Abstract

The issue of localizing the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (17 SDGs), which emanating from the United Nations in 2015, is considered one of the most important issues raised globally in the field of development and strategic planning, as the countries and territories participating in adopting such goals differ in the implementation mechanisms and strategies, by its circumstances and capabilities. Hence, the need for clear mechanisms to localize these goals and present them in an integrated manner, especially within the urban environment, is necessary. In this context, the eleventh goal related to building sustainable and resilient cities and local communities is particularly important, as it is considered the goal which other goals are fundamentally integrated with. Accordingly, the development of an urban planning mechanism, in which the aspects of sustainability are taken into account, is critical to ensuring the localization of the seventeen goals. This paper presents a detailed mechanism to localize those goals and objectives using a set of proposed tools, by linking the local strategic development planning framework, as a planning approach in Palestine, with the global development goals, and by providing a set of technical and methodological tools to support the integrated implementation of global agendas at the local level. This mechanism proposes modifications to the current procedures followed in the planning process with the adoption of new tools, each of which is dedicated to a specific stage, which can be applied according to the individual needs and demands of each of the Palestinian communities. This mechanism consists of five stages. Each stage includes steps compatible with the stages and steps mentioned in the local strategic development planning guide developed by the Palestinian ministry of local government. The first stage aims at preparing and equipping stakeholders and diagnosing the current situation in light of the sustainable development goals, through holding workshops and activities pointed at enhancing awareness of the importance of development goals and facilitating the assessment of the existing situation in light of those goals. The second stage highlights the formulation of the vision, issues, and goals of the development framework by linking them to the sustainable development goals and providing tools to assess the compatibility between those goals, local issues, and global sustainability goals. Then the third and the fourth stages come to answer how and what leads us to achieve the development framework of the strategic plan, through the preparation of implementation and follow-up plans, and their implementation mechanisms, while ensuring to connect them with the relevant goals. Finally, the fifth stage comes to be the link between working on a specific annual plan and starting a new annual one, by providing a set of tools that enable planning practitioners and local authorities to evaluate the annual achievement of the programs of the SDPs within the framework of global indicators of sustainable development and to provide a summary to assess the progress of comprehensive strategic plan towards achieving sustainable development goals. The application of these tools in the case study of the city of Nablus has shown very positive results, starting with defining the vision and programs as well as analyzing the development areas. These tools have helped to examine the extent to which the goals of the Nablus city plan are compatible with the global sustainable development goals, whether directly or indirectly. After the weaknesses were identified, mechanisms for implementing and following up the localization of the global goals were presented in the strategy of the city of Nablus, through the amendment of development programs and projects and the addition of several global development indicators for measurement. The proposed projects were classified according to the global goals as well. Finally, the use of this proposed methodology contributes to enabling local authorities to review their goals and programs and measure their achievement and find a mechanism to compare the performance of different municipalities towards achieving sustainability goals. This approach would help planning practitioners, stakeholders, and consultants.

Title

مجلة جامعة النجاح للابحاث

Publisher

An-Najah National University

Publisher Country

Palestine

Indexing

Scopus

Impact Factor

None

Publication Type

Both (Printed and Online)

Volume

37

Year

2023

Pages

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