Aligning local

projects with the

SDGs
A quick guide for
measuring action
Why align local projects with the SDGs?

• The SDGs offer a powerful shared language and an opportunity to contribute to common challenges,
becoming part of a global movement towards sustainability,
• They also provide a framework for innovation, collaboration, and sharing of solutions and best practices
between cities, territories, and countries.
• As a comprehensive set of interrelated goals, the SDG represent an integrated approach across all dimensions
of sustainable development. They serve as a compass to ensure that our actions are planned, implemented
and monitored in a holistic way.
• The SDGs are local: cities and local governments are great drivers of innovation as they tackle complex
challenges every day. They have increasingly shown their commitment with the 2030 Agenda by embracing
the SDGs to promote sustainable development in their own territories and beyond. Local action is the key to
achieve the SDGs: the more local it gets, the more real it gets!

When can you use this guide?

• Whether you are just starting to formulate your initiative, or you need a broader understanding of your
priorities, or if you are getting ready to measure the results of your project, this guide will help you to…

Get inspiration about what to do next. Take a step back and consider the wide range of options that you can
target with your initiative, and the interlinkages between social, economic, and environmental dimensions.
• If your project focuses on clean energy (SDG 7), it will probably have an impact on sustainable
consumption (SDG 12) too!
• Is it about education (SDG 4)? Then, most likely, it will also address gender (SDG 5) and inequalities
(SDG 10).

Better visualize and communicate what you want to achieve with your project. The SDG can be easily
understood by everyone and are a great communication tool.

Change trajectory mid-way if you need to. Projects are initially designed on paper, but they are implemented
in dynamic and ever-changing situations that involve communities. The SDG can serve as a guiding framework
to help you navigate and find your way if you get lost.

Measuring and demonstrating the impact by using alternative, locally adapted indicators. Do you want to
write a more interesting project report? The SDGs are great for showcasing how you have taken action and
achieved results!

Let’s put on our

SDG lenses!
Where to start? Here are some simple steps to get you started

• There is no one-size-fits-all approach to aligning your initiative to the SDGs. They must be interpreted within
your specific context, taking into account local opportunities, priorities and ideas. Therefore, tailoring the
following steps to meet the needs of your city is encouraged.
• It is not just about what you can do for the SDGs…it is about what the SDGs can do for you!

One - Let the SDG principles inspire you

• The SDGs were developed through a collaborative process involving a diverse group of people from every
country in the world. Despite the challenges, this collective effort resulted in a remarkable achievement: a
consensus on a shared set of global goals.
• The spirit of Agenda 2030 is to bring the world together to act for people, for the planet and for partnerships.
The SDGs go beyond targets and indicators; they are underpinned by several key principles that can guide
policies, actions, and investments.

Exercise:

Before start planning your project, we invite you to think about the SDG principles1 and see how they could
strengthen the coherence, impact and sustainability of your SDG local actions. Please, do not consider this as a
need to simply tick all the boxes, but rather as a reflection exercise.

Following the examples below, try to develop one or several question for each of the principles and see how
they are relevant and could apply to your local project:

Coherence: with other proj-

ects, plans, policies that are
being implemented
Partnerships: with whom
are we going to implement
this action?

Integration: place the

multidimensional nature of
Multilevel coordination:
development at the center
local, national, global
of our actions

Leave No One Behind: are we

reaching those who are most at risk
Accountability: reporting our ac- of being left behind because of their
tions can promote transparency, gender, race, ethnicity, disability, age,
trust, and participation or socioeconomic status?

1
Learning Module 2: Territorial Planning & the SDG, UCLG, UNDP and UN Habitat, 2017.
TWO - Link your project to the SDGs

o Review your project´s objectives, expected outputs and activities.

o Analyze the 17 Goals in detail, and the interlinkages between all of them.
o Identify to which SDG your project contributes the most by asking yourself:
• Which SDG will be more impacted?
• How will my project affect the other Goals (Either positively or
negatively)?
o SDG are an enabling framework that can help us capture certain dimensions
of our projects that we may have been originally overlooked.

THREE - Now go one step further: SDG targets

• Once you have identified which SDG your project contributes to, analyze the
targets corresponding to each SDG.
• Ask yourself: Do the project activities reflect the issue, ambition and
scope of the SDG targets?

