Measuring the advances performed in the 2030 Agenda and the contribution of public policies remains a key issue. Budgets are acknowledged as one of the most powerful tools made available to administrations to push forward this contribution, and so several initiatives have risen to align budget items and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) performance at all levels. The aim of this paper is to go beyond simple alignment and statistically analyze the interlinkages between budget and SDG achievement data. We have used the Spanish local administrations budget, together with indicators used to measure the 2030 Agenda goals at the same level, and computed a correlation test in order to find where budget allocation has an impact. We have then looked further into the relevant impacts to split them into direct and indirect. The research found ca. 25% of the budget items with relevant statistical links to the SDGs, with the SDGs 11 and 15 being the least impacted and SDGs 1, 4, 7, 8 and 16 the most connected ones. This research aims to set the bases of an evidence-based decision-support tool for a more efficient and sustainable policy design.

In 2017, the United Nations adopted a global Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicator framework, calling on member countries to collect complementary national and regional indicators. Cities are crucial to channelling efforts towards sustainability through the use of these indicators. They provide an integrated approach to the city situation monitoring sustainability. However, more research is needed to understand how to adapt the goals, targets and indicators to specific municipal contexts. In 2020, the Spanish Sustainable Development Solutions Network launched the 2nd edition of the Spanish Cities Index. A set of 106 indicators allows for monitoring the implementation of the SDGs at the local level for Spanish cities. The objective is to perform a statistical audit to evaluate the consistency of the indicators and the impact of modelling assumptions on the result. The methodology used is an adaptation of the Handbook on Constructing Composite Indicator prepared by the European Commission. The indicator system is well balanced and covers the essential areas of the Sustainable Development Goals. The Spanish ranking is robust enough among the alternatives evaluated. However, some improvements are possible in the selection of indicators, e.g., removing redundant indicators and regional data. Finally, it is recommended to weigh goals based on municipal responsibility to adjust the results to the Spanish municipal context.

Data analytics is a key resource to analyze cities and to find their strengths and weaknesses to define long-term sustainable strategies. On the one hand, urban planning is geared to adapting cities’ strategies towards a qualitative, intelligent, and sustainable growth. On the other hand, institutions are geared towards open governance and collaborative administration models. In this context, sustainability has become a global concern for urban development, and the sustainable development goals (SDGs), defined by United Nations, are the framework to be followed to define the new city goals and to measure the advances of the policies implemented over recent years. The main objective of this research is to explain the methods and results of the application of a city assessment tool for measuring the impact of public policies on the socioeconomic and environmental structure of a city. It addresses the case study of the evaluation of the strategic plan “Diseña 2020” of the municipality of Alcobendas (Madrid, Spain, with 116.037 inhabitants), the document used to communicate the actions needed to achieve the city goals during the planning exercise. A selection of urban indicators has been aligned with the SDGs defined in the Agenda 2030 to develop a tool for the measurement of the impacts of policies in economic, social, and ecological terms. Through this set of indicators, the tool is able to quantify the impact of the policies on the city and the SDGs and to support the decision-making processes of the administration. The set of urban indicators is divided into five areas: economic development and employment, sustainable development, open government, social responsibility, and quality of life. The data evolution, across the recent years 2012–2018, is used to monitor and benchmark the effects of the applied policies. In addition, Alcobendas can be compared with other Spanish and European cities with similar characteristics; it makes possible assessing the achievement of the city’s strategic areas, incorporating the current trends and fostering the SDGs. Thanks to the quantitative comparable results and the objective approach, this research shows a methodology based on indicators that could be applied and scaled to other cities to generate a common framework for measuring the impact of public policies on cities.

No abstract

In October 2018, the Spanish SDSN Network, REDS, launched the SDG Spanish Cities Index report summarizing the progress of 100 Spanish cities toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). This study, developed in collaboration with the Technical University of Madrid, follows the methodology used by the Global SDG Index and Dashboards and the US Cities Index, which SDSN co-produces annually to assess SDG performance at both the national and international levels. This study, previously developed by the same researchers, identifies the most suitable indicators, metrics and urban data to measure the commitment and degree of compliance with SDG 17 for a selection of Spanish cities. It provides, through a set of 85 indicators, a unique vision of their sustainable development and allows monitoring the implementation of the SDGs at the local level in the Spanish context. In this paper, the analysis of their interactions using this dataset has been systematized. This is an innovative first step in defining the path toward urban sustainable development to make policies happen: dependencies among the goals in terms of potential interactions need to be evaluated in the Spanish context. Those results, improvements and applicability are presented and discussed in the following to identify action priorities and raise awareness of local governments and policymakers. It concludes that major efforts are required to increase sustainability and suggests an open framework that can be gradually improved as more data become available.