Touching Down in Cities: Territorial Planning Instruments as Vehicles for the Implementation of SDG Strategies in Cities of the Global South

Abstract

We discuss municipal physical-spatial planning instruments as vehicles for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in cities in the Global South. We do this by focusing on Medellin, Colombia, a city that has endured significant challenges–mainly related to poverty and violence–, but has attracted significant international attention due to its approach to territorial planning and its innovative application of new and existing legal tools to transform realities and repay historical debts with the urban poor. We performed a review of the most important documents related to SDG implementation in the country and the city, as well as Municipal Development Plans and legal planning instruments issued from 1 January 2016. The article maps active planning instruments and suggests the analysis, already from the diagnosis and formulation phases, of the linkage among strategies and projects, and SDGs, and the inclusion of SDG considerations in citizen participation instruments such as so-called Local Development Plans.

SDG localization baseline: How local-level actors are driving change and advancing the achievement of the 2030 Agenda

“…Regarding Medellín, the Colombian national government recognizes that the SDGs require regional and local governments to build effective policy formulation processes that strengthen multisectoral, multi-stakeholder, and multi-level collaboration (Mejía-Dugand & Pizano-Castillo, 2020). Finally, the Havana and Tegucigalpa case studies contrast with all the others in the region since the stakeholder engagement and governance have occurred mainly at the national level.…”

“…Medellín takes up this challenge and expresses its commitment through COMPES document No. 1, issued by the Municipal Council for Economic and Social Policy (COMPES): "the municipality of Medellín actively assumes the inclusion of the SDGs in the city's planning processes to achieve better levels of well-being, equity and sustainability"(Council of Medellín, 2020; Government of Medellín, 2020b;Mejía-Dugand & Pizano-Castillo, 2020). Medellín's know-how regarding SDG localization is regionally spread through the metropolitan area where the city is located (Aburra Valley).…”

Housing and choice in Iquique and Alto Hospicio, Chile: Possibilities and limitations regarding the 2030 agenda and SDG 11

“…Inclusion is one of the most complex challenges to address in the urban framework of the United Nations 2030 Agenda. Decades of real estate and infrastructure transactions aimed at improving the quality of life of urban residents have evolved into the current mix of high housing prices, transport networks where cars are the main means of transportation and scant allocation of green areas or amenity spaces in the main cities around the world (da Silva, 2018;Mejia-Dugand and Pizano-Castillo, 2020;Croese et al, 2021;Manfredi-Sanchez et al, 2021). This is added to the slow delivery of housing through housing subsidies and direct allocations or emergency operations that make the city an unattainable space, both socioeconomically as well as politically and in terms of social integration (Murphy, 2014;Ansell and Cansunar, 2021;Airgood-Obrycki et al, 2022;Singh, 2022).…”

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

“…Emerging scholarly works on SDG implementation highlight different interactions between local contextual factors and the SDGs in various locations (Jones and Comfort, 2020; Masuda et al, 2021; Mejía-Dugand and Pizano-Castillo, 2020; Ndlovu et al, 2020; Valencia et al, 2019). Some studies also examine the impact of SDGs on the local context (Belda-Miquel et al, 2019; Bexell and Jönsson, 2020; Ndlovu et al, 2020) as well as local factors that impede or facilitate the localization process (Bexell and Jönsson, 2019; Croese et al, 2021).…”