Learning Module 4: Localising the SDGs through decentralized cooperation

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) establish a series of bold, yet essential, targets to be achieved by 2030, which combine social inclusion, economic development and sustainability. For local and regional governments (LRGs), they form a transformative agenda that strives to: improve the delivery of public services to citizens; enhance people’s engagement in public policy-making by breaking down dividing walls between different policy areas; and foster connections with, and between, different stakeholders. Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, DC has been developed and improved. This has been achieved through collaborations between national associations of cities and local government organizations and by the implementation of local and regional government agendas worldwide. DC aims to directly support local development, decentralisation processes, and institutional reinforcement, among others. Thereby, it seeks to improve the designing of territorial public policy. DC has also been shown to offer specific advantages for local and territorial development and a key way to achieve the localization and implementation of the SDGs.