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The project envisages the development of a sustainable urban development index.

In August 2017 the Sustainable Development Solutions Network presented in New York the first U.S. City Index on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at urban level. This index is put beside the Global SDG Index, underlining the specific role of cities.

There are important references in Italy at national level – see, among others: MATTM, 2016, Italian Positioning on the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals; MEF, 2017, Recognition of sustainable welfare indicators and the Sustainable Development Strategy 2017; ASvIS, 2017, ASVIS Report – but there are no explicit references to single urban realities.

There is therefore a need for the design, share and develop of a tool that photographs the “implementation status” of SDGs in the main cities and metropolitan areas of our Country. This is to help local communities tackle the still unresolved challenges affecting single cities.

II-SDG, thanks to an absolute and relative sort of the italian cities with respect the different sustainable development goals aims also at stimulating the public debate on the role of cities in achieving the SDGs.

  • Achieve a shared measure of the degree of achievement of the SDGs at the urban level
  • Establish a database of indicators for urban monitoring of SDGs, as well as identify relevant information gaps
  • Select the priorities for action for (in) each city / metropolitan area
  • Stimulate the debate on the role of cities and on city action on SDGs

The Urban Sustainable Urban Development Index for Italy is a tool for policy, dissemination and awareness, raising the issue of sustainable development. The aim is to bridge the existing gap in the national context, a) making a link between Italian reality as a whole and the local sphere, and (b) considering the economic, social, geographical and demographic heterogeneity of our Country. Thanks to the dual city-metropolitan area analysis, the project is also able to fuel the debate on the meaning of city and its geographical and socio-cultural boundaries, making possible the involvement of other countries in the Mediterranean Area, such as Spain, with which has already been started a partnership (SDSN-REDS Red Española para el Desarrollo Sostenible). 

Leggi il FEEM Workshop Brief 'Per un’Italia sostenibile: la leadership locale come motore dello sviluppo'

Report SDSN Network in Action 2019