanization. This group would be made up of
local government leaders and leading urban scientists who would consider not only the specific
challenges facing cities, but also how they can better harness scientific knowledge to help
tackle the challenges. Their outputs might include recommendations on the governance
reforms needed for cities to be sufficiently empowered to act.

LOCAL DEVELOPMENT | URBAN 20 WHITE PAPER 22

CONCLUSION

LOCAL DEVELOPMENT | URBAN 20 WHITE PAPER 23

The challenge of building sustainable cities, regions and communities, which are equipped to:
host large, growing and dense population concentrations; enable prosperity and decent work
for all, while minimizing inequalities, and mitigating environmental changes - cannot be solved
through current policies and processes. Bold new approaches to policies and partnerships are
required, which are strongly grounded in science, evidence and national and local context. This
paper proposes three approaches; the building of knowledge around the interdependencies of
the SDGs and a new urban science, the creation of science-policy partnerships to support
evidence-based local planning, and the implementation of supportive national policy
frameworks. By utilizing such approaches, urbanization can become science-based,
responsive, and impactful, increasing the likelihood of meeting the 1.5 Celsius climate target,
and ensuring no one is left behind.

The paper also considers the crucial role of the international community. The G20 occupies a
unique space in global policy-making. With decisive action it can catalyze a new interdisciplinary
urban science and encourage evidence-based urban policy-making. In particular it should
support the creation of a high-level panel on the new science of urbanization, give local
government leaders a seat at the table and clear mechanisms through which to inform G20
deliberations, and should lay out a new local to global urban strategy. This strategy must
recognize that rapid urbanization is one of the most significant opportunities to address the
pressing challenges of our time, the pivotal role local government leaders and institutional
partnerships will play, and the necessity for more inclusive local and global leadership.

LOCAL DEVELOPMENT | URBAN 20 WHITE PAPER 24

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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Rakhi Sahay (IIHS) for preparing
the text box on the IUDF in South Africa.

Contacts for this report

The authors welcome comments or questions on the
recommendations contained in this paper. Please write to:

Jessica Espey (SDSN)

[email protected]

Aromar Revi (IIHS)

[email protected]

The views, opinions, positions and recommendations expressed

in this White Paper are solely those of the individuals and their
organisations. They do not necessarily reflect those of Urban 20
or any of its chairs, conveners, partners and participating cities.

LOCAL DEVELOPMENT | URBAN 20 WHITE PAPER 27

www.urban20.org