How we developed a toolkit to localise global agendas

This post is written by Laura Dissel, Intern, Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

• The problem: Fast rapid urbanisation challenges sustainable urban development.
• Why it matters: We need to secure human well-being and tackle climate change.
• The solution: Localising the 2030 Agenda on a local level with the help of City WORKS.

In Palestine, cities face rapid urbanisation and are in need of sustainable urban development. By localising global agendas on a local level, context-specific indicators were developed and local needs met. City WORKS was therefore a guide and supported the localisation process. To know more about City WORKS, feel free to visit our website.

In Palestine, urban areas are already home to 75% of the population, and they continue to expand rapidly. This poses challenges around land availability, fragmented urban development and a diffused urban sprawl. Moreover, Palestinian cities face various social, economic and political obstacles. Effective urban planning can positively affect the situation of conflict in building inclusive, diverse and just communities. Three cities put their local planning tools to the test and accessed them in consideration of the SDGs. They adopted the City WORKS approach and tools to make them more responsive to their needs and context.

In this context, GIZ’s Local Governance Reform Programme (LGRP) supports local government units in enhancing their performance, especially in the areas of urban planning, financial management and accountability. With the support of the LGRP, the Palestinian Ministry of Local Government (MoLG) has initiated a process to assist and improve local development planning by providing and implementing new tools and promoting social inclusion. The 2030 Agenda serves as a powerful framework and orientation for this process. So, it became necessary to link and align existing local planning tools to the SDGs.

Effective urban planning can positively affect the situation of conflict in building inclusive, diverse and just communities.

To support and advise this alignment in three pilot cities – Nablus and Jericho in the West Bank and Khan Younis in Gaza – three universities were selected, each cooperating with one city. Together with a representative from MoLG, professors from these universities were introduced to the City WORKS approach and toolkit to facilitate them in their consultancy for the respective cities. During a two-day virtual workshop, they gained an in-depth understanding of the toolkit’s goals and adapted it accordingly to the respective local context.

Academic consultants developed different approaches, methods and agendas for the aligning process of the 2030 agenda into the four sectors of infrastructure and environment, society, economics, and governance.

They faced different challenges such as the breaking down of indicators from the national to local level. With the 2030 Agenda indicators, the cities developed context-specific ones according to their needs which were linked to national policymaking and monitoring. With City WORKS, guidelines were developed and will be implemented through workshops with selected municipalities.

With the use of City WORKS, stakeholders and consultants were able to strengthen the global agenda on a local level. Through workshops, the relevance of the SDGs were highlighted and their integration into already taken place activities were planned and specific entry points identified. The barrier of breaking down indicators from national to the local level was facilitated by adding context-specific ones for each city. Therefore, each city was able to link national policies to their needs and the 2030 agenda.

The three pilots proved to be a success, meaning that the MoLG agreed to continue the process. Next to the pilot cities, around 30 large and medium-sized cities will be eligible for training to facilitate the integration of the 2030 agenda on the local level.

Learn more about the City WORKS toolkit here.

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(Image Credit: Wesley Caribe, Unsplash)