Fostering
COVID-19 Recovery and SDG Implementation Through Local action in Asia-Pacific,
Arab and African countries
Project Title: Fostering COVID-19 recovery
and SDG implementation through local action in Asia-Pacific, Arab
& African Countries |
Executing Entity: UN-HABITAT |
Other Implementing Entities: UNDESA,
UNESCAP, UNECA, UNESCWA, UCLG |
Implementing Countries in Asia-Pacific: Nepal,
Philippines & Thailand |
Implementing Agencies in Nepal: UN-HABITAT
in Nepal & Chandragiri Municipality |
Project Background
Cities have been and still are the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. The UN Secretary General’s policy brief on COVID-19 in an Urban World indicates that 90 percent of COVID cases were reported in urban areas in July 2020. The size of their populations and their high level of global and local interconnectivity have made cities particularly vulnerable to the spread of the virus. Economic losses due to the pandemic have far wider-reaching impacts than on their immediate populations. UN-DESA’s policy brief (Achieving SDGs in the wake of COVID-19: Scenarios for policymakers) notes that due to economic decline, cities and local governments may, according to estimates, lose on average between 15 percent and 25 percent of their revenues, affecting their ability to provide basic services. There are strong links between the COVID-19 crisis and the achievement of the SDGs. UNDESA’s another policy brief (Impact of COVID-19 on SDG progress: a statistical perspective) notes that the “pandemic abruptly disrupted implementation towards many of the SDGs and, in some cases, turned back years of progress.
Since COVID-19 affects urban neighborhoods and groups of people in cities differently, addressing it requires a granular, localized understanding of cities and local realities. Meanwhile, according to the OECD, at least 65 percent of SDG targets will not be reached without proper engagement and coordination with local and regional governments. Thus, effective recovery from COVID-19 coupled with the achievement of SDGs requires increased localized action. SDG localization is hence understood as the process of transforming the Global Goals into reality at the local level, for local communities and their environments, in coordination with national frameworks; a two-way process where the local meets the national and the global and vice-versa.
Multilevel governance is a key to ensuring recovery
and creating resilient cities. Cities do not work in isolation – on one hand,
they are locally responsive and well positioned to put communities’ specific
needs at the center of the response and development, and on the other, they are
channels for the local implementation of national priorities. National
governments set national policy agendas, but their effective implementation
highly depends on localization mechanisms, by listening to cities, planning
along with them and by systematically including communities into
decision-making.
In practical terms, when it comes to technical
support at city level, the projects adopt UN-Habitat’s comprehensive approach
to SDG localization, anchored on three key pillars: i) the Global Urban Monitoring
Framework; ii) Voluntary Local Reviews; iii) SDG Cities. Through this approach
UN-Habitat and the implementing partners will be able to connect all component
of the SDG localization chain – from the collection and management of data to
the identification of development gaps and the design and implementation of
transformative projects. In addition, implementing partners have past
and ongoing experiences in promoting SDG localization sustainable development
at local level and have developed respective guidelines to support cities in
developing their own Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs). The project builds on the
experiences and knowledge of the implementing entities and aims facilitating
the convergence of methodologies into a single joint approach, hence ensuring cooperation
and coherence of UN support to both UNCTs and local partners. Such an approach will
be reflected in the SDG Localization-COVID-19 tool.
Objective
To promote inclusive post-pandemic recovery and advance the localization of the SDGs in selected countries in Asia and the Pacific, Africa, and the Arab States.
Context
Nepal was the first country to
produce a national SDG report and it has confirmed its commitment to the achievement
of the 2030 Agenda and its inclusive, multistakeholder partnership approach for
the achievement of the SDGs. The Government aims to localize the SDGs to the
Nepal context and to integrate them into national, subnational and local
development plans. The federal model, which the country adopted in its
Constitution, and which anticipates a three-tiered structure of government with
the devolution of executive and legislative powers to provincial and local
governments, and rural municipalities, should further support the localization
of the SDGs in Nepal (UNDAF, 2018-2022).
Most of the provincial governments
have established their policy/planning commissions, which have been sensitized
about the SDGs; many have already prepared plans integrating the fundamental
principles and goals of the SDGs. There is a need to expedite the mainstreaming
of the SDGs into plans and programs at the provincial and local levels.
Therefore, to assist in this process, planning and monitoring guidelines as
well as SDG Localization Resource Book have been prepared by the National
Planning Commission (NPC). The provinces have established their own
policy/planning commissions and have included SDG implementation in their plan
documents. Most of the provinces have formulated SDGs responsive periodic plans
and Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEFs). A few of the municipalities have
released white papers and strategies on implementing the SDGs (VNR of Nepal, 2020). The implementing
partners will provide direct technical assistance to the selected pilot city to
develop Nepal’s fist VLR and City Development Strategy – in line with existing
local and national policies.
