A commentary on the localisation of the sustainable development goals

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1943
• Author: Peter Jones,Daphne Comfort
• Published date: 01 February 2020
• Date: 01 February 2020

COMMENTARY

A commentary on the localisation of the sustainable

development goals

Peter Jones |Daphne Comfort

School of Business and Technology, University

of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham, UK

Correspondence

Peter Jones, Professor of Management, School

of Business and Technology, University of

Gloucestershire, the Park Cheltenham, UK, GL

50 2RH.

Email: pjones@glos.ac.uk

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) embrace an ambitious

and wide ranging set of environmental, social, and economic issues designed to effect

a transition to a more sustainable future. Although the SDGs are global in nature,

there is an increasing awareness that they also have an important local dimension.

With this in mind, this commentary paper outlines the characteristics of the SDGs,

reviews their importance at the local level, provides some illustrations of how they

are being addressed locally within North Western Europe and United Kingdom, and

offers some reflections on localising the SDGs. The paper suggests that progress in

launching and developing local initiatives within the United Kingdom has, to date,

been limited. In part, this reflects the lack of a clear national policy framework for

the localisation of the SDGs and in part, it reflects the challenges of raising awareness

of the importance of local SDG initiatives and of funding such initiatives. Looking to

the future, communications and public relations professionals may have an important

role to play in raising awareness of the importance of the SDGs at the local level,

and this may help to change hearts and minds in addressing the policy making and

financial challenges.

1|INTRODUCTION

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by all member

states of the United Nations in 2015, provide “a shared blueprint for

peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the

future”and “are an urgent call for action by all countries ‐developed

and developing—in a global partnership”(United Nations, undated).

More specifically, the SDGs look to “address the global challenges

we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate,

environmental degradation, prosperity, and peace and justice”and to

“achieve a better and more sustainable future for all”(United Nations,

2018).Although the European Commission (2017) argued “one key

feature is that the SDGs are global in nature,”there is an increasing

awareness that the SDGs also have an important local dimension.

Here, action at the local level is seen to be vitally important in building

sustainable communities and addressing the environmental, social,

and economic challenges posed by the SDGs. Stefan Bonaccini,

President of the European Council of Municipalities and Regions, for

example, argued “the achievement of all the SDGs require local action

and implementation”(PLATFORMA and Council of European

Municipalities and Regions, 2018). Further, Bardot, Pizzaro, Licha,

Stichelmans, and Marche (2017) suggested “many of the SDGs touch

on many of the daily activities of local and regional governments:

education, health, water and sanitation, waste management, public

transport, housing, gender inequality, participatory urban planning,

disaster risk prevention, environmental impacts, pollution and climate

change, migration and adaptation, decentralized cooperation etc.,

regardless of whether they explicitly use the SDG framework or

vocabulary or not.”With this in mind, this commentary paper outlines

the characteristics of the SDGs, reviews their importance at the local

level, provides some illustrations of how they are being addressed

locally within North Western Europe and the United Kingdom, and

offers some reflections on localising the SDGs.

2|THE SDGS AT THE LOCAL LEVEL

The SDGs came into effect in January 2016, and they will guide

United Nations development thinking and policy up to 2030. The

Received: 1 March 2019 Accepted: 1 March 2019

DOI: 10.1002/pa.1943

J PublicAffairs. 2020;20:e1943.

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1943

© 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa 1of6