Repository logo
 
Loading...
Profile Picture
Person

Prata Antunes Coelho Castelo, Leonor

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • The case of ODSlocal in Portugal. Results of a monitoring survey
    Publication . Guerra, João; Prata, Leonor; Schmidt, Luísa
    The 2030 Agenda, proposed by the United Nations in 2015, was adopted and adapted by the ODSlocal (the local SDG) Platform. Thought to support municipalities and municipal communities in pursuing local sustainability, ODSlocal is based on a comprehensive and intense mobilisation of local authorities, stakeholders, and local actors while monitoring the progress of Portuguese municipalities concerning various SDG targets through national key performance indicators. At the same time, it also maps the innovative and sustainable practices that municipalities and other local actors are implementing in each territory. Listening to the protagonists of this assisted but endogenous change is thus a sine qua non of the ODSlocal from an early stage. This paper presents some results of the first ODSlocal questionnaire survey conducted to acquire a baseline knowledge of local policy engagement strategy and action within member municipalities of the Platform. Given the spatial-cultural differences between regions (e.g., inland, coastal) and dimensions (number of inhabitants), the survey was conducted online, gathering information about how municipal actor groups perceived local sustainability. Moreover, to ensure a robust sample that portrayed the universe of respondents, we relied on the help of ODSlocal focal points in each municipality, who secured a reasonable number (1,310) of valid responses, including 70 from political decision-makers, 1,029 from municipal technicians, 58 from focal points and 153 from local stakeholders. The results provide a preliminary diagnosis of SDG localisation regarding policy planning and implementation as well as community mobilisation and enforcement. In particular, this paper will focus upon the critical role of monitoring and transparency for sustainable development (Chowdhury & Kushwanth, 2017) as well as municipal and stakeholder evaluations of political priorities and outcomes. Our findings confirm the existence of gaps in knowledge and collaboration, both between local governments and their communities and within municipal structures. Nevertheless, all consulted groups, notably the municipal technicians who directly engage with localising sustainability, view these challenges as surmountable and prioritize addressing them as a pathway forward.