International Action
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DESCRIPTION
Working through the Government Department of the Deputy Mayor's Office, Madrid City Council is committed to meeting the challenges set by the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This commitment takes the form of furthering implementation of the SDGs in Madrid by means of multi-stakeholder and public-private partnerships. With this aim, Madrid City Council contributes to the establishment of alliances with public and private stakeholders from Madrid, and collaborates with international organisations with a view to furthering localisation of the SDGs.
BACKGROUND
The 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, ratified by the United Nations in September 2015, contains 17 ambitious, interdependent goals known as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which target the social, economic and environmental spheres to ensure that “no one is left behind”. Local and regional governments as well as their associations actively contributed to defining these goals and have a key role to play in implementing, following up and monitoring the Agenda.
Localising the 2030 Agenda involves getting sub-national governments and local stakeholders to participate in defining, implementing and following up on SDG policies, but localisation isn’t simply about implementing the SDGs at the local level. Rather, it is a continual political and policy-making process aimed at applying the universal principals of the 2030 Agenda to the area in question.
With this in mind, in March 2021 Madrid City Council approved the 2030 Agenda SDG Localisation Strategy for the City of Madrid, a document which places particular emphasis on the multidimensional nature of sustainable development and the relationships between the different goals. The strategy sets out six policies which are intended to have leverage effects: Efficient, Transparent Institutions; Climate Neutrality, Mobility and Air Quality; Green City, Responsible Consumption and Circular Economy; Social Protection and Equality; Enjoyable City; and Innovation and Inclusive, Sustainable Economy.
With respect to governance, two key bodies were involved in the process of approving and following up on this strategy: the Transversal International Action Table (Mesa Transversal de Acción Internacional), in which all government departments, self-governing bodies and municipally-owned companies actively participated; and the Solidary Madrid Forum (Foro Madrid Solidaria), in which multiple stakeholders and entities from the city which are independent of the City Council made observations on and contributions to the strategy.
One key milestone in following up on the 2030 Agenda and localising the SDGs in the city of Madrid is drafting the first Voluntary Local Review. To this end, Madrid City Council is setting up a task force of local and private sector stakeholders and establishing a framework for cooperation with international bodies such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat), as well as city networks like United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG).
OBJECTIVES
- Foster, in the city of Madrid, the social, economic and environmental transformations proposed in the 2030 Agenda
- Make progress on ensuring that Madrid City Council's policies are consistent with sustainable development principles, making them more efficient and suitable
- Increase the exchange between local Madrid experiences and those of other places in the world when fostering sustainable development policies in the relevant government departments
- Promote the adoption of mechanisms for multilevel coordination with other local governments and with regional and national governments, with a view to achieving the goals set in international agendas
DURATION
The project began in 2019 and will end in 2030.
THE PROJECT IN NUMBERS
The total 2021 budget is 1,390,000 euros. The expenditure forecast for 2022 is 1,350,000 euros.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
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