Localization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: Declaration, Landscapes and Gaps, 2020

Raymond Saner & Lichia Yiu, CSEND, Geneva

Current literature from ‘United for Smart Sustainable Cities’ details key performance indicators that can be utilized by cities to track their progress based on SDG indicators. This can be extremely helpful for cities who have trouble collecting or displaying data. In many of the VLRs reviewed, cities used varying types of data when displaying data and methods of collecting the data. This lack of consistency when discussing progress can cause problems when comparing the progress made by cities and when determining the most successful methods of achieving sustainability.

Some cities and states supplemented or substituted SDG indicators with their own (a disclaimer that is above each individual matrix). The aim of the matrixes below is to contribute to the discussion surrounding cities and their mention of SDG indicators. Specifically, the question arises whether or not a city needs to use SDG indicators to achieve sustainability and resiliency. This article offers a matrix which lists the goals mentioned by each city or state in their voluntary local reviews and shows which indicators were specifically mentioned in VLRs as well as the language used in VLRs to describe progress on an indicator.