Voluntary Local Review Framework to Monitor and Evaluate the Progress towards Achieving Sustainable Development Goals at a City Level: Buraidah City, KSA and SDG11 as A Case Study

Taher Osman, Emad Kenawy, Karim I. Abdrabo, David Shaw, Aref Alshamndy, Mohamed Elsharif, Muhammad Salem, Mamdooh Alwetaishi, Reda M. Aly and Bahaa Elboshy
Additional contact information
Taher Osman: Faculty of Urban and Regional Planning, Cairo University, Giza 12613, Egypt
Emad Kenawy: Faculty of Urban and Regional Planning, Cairo University, Giza 12613, Egypt
Karim I. Abdrabo: Faculty of Urban and Regional Planning, Cairo University, Giza 12613, Egypt
David Shaw: Department of Geography and planning, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZT, UK
Aref Alshamndy: Urban Observatory of Buraidah, Buraidah 52382, Saudi Arabia
Mohamed Elsharif: Urban Observatory of Buraidah, Buraidah 52382, Saudi Arabia
Muhammad Salem: Faculty of Urban and Regional Planning, Cairo University, Giza 12613, Egypt
Mamdooh Alwetaishi: Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Taif University, P.O. Box 11099, Taif 21944, Saudi Arabia
Reda M. Aly: Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Taif University, P.O. Box 11099, Taif 21944, Saudi Arabia
Bahaa Elboshy: Department of Architectural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Tanta University, Tanta 31511, Egypt

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 17, 1-16

Abstract: Around the world, cities are on the front lines of sustainable development. They are responsible for more than 70% of global carbon emissions. Many of these cities are experiencing dangerous levels of pollution, underemployment, and health disparities. Since 2015, 193 countries have endorsed the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), intended to help address a wide range of challenges affecting cities and ultimately secure the resources for their next generations. All states are expected to present the national progress towards the SDGs through a Voluntary National Review (VNR). Despite the importance of the cities within this framework, only a handful of them worldwide have actively begun to review and assess progress towards these SDGs on a city scale. This paper seeks to develop a Voluntary Local Review (VLR) framework to assess and evaluate the progress of cities towards contributing to the SDGs. This framework has been developed by localizing the international and national frameworks to measure the performance of cities as they advance towards achieving the SDGs. Such a framework can serve as a tool for benchmarking progress on different aspects of sustainable development and help urban planners and policymakers prioritize policies and actions to improve urban quality of life. This framework is applied to monitor and evaluate the progress of the city of Buraidah in Saudi Arabia, as it strives towards achieving the targets of SDG11 (“Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”).

Keywords: Voluntary Local Review (VLR); Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); SDG11; Urban Observatory; monitoring framework; localization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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