FOUR - Review, rethink or create your metrics to measure impact:

• Measuring, monitoring and evaluating local action is crucial for understanding progress towards the SDG at
all levels and recognizing the contributions of cities and local governments to the 2030 Agenda.
• Well-functioning monitoring and evaluation systems are key to project management efficiency, transparency
and accountability. But above all, these frameworks need to be USEFUL and avoid unnecessary complexity
or unattainable requirements.

The SDG provide a set of indicators that can serve as inspiration to define your own. But no need to overcomplicate
things! If you find any useful indicators among the official UN SDG indicators, feel free to use them.
 The Global Indicator Framework was developed by the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on SDG
Indicators and agreed upon at the 48th session of the UN Statistical Commission held in March 2017. It
was later adopted by the General Assembly in July 2017. After several annual refinement, the
framework currently includes 231 indicators.

You may also want to explore the wide range of local indicators that have been proposed and are being used by
various actors from all over the world: local and regional governments and their associations, national
governments, international organizations, Civil Society Organizations, universities…

You can find many good examples compiled in the Comparative study on SDG monitoring systems
at local and regional levels.

Or you may want to use what you already have to design your own set of indicators, in order to establish a baseline
that can be measured with existing resources. In order to do so, think about the following elements: What is the
availability of high-quality, timely and reliable data? Are there disaggregated data - by gender, location (urban-rural),
age, ethnicity, and other relevant dimensions? What are the data collection capacities (human resources,
technological facilities...)?

FIVE - Go global! Share your experiences, innovations, and best practices

• With cities, local and national governments and the international community embracing the SDG as a
universal framework, it has become easier – and more important than ever – to share our experiences,
innovations and best practices with others around the world. This collaborative approach can help maximize
skills, knowledge and resources, increase cooperation and build alliances in pursuit of our common goals.
• If your project is aligned to SDG targets and indicators, reporting through existing mechanisms such as
Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs) or Voluntary National Reviews (VNR) can be really useful – and a great
opportunity for visibility!
• We are looking forward to hearing about your experiences. Do not be shy, share with us your SDG local
actions!

Contact us at: [email protected]

Let's look at a few examples: How are cities aligning their strategies, plans, and projects with the SDGs?

La Paz, Bolivia

UNDP Bolivia has developed a comprehensive 10-step methodology to localize the SDGs that has been successfully applied by subnational governments (Bolivian
cities and departments). This approach provides a foundation for local development from the bottom up, through the establishment of objectives, targets, means
of implementation, and the use of indicators to measure and track progress. Firmly grounded in national and, most importantly, local priorities, it seeks to conduct
planning WITH communities, rather than solely FOR them, while also involving governments, businesses and civil society to pursue sustainable development for
all, ensuring that no one and no territory is left behind.

The main steps of this methodology are as follows:

Step 0: Establishment of work agreements

Step 1: Promote awareness and capacity building

Step 2: Articulation between territorial planning and the SDGs

Step 3: Creation of territorial spaces for coordination

Step 4: SDG Diagnosis and Multidimensional Analysis

Step 5: Definition of an integrated work agenda

Step 6: Establishment of goals and indicators

Step 7: Definition of intervention programming

Step 8: Implementation of pilot interventions

Step 9: Establishment of a monitoring mechanism

Step 10: Articulation with the national monitoring system.

Vision to overcome multidimensional poverty
Strategic
Areas of intervention Target Programs Strategic actions SDG
objectives
Long-term employment opportunities are
Employment for all
generated through the promotion of productive
2 8 20 8, 9, 2, 11, 12
activities that stimulate the economy and decent
employment.

Conditions are created for people to achieve

Education for production
adequate levels of education and develop skills 3 5 14 4, 9, 8, 11, 16
and employment
for production and employment.
Rights for equality and Rights, protection, and well-being of all people
3 6 15 4, 5, 10, 16
equity are guaranteed
Universal access to health care service with
Health for life 2 5 15 3, 2, 13, 15
quality and warmth

Access to basic services with quality, stability,

Safe home 2 4 10 6, 7, 11
reliability, and continuity is guaranteed

Sustainable management of the environment and

Environment sustainable 2 2 6 13, 15
its resources is guaranteed
Valladolid, Spain

The Urban Agenda 2030 (AUVA2030) of Valladolid is a comprehensive roadmap for the entire city, developed through a participatory process, with a focus on the
medium and long term. It serves as a strategic document aimed at transforming Valladolid into a more sustainable, resilient, inclusive, and safe city. Grounded
in the local context, challenges, and opportunities, AUVA2030 proposes a set of interconnected priorities and objectives for the city, linking them to the global
sustainable development agendas - the New Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals.

