The UN Sustainable Development Goals as innovation drivers for local sustainability governance? Examples from Germany

Abstract

The authors would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their very useful comments and suggestions.

‘New Wine in Old Wineskins?’—Understanding the Framing of SDGs in the Local Government Context in Ghana

“…The study notes that multi-level government coordination is necessary to enable cities and local governments to address all aspects of the comprehensive SDG agenda. Related studies like Jones and Comfort (2020), Raffer et al (2022) and Valencia et al (2019) also suggest that inadequate national government leadership in SDG localization impacts the localization efforts of local governments.…”

“…Framing the SDGs as a facilitator of local development implies ‘new wine in old wineskins’, where the innovations embedded in the SDGs, the ‘new wine’, are applied to existing systems of development, the ‘old wineskins’. Evidence on localization in other contexts highlights similar trends of SDG implementation that are harnessed to emphasize existing development tenets, including partnerships (Masuda et al, 2021), inclusivity (Horn and Grugel, 2018) and sustainable local governance (Raffer et al, 2022). The framing aligns with the rationale for the SDGs, which includes harnessing the unique contributions of various countries and development contexts to enhance global development.…”

Strategies for Realization of Socially Sustainable Residential Buildings: Experts’ Perspectives

“…The involvement of local governments is highly relevant for the implementation of the social and ecological strategies leading to the realization of the three pillars of sustainable development. Sustainability strategies provide horizontal integration at the local level and link municipal achievements to national and global strategies vertically [50,51]. As a highly regulated country that has been dealing with sustainability processes and concepts for a long time, Germany represents a valuable case study of the national and local implementation of sustainability strategies derived from the 2030 Agenda, e.g., SDG-related budgeting, sustainability controlling and reporting, indicator-based sustainability strategies, and local government financing [51].…”

“…Moreover, the so-called "Club of Agenda 2030 Municipalities" represents a German network of municipalities, cities, and districts dedicated to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda's Sustainable Development Goals proclaimed in the resolution "2030-Agenda for Sustainable Development: Shaping Sustainability at the Municipal Level" signed by 190 German cities in September 2021 [51]. The participating municipalities are engaged to various degrees in socio-political activities relating to the SDGs' implementation on the local (municipal) level, where citizens' and multi-stakeholders' engagement, the fostering of interdepartmental processes, and governmental regulatory mechanisms represent the crucial sustainability strategies leading to a socio-ecological transformation and the achievement of the SDGs.…”

“…Freiburg has a long tradition of dealing with sustainability topics. It was the first city in Germany that introduced sustainability-related budgeting in order to align the municipal financial resources with sustainability objectives (i.e., localized SDGs) [51]. In reference to the social sustainability strategies' implementation in Freiburg, the key topics are social equity, sustainable community, and the social mix, which were implemented in the socalled 'fresh cell strategy' wherein young families with children became residents of newly erected buildings constructed in dwelling quarters with a predominantly elderly population (built in the 1960s and 1970s).…”