ARTICLE | Digital Governance
Capacity building key to localise SDGs in India The Government of India has accorded high priority to meet the Sustainable Development Agenda 2015-2030 adopted by the United Nations, by designating the NITI Aayog as the national level nodal agency to track progress in achieving different Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
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t a conceptual level, the SDG framework rests on two crucial pillars— governance through goal setting and synergy across goals. For this purpose, the 17 SDGs are sub-divided into 169 targets and 231 indicators to act as a decision support system for high-level policymakers. Monitoring of these indicators can provide inputs regarding the performance of different plans and programmes, and facilitate evidencebased decision making. Moreover, parameters set under different goals are designed to be mutually interdependent to a large extent to promote an integrated approach towards policymaking.
36 September 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in
Within the global sustainability framework, SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) occupies a particularly important position as its targets overlap with practically all other SDGs. For instance, improving the delivery of basic services like water and sanitation to slum areas (linked to SDG target 11.1) can improve the health (SDG 3 – health and wellbeing) of poor children by reducing the spread of diseases and, in turn, may increase their educational attainment by reducing sick days (SDG 4 – education), besides meeting targets under SDG 6 (access to water and sanitation). Thus, a targeted approach towards urban development can help us achieve multiple SDGs simultaneously.
There is no denying the fact that monitoring various sustainability indicators can make urban management processes more objective. However, the implementation of the aspirational global sustainability agenda in India faces critical operational challenges due to city-level data deficiencies and capacity constraints of the urban local bodies (ULBs). The evidence-based decision support system which undergirds the SDG framework requires robust city level statistical data inputs, which are often hard to come by. It is pertinent to note here that monitoring of SDG 11 also requires a far larger quantum of data to be collected at the local levels as compared to other SDGs. Moreover, several of the targets, such as: landuse efficiency (11.3.1), civil society engagement (11.3.2) and availability of public spaces (11.7.1) are required to be monitored for the first time and would require new benchmarking protocols to be put in place. Tracking of SDG 11 under the NITI Aayog’s SDG India Index and Dashboard are presently restricted to eight national-level targets, which pertain to SDG 11.1 (housing conditions), 11.2 (traffic safety) and 11.6 (solid waste management). However, monitoring of SDG 11 is likely to scale up in the near future as the central government has recently launched the National Urban Digital Mission (NUDM). The NUDM
