Imagine you're a local sustainability officer developing an initiative to reduce emissions. But you don't know how many emissions the city produces, or where they're coming from. You don't know who the city's biggest energy users are, how many cars are on the road, or the amount of waste produced every year. And even if you can set goals for reducing emissions, you have no way of measuring progress against them.

By Tim Hanstad, Co-Founder & Senior Advisor, Landesa

This is the second blog in a series of two that are based on a keynote address made at the 2018 India Land Development Conference.

When we speak about land tenure issues and challenges, we are quick to speak about complex, yet exciting concepts, such as cadastral registers and titling. For those working in the land community, these are the foundations upon which our work is built, essential to breaking the proverbial glass ceiling which so many face when it comes to claiming their land rights.

Major global agreements, such as the Paris climate change agreement, and the SDGs will not come to fruition without local governments

Over a year ago in Quito, after a long negotiation and high involvement of all stakeholders, the atmosphere I could feel in my constituency was that of a promise; a big promise of a different international understanding of the urbanization phenomenon, a new role of cities and local and regional governments in the international governance and a shared vision of the need to rethink models.

The recent series of devastating hurricanes in the Caribbean has reminded the world, once again, that natural disasters are not equal-opportunity destroyers. The economically marginalized and those lacking secure land and property rights are often disproportionately affected for at least three reasons:

From 11-14 November in Bahrain, decisions are being made that will influence priorities of governments around the world.

In September 2015, at a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, 193 countries endorsed the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals – known as the SDGs or Global Goals. This collection of 17 ambitious goals and 169 targets form a framework to address the global challenge of eradicating poverty. 

Blog by: Alyssa Fischer, WRI

Date: October 14, 2016

Source: WRI

Source: NCD Alliance

Public space interventions have the potential to contribute to progress across numerous Agenda 2030 goals and targets, not only SDG11 on Sustainable Cities. Kristie Daniel explores the opportunities public spaces present for different SDGs, and summarises the case for governments and communities to prioritise investing in them.

By: Camilla Toulmin

Date: June, 20 2016

Source: IIED

Following a recent field visit to central Mali, Camilla Toulmin reports back on local struggles and new initiatives driving change.