Cities, regions and the SDGs
Localizing SDG data and indicators, studying the science-policy interface in cities and regions
Cities, regions and the SDGs
Secretary-General António Guterres has stated that “cities are where the climate battle will largely be won or lost.” Attaining the SDGs and Paris Agreement goals requires more commitment to subnational and urban SDG financing along with deeper integration of the SDGs into local strategies, policies, targeted measures, and monitoring and governance systems. Investments must be aligned with subnational policies informed by science.
Building on the SDSN’s years of work on sustainable cities and regions, the SDG Transformation Center is partnering with local governments and other stakeholders to produce robust research, data and science to accelerate SDG transformation at the subnational level. We focus on:
- Data collection on local & regional SDG policies
- Spillovers at sub- national level
- City-University Partnerships
- Community engagement, training & capacity building
- Financing the SDGs in cities and regions
Our work
We support SDSN’s involvement in the Global Commission for Urban SDG Finance, which gathers insights by climate and finance experts, mayors and practitioners to develop innovative policies to secure urban climate finance.
We conduct case studies, comparative policy tracking work and monitoring with the OECD and other organizations. Guided by a desire to understand how policies are and can be more informed by science, we examine topics like spillovers (particularly to quantify and understand the impacts of local consumption of goods and services produced elsewhere). We investigate new sources of geospatial data and its application for understanding and comparing SDG attainment in cities. We also study how cities and regions build university partnerships to build capacity and engage with science in the policymaking process.
The combined output of this work – policy papers, data visualizations, indices and case studies – seeks to inform evidence-based strategies for cities and regions and to serve as a platform for peer-to-peer learning among them.
Learn about SDSN's reports, publications and data visualizations in our library