Developing and testing the Urban Sustainable Development Goal’s targets and indicators – a five-city study

David Simon; Helen Arfvidsson; Geetika Anand; Amir Bazaaz; Gill Fenna; Kevin Foster; Garima Jain; Stina Hansson; Louise Marix Evans; Nishendra Moodley; Charles Nyambuga; Michael Oloko; Doris  Chandi Ombara; Zarina Patel; Beth Perry; Natasha Primo; Brendon Van Niekerk; Alex Wharton; Carol Wright

doi:10.1177/0956247815619865

Developing and testing the Urban Sustainable Development Goal’s targets and indicators – a five-city study

David Simon, Helen Arfvidsson, Geetika Anand, Amir Bazaaz, Gill Fenna, Kevin Foster, Garima Jain, Stina Hansson, Louise Marix Evans, Nishendra Moodley, Charles Nyambuga, Michael Oloko, Doris Chandi Ombara, Zarina Patel, Beth Perry, Natasha Primo, Brendon Van Niekerk, Alex Wharton, Carol Wright

Department of Geography

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The campaign for the inclusion of a specifically urban goal within the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was challenging. Numerous divergent interests were involved, while urban areas worldwide are also extremely heterogeneous. It was essential to minimize the number of targets and indicators while still capturing critical urban dimensions relevant to human development. It was also essential to test the targets and indicators. This paper reports the findings of a unique comparative pilot project involving co-production between researchers and local authority officials in five diverse secondary and intermediate cities: Bangalore (Bengaluru), India; Cape Town, South Africa; Gothenburg, Sweden; Greater Manchester, United Kingdom; and Kisumu, Kenya. Each city faced problems in providing all the data required, and each also proposed various changes to maximize the local relevance of particular targets and indicators. This reality check provided invaluable inputs to the process of finalizing the urban SDG prior to the formal announcement of the entire SDG set by the UN Secretary-General in late September 2015.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	49-63
Number of pages	15
Journal	Environment and urbanization
Volume	28
Issue number	1
Early online date	23 Dec 2015
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/0956247815619865
Publication status	Published - 1 Apr 2016

Keywords

Bangalore / Cape Town / Gothenburg / Greater Manchester / indicators / Kisumu / targets / Urban Sustainable Development Goal

Access to Document

10.1177/0956247815619865Licence: CC BY-NC

http://eau.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/12/17/0956247815619865.full.pdf+html

Cite this

Simon, D., Arfvidsson, H., Anand, G., Bazaaz, A., Fenna, G., Foster, K., Jain, G., Hansson, S., Marix Evans, L., Moodley, N., Nyambuga, C., Oloko, M., Chandi Ombara, D., Patel, Z., Perry, B., Primo, N., Van Niekerk, B., Wharton, A., & Wright, C. (2016). Developing and testing the Urban Sustainable Development Goal’s targets and indicators – a five-city study. Environment and urbanization, 28(1), 49-63. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956247815619865

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title = "Developing and testing the Urban Sustainable Development Goal{\textquoteright}s targets and indicators – a five-city study",

abstract = "The campaign for the inclusion of a specifically urban goal within the United Nations{\textquoteright} Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was challenging. Numerous divergent interests were involved, while urban areas worldwide are also extremely heterogeneous. It was essential to minimize the number of targets and indicators while still capturing critical urban dimensions relevant to human development. It was also essential to test the targets and indicators. This paper reports the findings of a unique comparative pilot project involving co-production between researchers and local authority officials in five diverse secondary and intermediate cities: Bangalore (Bengaluru), India; Cape Town, South Africa; Gothenburg, Sweden; Greater Manchester, United Kingdom; and Kisumu, Kenya. Each city faced problems in providing all the data required, and each also proposed various changes to maximize the local relevance of particular targets and indicators. This reality check provided invaluable inputs to the process of finalizing the urban SDG prior to the formal announcement of the entire SDG set by the UN Secretary-General in late September 2015.",

keywords = "Bangalore / Cape Town / Gothenburg / Greater Manchester / indicators / Kisumu / targets / Urban Sustainable Development Goal",

author = "David Simon and Helen Arfvidsson and Geetika Anand and Amir Bazaaz and Gill Fenna and Kevin Foster and Garima Jain and Stina Hansson and {Marix Evans}, Louise and Nishendra Moodley and Charles Nyambuga and Michael Oloko and {Chandi Ombara}, Doris and Zarina Patel and Beth Perry and Natasha Primo and {Van Niekerk}, Brendon and Alex Wharton and Carol Wright",

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Simon, D, Arfvidsson, H, Anand, G, Bazaaz, A, Fenna, G, Foster, K, Jain, G, Hansson, S, Marix Evans, L, Moodley, N, Nyambuga, C, Oloko, M, Chandi Ombara, D, Patel, Z, Perry, B, Primo, N, Van Niekerk, B, Wharton, A & Wright, C 2016, 'Developing and testing the Urban Sustainable Development Goal’s targets and indicators – a five-city study', Environment and urbanization, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 49-63. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956247815619865

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AU - Foster, Kevin

AU - Jain, Garima

AU - Hansson, Stina

AU - Marix Evans, Louise

AU - Moodley, Nishendra

AU - Nyambuga, Charles

AU - Oloko, Michael

AU - Chandi Ombara, Doris

AU - Patel, Zarina

AU - Perry, Beth

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AU - Wright, Carol

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