Page 18 - SDG Report

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THE ETHEKWINI MUNICIPALITY LOCALIZATION
PROCESS
In the transition to the SDGs cities would need to localize the global agenda and the following methodology was implemented in the city. The first point of departure was the alignment of the SDG Goals and Targets to the municipal strategy for implementating the Integrated Development Plan (IDP). This was followed by the alignment of the SDG indicators to the Service Delivery Implementation Plan (SDBIP) and the municipal capital budgets. This effectively provided an insight as to how the municipal capital budget implementation and investments aligned to the SDG Goals and Targets. For the alignment exercise the city used the best match principles to the original intent of that capital delivery program. For example, if a project revolved around the development of new infrastructure to deliver better health services the city aligned that project to the associated health SDG and not the infrastructure SDG.
WHAT WERE THE FURTHER LOCALISATION PROCESSES OF SDGs IN ETHEKWINI?
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The SDG goals were incorporated into the IDP as one of the strategic drivers for sustainability. Other agendas such as the New Urban Agenda and Addis Ababa Agreement, Sendai Framework were also used.
Through the Municipal Institute of Learning (MILE) program the city hosts masterclasses for capacity building to empower local practitioners to embed the SDG goals in their respective municipalities.
Local government is critical for the promotion of inclusive sustainable development and as such eThekwini is a part of various local government networks. eThekwini Municipality plays an active advocacy role for the inclusion of local government in global sustainable development at a national and global level.
At a political level the Mayor and Senior Council Members are members of various global networks such as the United Cities and Local Government (UCLG), African Forum for Urban Safety, ICLEI, C40 and the Global Task Force where they occupy senior positions in these organizations and continue to advocate for local government involvement and capacitation towards achieving the SDGs. Through these various organisation, the city’s political leadership is tasked with carrying forward the mandate of the membership to
ensure that local Government organizations have a voice at the global negotiating table. The political leadership advocacy role is supported by the City Manager, Chief Strategy Officer, Chief Resilience Officer and Chief Learning Officer.
The city had to find a landing point for the localization of the SDGs, as there were very few examples of localization due to this concept being fairly new to local government and their lack of involvement in the MDG implementation. The starting point for localization was to determine the roles and responsibilities for addressing each of the 169 indicators. The guiding document for establishing the roles and responsibilities was the Constitution of South Africa, specifically schedule four (a) and five (b). Through this alignment exercise 98 of the indicators responded to municipal mandates, 23 and 48 indicators responded to provincial and national responsibilities respectively.
The following graph indicates eThekwini’s progression in responding to the 98 indicators which were the direct mandate for local government.
In 2017 the municipality had capital projects that addressed 30 of the 98 indicators, this increased to 50 in 2018 and in 2019 there was a further increase to 56 indicators which had associated projects, and in 2020 there was a further increase to 59.
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SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS GOOD PRACTICE