Abstract
We discuss municipal physical-spatial planning instruments as vehicles for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in cities in the Global South. We do this by focusing on Medellin, Colombia, a city that has endured significant challenges–mainly related to poverty and violence–, but has attracted significant international attention due to its approach to territorial planning and its innovative application of new and existing legal tools to transform realities and repay historical debts with the urban poor. We performed a review of the most important documents related to SDG implementation in the country and the city, as well as Municipal Development Plans and legal planning instruments issued from 1 January 2016. The article maps active planning instruments and suggests the analysis, already from the diagnosis and formulation phases, of the linkage among strategies and projects, and SDGs, and the inclusion of SDG considerations in citizen participation instruments such as so-called Local Development Plans.
Highlights
National governments represent different societies in global negotiations and agreements on sustainable development
We reviewed Municipal Development Plans (MDP), considering their direct influence on the definition of cities’ priorities and budget allocation during the time each administration is in office and on the implementation of middle- and long-term objectives such as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
We continue by analyzing MDPs and Local Development Plans (LDP) and, we analyze territorial planning instruments
Summary
National governments represent different societies in global negotiations and agreements on sustainable development. There are numerous links among all SDGs, but with the establishment of the urban SDG, there is for the first time an attempt to define a single overall urban policy position concerning social, economic, and environmental aspects of cities and the urban system [8,9]. This is reflected in the New Urban Agenda, which poses the question of how the urban condition affects our common future. It proposes a shift from the focus on development in cities to the role of cities in development; from seeing cities as sites for sustainable development action to seeing them as drivers of global change, as Parnell [9] suggests
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