We are pleased to partner with Dr. Cameron McCordic, Associate Professor in the School of Environment, Enterprise, and Development in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo to bring the Local Futures project to life in the City of Kitchener, Ontario.
Dr. McCordic’s research focuses on sustainable urban development, and he partners with researchers, policymakers, private industry leaders and local communities to understand the systems that contribute to vulnerability and sustainability in cities.
Dr. McCordic, along with Muhammad Adil Rauf and Dr. Bruce Fayne, explore the challenges of localizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Canadian cities in their article “The challenges and opportunities of localizing the sustainable development goals in Canadian cities – a subsidiarity check.”
While the SDGs provide a framework for understanding and advancing holistic sustainable development, the SDGs needs to be localized and operationalized to be implemented in municipalities. However, there are several challenges when working to localize the SDGs in Canadian cities including a lack of access to consistent municipal data, capacity constraints, and the need for increased collaboration between municipal, provincial and federal governments.
Despite these challenges, the article identifies that the SDGs can be helpful in developing standardized monitoring and reporting across Canadian municipalities. Additionally, SDGs contribute to increased trust between local governments and citizens by supporting municipalities to tell stories with meaningful, easy to understand data.
Considering these challenges and opportunities, the article suggests that “the localization of SDGs in the Canadian context would require stakeholders’ motivation, collaborative decision-making, provincial and federal government support, knowledge sharing, methodological consensus, resource allocation, and process innovation to address contextual priorities.”
As the Local Futures project aims to advance SDG localization in Canadian municipalities, we hope to learn from Dr. McCordic’s research and strengthen collaboration, share knowledge and develop SDG localization resources tailored to the Canadian landscape.
Check out our full list of partners on the Project Partners Page.