The development of AUVA2030 involved the following steps:

1) Situation diagnosis: data collection and analysis to assess past initiatives (e.g., previous urban sustainability agendas and programmes) in order to establish a
baseline for future action.

2) Analysis of sustainable development agendas at national (Spain), supranational (European Union) and global (Urban Agenda and SDGs) levels to facilitate
alignment with broader objectives.

3) Definition, through a participatory approach with the Municipal Advisory Council, of strategic priorities, objectives, and an action plan.

4) Development of an indicators´ framework for monitoring and evaluation.

5) Public awareness raising through information campaigns (talks, exhibitions in the neighborhoods...) and capacity building activities for municipal staff.

Have a look at this snapshot of AUVA2030 to see how it aligns local objectives, priorities and actions with the SDGs and their corresponding targets, and how it
sets both quantitative and qualitative indicators to effectively measure progress.

Strategic Quantitative
Specific objective Strategicpriority Action Qualitative indicator SDG SDG target
objective indicator

4. Sustainable 4.1 Become more Sustainable and • Pollution prevention 4.1.1. Is there a 4.1.2 Energy 7.1 Universal energy access
management of energy efficient and resilient cities and environmental sustainable energy consumption by 7.2 Renewable energy
resources and save energy quality. action plan or strategy buildings, 7.3 Energy efficiency
promotion of the • Climate Action. in place that sets local infrastructures, and 7.a Research and investment in
7
circular economy • Natural Resources and targets? public services clean energy
Waste Management. 7.b Infrastructure and
• Biodiversity and technologies in developing
ecosystems. countries
 • Sustainable
Consumption and 4.2.1 Is there a 4.2.2 Percentage of 6.1 Access to safe drinking water
Production. sustainable water water self-sufficiency 6.2 Access to sanitation and
• Circular economy. management plan in hygiene
place to promote the 6.3 Water quality.
sustainability and 6.4 Increase the efficient use of
6
efficiency of the city's water resources.
water resources? 6.5 Implement integrated
resource management.
6.b Support local communities in
the management of water and
sanitation.

4.3 Proomote 4.3.1 Have criteria 4.3.2 Budget 12.2 Efficient use of natural
materials cycle been incorporated invested in actions resources.
into urban that use local and 12.3 Reducing food waste in
management to easily recyclable production and supply chains.
promote the materials 12 12.4 Management of chemicals
sustainable cycle of and all wastes
materials and 12.5 Prevention, reduction,
resources within the recycling and reuse of waste.
framework of the
circular economy?

4.4 Reduce waste 4.4.1 Are there any 4.4.2 Per capita 11.6 Waste and pollution in
and promote waste management waste generation cities
recycling plans in place to
11
increase the
percentage of
selective collection
and recycling?
Kigali, Rwanda
Local Action:
6.4 By 2030, substantially increase water-use
efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable By 2025, we will reduce household water
withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address expenditure by approximately 50% from
water scarcity and substantially reduce the $12/month to $6/month for 1,405
number of people suffering from water scarcity households

11.6 By 2030, reduce the adverse per capita

By 2025, we will install 7 smart waste sensors for
environmental impact of cities, including by paying
efficient and real-time collection by waste
special attention to air quality and municipal and
collectors in both neighborhoods
other waste management

Kumasi, Ghana Local Action:

6.2 By 2030, achieve access to adequate and By 2025 we aim to install approximately 915
equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end toilets, improving the access to equitable
open defecation, paying special attention to the sanitation for ~38% of the houses in Moshie
needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable Zongo
situations

8.5 By 2030, achieve full and productive By 2025, we will train and achieve full
employment and decent work for all women and and productive employment for 150 young
men, including for young people and persons with women and men in Moshie Zongo
disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value