Skip Navigation

Toward Gender and Youth-Focused Sustainable Development at the Local Level

Hacia un desarrollo sostenible a nivel local con enfoque de género y juventudes

The 2030 Agenda is a key tool to deepen the open government development model. Working with an array of stakeholders like the private sector, academia, and civil society, we can work to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by coordinating and developing social, economic, and environmental strategies. This is a key opportunity to strengthen trust between governments and their citizens and co-create innovative solutions that lead to high-impact sustainable solutions. 

The Province of Cordoba in Argentina is committed to advancing  collaborative local implementation of the SDGs in four municipalities (Alta Gracia, Vicuña, Mackenna, San Jose de la Dormida and Freyre) through a gender and youth lens. This entails facilitating multi-stakeholder dialogue and co-developing a local sustainable development model. Local implementation is not to directly adopt the 2030 Agenda but to design participatory processes that help identify locally relevant issues and understand how the SDGs contribute to collective action and concrete steps. 

This commitment demands acknowledging long-lasting gender and age-based inequalities and strengthening the autonomy of women, diverse groups, and youth, and integrating their voices. 

In May, working with municipal governments, civil society organizations, and government stakeholders, OGP Local convened a space to prioritize goals and identify local actions. In each municipality, the space was participatory and collaborative. 

Here are some of the challenges and lessons learned from the process. 

  1. Multi-level and multi-stakeholder governance are key elements of municipal governments. Participatory spaces need to become true dialogue forums where conflict is seen as an opportunity for continuous governance negotiation. There is also a need to formalize these processes creatively, given that spaces that include non-state and diverse stakeholders promote the most sustainable public policies.
  2. Ensure that actions are feasible. Agreements between stakeholders need to be viable. Limitations and challenges need to be clearly communicated. 
  3. Guarantee clear, simple, and assertive communication. The 2030 Agenda aims to set a common language and propose concepts to share with citizens and stakeholders, as well as internally.
  4. Co-create a development map, a guide, a co-designed road map toward local development, planning for real solutions to local issues, and leveraging the SDGs.
  5. The 2030 Agenda is an opportunity to identify and address gaps in new, collaborative ways, using participatory tools, focusing on internal collaboration, and engaging external stakeholders as key partners. 

As we recover from the pandemic, we need to rethink concrete policies as part of this new paradigm and ease into the transformation towards a new reality. The 2030 Agenda and open government are key pillars and cross-cutting agendas to enable this transformation. These should be guides to work toward more just, inclusive, participatory, and transparent societies. 

Comments (1)

Gustavo Vleminchx Reply

Me resultó sumamente rico el aporte de los resultados de ese encuentro y lo tomaré como una brújula a la bitácora de mis acciones en l marco de la creaciones de estrategias de Gobierno Abierto. Gracias por el aporte.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

Thumbnail for OGP Local Handbook

OGP Local Handbook

The OGP Local Handbook contains the rules for joining and participating in OGP Local, to create and implement open government action plans.

Thumbnail for OGP Local Brochure (2021)

OGP Local Brochure (2021)

Why Local? The OGP process provides a unique space to explore local solutions for global challenges. For example, many OGP Local members use their action plans to localize, advance and…

Thumbnail for IRM in a Box: A Toolkit for OGP Local Monitoring Bodies

IRM in a Box: A Toolkit for OGP Local Monitoring Bodies

Open Government Partnership