Localizing SDGs: integrated territorial planning with the SDGs in medium sized cities

Localizing means implementing local agendas in cities and territories to achieve local and global goals. More than a technical process, localizing offers the opportunity to strengthen political processes based on harnessing local opportunities, priorities and ideas. Further, localizing is directly linked to strategic planning processes. The SDGs present a chance to review and reinforce local and regional planning processes, by incorporating some of the main principles of the Agenda 2030: inclusiveness, integrative nature, muti-actor and multi-stakeholder partnerships, accountability. They can also facilitate the articulation of a universal framework with local agendas in a way that is rooted in the cultural, social, environmental and economic realities of each territory.

Localizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and implementing the New Urban Agenda (NUA) has become a priority for cities and territories. This training event on the added value of integrated territorial planning in alignment with the SDGs, focuses on bridging the wealth of local challenges and experiences with the achievement of sustainable development at territorial level. By consolidating the correlation between the SDGs , the New Urban Agenda and local realities, this approach aims to raise awareness of the political nature of the localization process and overcoming thematic silos. Simultaneously, it emphasizes the importance of local and regional governments and their associations knowledge creation and of sharing local experiences and practices, and highlights the importance of learning for practitioners and leaders, while contributing to a cohesive network with tangible results.

The SDG and new urban agenda have been mobilizing many actors, and are an unprecedented opportunity to renew institutional models of governance because one of the elements required to localize the SDGs successfully is co-creating cities and territories, with the active participation of citizens and learning from the implementation of the experiences of a wide range of social actors.

This training is aimed at the development of capacities of LRGs and LRG associations at political and technical level, as well as of other actors (representatives of civil society, private sector, academia etc) who must necessarily be included in planning processes, if these aim at being inclusive. The participants can replicate this training with stakeholders (representatives of states, international organizations and civil society organizations). We will work on strategic and integral, non-sectoral and multi-stakeholder planning that aim to be as broad as possible in order to embrace all political views and with a territorial scope limited to one LRG.