17
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),
the results show that households with two
adults were far more likely to earn more than
the living wage than households with only one
adult. For one-adult households with children,
the impacts are even more severe. Only 13%
of one-adult/one-child households earn more
than the living wage; only 6.4% of one-adult/
two-children households earned more than the
living wage. The SCI-Baltimore initiative
identified this indicator as relevant to setting
and tracking SDG#1 targets for Baltimore.
• Life Expectancy by Race: Life expectancy (the
average number of years a newborn can expect
to live), assuming he or she experiences the
currently prevailing rates of death through
their lifespan, would be the premier indicator
for tracking the health of Baltimore residents.
BNIA worked with the Baltimore City Health
Department to calculate life expectancy by
neighborhood and disaggregated this data by
race. In 2017, white Baltimoreans (76.1 years)
lived an average 6 years longer than black
Baltimoreans (70.9 years). This indicator is
relevant to setting and tracking SDG#3 targets
for Baltimore.
2.6
Efforts to Promote Lessons
Learned from Baltimore
The lessons from the SCI-Baltimore SDG localization effort helped put Baltimore on a worldwide platform, in large part through the
connections and promotion by the Sustainable
Development Solutions Network (SDSN).
Beginning as early as 2016, representatives from
the localization team were invited to attend meetings at the United Nations, the State Department,
the Brookings Institution, and national organizations interested in supporting the SDGs such as
the Council on Foundations. The city’s Office of
Sustainability was invited to participate in Habitat
III in Quito in 2016, although was unable to
attend. The new Baltimore mayor, Catherine
Pugh, participated on a 2018 panel called
“Localizing the SDGs: Achieving the Global
Goals Through U.S. Cities” at the winter meeting
of the US Conference of Mayors, with Mayor
Buddy Dyer of Orlando and Mayor Mitch
Landrieu of New Orleans. Additionally, several
news outlets featured the efforts in Baltimore to
global audiences.
12
The work on development of localized indicators from Baltimore also figured prominently in
the development of the US Cities Index (Espey
et al. 2018). However, while Baltimore may have
been at the forefront immediately after the SDGs
were adopted in 2015, the city can hardly be seen
as a beacon just 3 years later. With a new federal
administration deprioritizing federal efforts to
track the SDGs nationally and a lack of continued
resources to support localization, only tepid connections to the global goals can been seen in
Baltimore today.
2.7
Conclusions
For Baltimore to be one of the first cities to participate in USA-SCI represented a moment of
opportunity to be at the forefront of a global conversation. Given the historical moment, however,
the project team had to thread the SCI-Baltimore
initiative into local issues, process, and realities
to raise awareness about the global goals and to
make translations about their relevance locally.
The work of the initiative, therefore, was much
more about listening, educating, and “mapping”
to more familiar frameworks than about the technical needs for calculating the proposed set of
local indicators. Some positive and long-lasting
benefits have accrued to Baltimore. The global
goals have been incorporated into the city’s 2019
Sustainability Plan, and several new indicators
particularly regarding equity and justice have
been calculated for Baltimore. There are also
examples of Baltimore stakeholders participating
in other programs
13
created to respond to the
12 See, for example, “How Baltimore Is Using the
Sustainable Development Goals to Make a More Just
City” by Carey L. Biron, Citiscope (March 2017).
13 Baltimore is one of only 8 US cities in the European
Union’s International Urban Cooperation (IUC) program
activities to foster city-to-city knowledge-exchange for
sustainable development (SDG #17—Partnerships).
2 Localizing the SDGs in Baltimore: Challenges and Opportunities of the USA Sustainable Cities Initiative
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),
the results show that households with two
adults were far more likely to earn more than
the living wage than households with only one
adult. For one-adult households with children,
the impacts are even more severe. Only 13%
of one-adult/one-child households earn more
than the living wage; only 6.4% of one-adult/
two-children households earned more than the
living wage. The SCI-Baltimore initiative
identified this indicator as relevant to setting
and tracking SDG#1 targets for Baltimore.
• Life Expectancy by Race: Life expectancy (the
average number of years a newborn can expect
to live), assuming he or she experiences the
currently prevailing rates of death through
their lifespan, would be the premier indicator
for tracking the health of Baltimore residents.
BNIA worked with the Baltimore City Health
Department to calculate life expectancy by
neighborhood and disaggregated this data by
race. In 2017, white Baltimoreans (76.1 years)
lived an average 6 years longer than black
Baltimoreans (70.9 years). This indicator is
relevant to setting and tracking SDG#3 targets
for Baltimore.
2.6
Efforts to Promote Lessons
Learned from Baltimore
The lessons from the SCI-Baltimore SDG localization effort helped put Baltimore on a worldwide platform, in large part through the
connections and promotion by the Sustainable
Development Solutions Network (SDSN).
Beginning as early as 2016, representatives from
the localization team were invited to attend meetings at the United Nations, the State Department,
the Brookings Institution, and national organizations interested in supporting the SDGs such as
the Council on Foundations. The city’s Office of
Sustainability was invited to participate in Habitat
III in Quito in 2016, although was unable to
attend. The new Baltimore mayor, Catherine
Pugh, participated on a 2018 panel called
“Localizing the SDGs: Achieving the Global
Goals Through U.S. Cities” at the winter meeting
of the US Conference of Mayors, with Mayor
Buddy Dyer of Orlando and Mayor Mitch
Landrieu of New Orleans. Additionally, several
news outlets featured the efforts in Baltimore to
global audiences.
12
The work on development of localized indicators from Baltimore also figured prominently in
the development of the US Cities Index (Espey
et al. 2018). However, while Baltimore may have
been at the forefront immediately after the SDGs
were adopted in 2015, the city can hardly be seen
as a beacon just 3 years later. With a new federal
administration deprioritizing federal efforts to
track the SDGs nationally and a lack of continued
resources to support localization, only tepid connections to the global goals can been seen in
Baltimore today.
2.7
Conclusions
For Baltimore to be one of the first cities to participate in USA-SCI represented a moment of
opportunity to be at the forefront of a global conversation. Given the historical moment, however,
the project team had to thread the SCI-Baltimore
initiative into local issues, process, and realities
to raise awareness about the global goals and to
make translations about their relevance locally.
The work of the initiative, therefore, was much
more about listening, educating, and “mapping”
to more familiar frameworks than about the technical needs for calculating the proposed set of
local indicators. Some positive and long-lasting
benefits have accrued to Baltimore. The global
goals have been incorporated into the city’s 2019
Sustainability Plan, and several new indicators
particularly regarding equity and justice have
been calculated for Baltimore. There are also
examples of Baltimore stakeholders participating
in other programs
13
created to respond to the
12 See, for example, “How Baltimore Is Using the
Sustainable Development Goals to Make a More Just
City” by Carey L. Biron, Citiscope (March 2017).
13 Baltimore is one of only 8 US cities in the European
Union’s International Urban Cooperation (IUC) program
activities to foster city-to-city knowledge-exchange for
sustainable development (SDG #17—Partnerships).
2 Localizing the SDGs in Baltimore: Challenges and Opportunities of the USA Sustainable Cities Initiative