The 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) will soon translate into responsibilities that will be shared by local governments. Hence localisation of the SDGs must be fleshed out without delay. Three elements that will be pivotal to localisation are: developing local indicators, orienting local officials to the Goals and generating local sources of finance.

 

To develop local indicators, SDG targets need to be broken up into local targets. This task is arduous, considering there are 169 targets under the SDGs, as against 18 in the millennium development goals (MDGs). However, it is not impossible. The Philippines’ Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS) is an example from the MDG era to learn from (http://www.pdf.ph/downloads/Annex_3_FINAL_PDF_Poverty_Mapping_Report__2_%5B1%5D.pdf). The CBMS developed indicators corresponding to each MDG, along with additional local indicators, to be used at the Local Government Unit level. These indicators helped in preparing local plans related to poverty reduction, health and disaster management. Existing local officials were used in tracking progress against the indicators.

 

The next step is to develop local methods of data collection to measure these indicators. The data collected needs to be disaggregated by income, gender, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability and geographic location, as prescribed by Goal 17. Additionally, locally measurable criteria such as land ownership, formal/ informal employment and education levels may be used. Since data collection was not given adequate attention by the MDGs, local governments may need significant assistance in developing their data capacities.

 

The second element of localisation – orienting local officials to the Goals –is crucial to the roll out of SDG strategies, including the use of local indicators and local data collection. The state of Assam in India demonstrates a case of how this could be done. Under Assam 2030 – the state’s formal plan for the implementation of the Goals – an SDG centre has been established in the Assam Administrative Staff College that will sensitise local officials on the Goals (http://planassam.info/contents.php?username=&status=&q=36&link_caption=ASSAM%202030%20IN%20LIGHT%20OF%20SDGs). The state also plans to set up SDG cells in every government office to help officials streamline their work towards the Goals.

 

A different method of orienting local officials is enabling them to learn from the experiences of peers within and outside the country. Given that there is no one single way of localising the SDGs, sharing and learning through multi-stakeholder knowledge platforms could become a potent means of preparing local institutions for the Goals. The multi-stakeholder aspect deserves emphasis as it helps in levelling hierarchies and bringing voices from local institutions – government and non-governmental – in the discussions. The importance of such platforms in fostering global partnership for sustainable development has been rightly recognised in Goal 17.

 

The third key element of localisation is the finance required to drive local action. Local governments should be enabled to generate their own revenues through efficient collection of property taxes, running of local markets and other means. This falls in line with the Goal 17 prescription on mobilising all possible sources of finance to steer the SDGs. Local revenue generation is necessary for two reasons. Firstly, the conventional source – fund transfer from the national government – may not be sufficient to finance the new responsibilities emanating from the Goals. Secondly, these transfers are often tied to the implementation of national policies, giving local governments little independence in devising local strategies.

 

Two key initial steps in developing methods for local revenue generation are mapping of the current funding scenario and examination of possible adverse impacts of such methods on the people. A careful mapping of the existing revenue sources of the local government can provide valuable cues to the level of efforts required in generating revenue sufficient for SDG implementation. Such mapping can also provide early identification of the Goals that cannot be met at the local level, owing to the size of funds required.

 

Efforts towards local revenue generation should take care that the burden of such measures does not fall on vulnerable citizens. For instance, widening the catchment of people who are asked to pay property taxes might negatively impact those among the poor who have newly bought/received a house. Increasing the tax on the sale of local goods can make them costlier for the poor. The official report of the Government of Nepal on the SDGs is an example where this dimension has been acknowledged(http://www.npc.gov.np/images/download/23rd_Jan_final_for_print_Sustainable_Development_Goals.pdf). The report warns against the imposition of user fees for financing primary education and essential healthcare as they can create barriers to access for the poor. The lesson to draw is that equity should be used as the touchstone while finding new sources of local revenue.

 

If taken seriously, localisation can serve as an opportunity to promote greater ownership of the sustainable development agenda by the people.  Thus, localisation is not an add-on, but an essential part of the SDG discussions.