Currently, there have been local
governments that have initiated and completed the VLR process, one of them
being the Dhulikhel Municipality. However, the VNR does not indicate linkages
with the VLRs produced. With the leading support of the implementing partners
(UNDESA; UNESCAP; UNECA; UNESCWA; UCLG), the project will organize VNRs-VLRs
Studios to foster connection between local and national reporting. The latter
will also be strengthened via the reinforcement of the national SDG
coordination mechanisms, specifically looking at enhancing the structural participation
of local governments.
In Nepal, Chandragiri
Municipality is selected as a pilot city of the “Fostering COVID-19 Recovery & SDG
Implementation Through Local Action in Asia-Pacific, Arab & African
Countries” project (UNDA 14 project) with the
intention of providing lessons learned and innovative approaches to be scaled
up and replicated in several other cities in Nepal through Voluntarily Local
Review (VLR) report and related initiatives.
Core Dimension of the Project
Localization has never been so central. In 2020, the
UN Secretary General launched the Decade of Action, a global call of action to
spur on global progress to achieve the SDGs by 2030. Along with global and
people’s action, the Decade of Action highlights local action as one of the key
levels of intervention to achieve the SDGs. This refers to the need for
“embedding the needed transitions in the policies, budgets, institutions and
regulatory frameworks of governments, cities and local authorities”. In
addition, the Secretary General’s recent Report on Our Common Agenda clearly
states: “The role of parliaments, cities and other subnational authorities is
particularly being recognized in inclusive approaches, with, for example,
voluntary local reviews of Sustainable Development Goal implementation
providing a model on which to build. Cities, local authorities and specifically
VLRs are key actors and processes to advance sustainable development and
inclusive multilateralism”. In this regard, the project is rooted in a
comprehensive Territorial Approach to Sustainable Development and on the
principles of the New Urban Agenda, as guiding framework to advance
sustainable urban development, hence accelerating the SDG localization
process. The core dimensions of the project are:
Leave No
one Behind |
Ownership
and sustainability |
Multilevel governance |
Innovation |
Building capacities |
Participatory processes
and inclusion
of minorities
and vulnerable/marginal ized
groups in decision-making processes
and development planning
– hence strengthening
the social
contract and a
recovery process tailored
on communities’
needs and priorities. |
Placing communities
at the center of development/recovery process
to ensure
full ownership, engagement
and sustainability
after the
project’s closure. |
Enhanced
dialogue and
coordination for
mutual learning and
alignment of development
and recovery
policies. Focus on strengthening
the VNR
preparatory process
by connecting
it to VLRs and
local governments. |
Improvement
of data
environments at local
level through
the piloting of the
Global Urban Monitoring Framework,
the adoption
of a spatial
approach to data and
the collection
of nontraditional and qualitative
data through participatory processes. |
Strengthening
the capacities
of local and
regional governments
for the
design of evidence-based development strategies
and policies
for SDG localization
and COVID-19
recovery. Also,
with the objective
of ensuring sustainability
and through a
blended in-person-online approach. |
Approach to the work & planned
Activities
The project is articulated around six key components: (i) Technical
Cooperation; (ii) Regional Processes; (iii) Normative development; (iv)
Multilevel Governance; (v) Capacity Building; (vi) Global and Regional
Advocacy.
To ensure coherence of approaches and alignment of activities, the project will establish a Task Force including all implementing partners. The Task Force will also be the main entry point for coordinating with UNRCOs and UNCTs. In addition, implementing partners will make sure to support one another in learning from each other for the design and implementation of activities. This includes for example the support to the development of VLRs, but also the implementation of the Mayors’ Academy in each region. Breakdown of the activities are listed as below:
Technical support to cities: Technical support to pilot cities is the
central activity of the project. Support will be coordinated by UN-HABITAT Head
Quarters’ SDG Localization Team in full alignment and coordination with the
implementing partners.
Rolling out of the Global Urban Monitoring Framework. Cities will be
accompanied in adopting the UMF to support monitoring of SDG progress within
their territories.
Elaboration of Voluntary Local Reviews. Cities will be technically
supported to develop their voluntary local review. VLR methodology will be
agreed and shared among implementing partners – with specific reference to the
existing global and regional guidelines. Concerning the latter, the project
will reference the VLR Global Guiding Elements prepared by DESA and the
Regional Guidelines for Asia-Pacific and Africa, developed respectively by
UNESCAP and UNECA.
Expected Accomplishments
Strengthened capacities of Local and Regional Governments to develop Voluntary Local Reviews and localize the SDGs to advance the post-pandemic recovery process.
Enhanced multilevel governance and interlinkages between local and national governments as well as regional and international processes on SDGs implementation and COVID-19 recovery.