Local Public Administration in the Process of Implementing Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

The concept of social responsibility and the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) share principles that focus on ensuring more empathetic, resilient, and just societies in which people can interrelate respectfully. The current tendency is to create innovative sustainable development strategies, focusing on local initiatives and demonstrating the role of local and regional governments as key change agents. This study focused on SD at the local public administration (LPA) level with the objective of determining how SDGs are implemented by LPAs, including examining administrative actors’ roles as coordinators of public goods and initiatives focused on convincing all stakeholders to participate actively in cocreating solutions to social, economic, and environmental problems. The relevant literature’s most prominent research topics and their evolution were explored using bibliometric techniques (i.e., evaluation, relational analysis, and the visualization of bibliometric elements using VOSviewer software (version 1.6.18)). The results suggest that the process of implementing SDGs presents LPAs with a set of challenges, concerns, and restrictions. The UN’s 2030 Agenda provides guidelines for how to meet its goals and targets, which helps LPAs set priorities and standards for development initiatives, but implementing them successfully is neither a quick nor an automatically successful process.