23
Los Angeles County Department of Health
Services is the second largest municipal health
system in the country. The Los Angeles Unified
School District oversees public education in the
city but also serves 26 other cities and unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County and even
employs its own police force separate from the
Los Angeles Police Department. Multiple levels
of governance create challenges for driving
shared progress on key social determinants.
3.3
Committing to the SDGs
The commitment by the city of Los Angeles to
pursue the SDGs was a convergence of several
factors, including opportunistic philanthropic
leadership, a globally minded mayor who prizes
evidence-based policy, and the city’s designation
as host of the 2028 Summer Olympic Games.
The US federal government, as of 2019, has
issued no plan to implement the SDGs and is providing no leadership, encouragement, nor
resources to any stakeholders for SDG implementation. The effort by Los Angeles to commit
to and adapt the SDGs for their own local purposes has been bottom-up, generated and supported by local stakeholders, offering a value
proposition aligned with local political and programmatic priorities.
3.3.1 Key Factors
Philanthropic Leadership: The idea surfaced
with the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, a family
foundation with interests both local (e.g., ending
homelessness in Los Angeles County) and global
(e.g., the worldwide elimination of trachoma). Ed
Cain, then Vice President for Programs, had previously served as a country Resident Coordinator
within the UN system. He realized that, unlike
the predecessor Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs), the SDGs are to be universally applied
by both high-income and low-income countries,
no matter the level of development.
In conjunction with other local philanthropies,
the Hilton Foundation had supported A Portrait
of Los Angeles County,
9
a report based on quantitative community indicators that was launched in
November 2017 by Measure of America. Measure
of America used a methodology based on the
UN’s Human Development Index to explore how
the county’s residents were “faring in terms of
well-being and equity,” publishing a ranked index
for the 106 cities and unincorporated areas of Los
Angeles County. The portrait contained a “Global
Goals Dashboard,” a distilled version of the
SDGs with associated indicators specific to Los
Angeles County. For the foundation, the experience highlighted that collaboration with its counterparts on tough social issues could be enhanced
if they agreed upon and used a common
framework.
Impressed with the relevance of the findings
and interested in exploring the potential for the
SDGs to help the city drive social and environmental priorities, the foundation’s leadership
approached the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles,
an independent and non-partisan organization
that pools and leverages private financial
resources to help the city take on challenging priorities. Together, the Mayor’s Fund and the foundation found receptivity from key city officials,
such as the city’s Chief Sustainability Officer and
its Deputy CIO, who helped elevate the idea to
the mayor.
Mayoral Leadership: They were engaging a
mayor with a strong international outlook, intent
on establishing Los Angeles as a leader on the
global stage. Just a few months before the launch
of A Portrait of Los Angeles County, Mayor
Garcetti had named Ambassador Nina Hachigian
as the city’s first-ever Deputy Mayor for
International Affairs, to oversee a newly created
Office of International Affairs. The mayor’s international perspective, grounded in his experience
as a Rhodes Scholar and former professor of
diplomacy and world affairs, facilitated a willingness to connect the globally agreed SDGs with
his local political agenda to make life better for
his city’s residents.
9 Measure of America. A Portrait of Los Angeles County.
(2017, November). Retrieved from https://ssrc-static.
s3.amazonaws.com/moa/PoLA%20Full%20Report.pdf
3 Los Angeles: Measuring Its Ambition to Achieve the SDGs
Los Angeles County Department of Health
Services is the second largest municipal health
system in the country. The Los Angeles Unified
School District oversees public education in the
city but also serves 26 other cities and unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County and even
employs its own police force separate from the
Los Angeles Police Department. Multiple levels
of governance create challenges for driving
shared progress on key social determinants.
3.3
Committing to the SDGs
The commitment by the city of Los Angeles to
pursue the SDGs was a convergence of several
factors, including opportunistic philanthropic
leadership, a globally minded mayor who prizes
evidence-based policy, and the city’s designation
as host of the 2028 Summer Olympic Games.
The US federal government, as of 2019, has
issued no plan to implement the SDGs and is providing no leadership, encouragement, nor
resources to any stakeholders for SDG implementation. The effort by Los Angeles to commit
to and adapt the SDGs for their own local purposes has been bottom-up, generated and supported by local stakeholders, offering a value
proposition aligned with local political and programmatic priorities.
3.3.1 Key Factors
Philanthropic Leadership: The idea surfaced
with the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, a family
foundation with interests both local (e.g., ending
homelessness in Los Angeles County) and global
(e.g., the worldwide elimination of trachoma). Ed
Cain, then Vice President for Programs, had previously served as a country Resident Coordinator
within the UN system. He realized that, unlike
the predecessor Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs), the SDGs are to be universally applied
by both high-income and low-income countries,
no matter the level of development.
In conjunction with other local philanthropies,
the Hilton Foundation had supported A Portrait
of Los Angeles County,
9
a report based on quantitative community indicators that was launched in
November 2017 by Measure of America. Measure
of America used a methodology based on the
UN’s Human Development Index to explore how
the county’s residents were “faring in terms of
well-being and equity,” publishing a ranked index
for the 106 cities and unincorporated areas of Los
Angeles County. The portrait contained a “Global
Goals Dashboard,” a distilled version of the
SDGs with associated indicators specific to Los
Angeles County. For the foundation, the experience highlighted that collaboration with its counterparts on tough social issues could be enhanced
if they agreed upon and used a common
framework.
Impressed with the relevance of the findings
and interested in exploring the potential for the
SDGs to help the city drive social and environmental priorities, the foundation’s leadership
approached the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles,
an independent and non-partisan organization
that pools and leverages private financial
resources to help the city take on challenging priorities. Together, the Mayor’s Fund and the foundation found receptivity from key city officials,
such as the city’s Chief Sustainability Officer and
its Deputy CIO, who helped elevate the idea to
the mayor.
Mayoral Leadership: They were engaging a
mayor with a strong international outlook, intent
on establishing Los Angeles as a leader on the
global stage. Just a few months before the launch
of A Portrait of Los Angeles County, Mayor
Garcetti had named Ambassador Nina Hachigian
as the city’s first-ever Deputy Mayor for
International Affairs, to oversee a newly created
Office of International Affairs. The mayor’s international perspective, grounded in his experience
as a Rhodes Scholar and former professor of
diplomacy and world affairs, facilitated a willingness to connect the globally agreed SDGs with
his local political agenda to make life better for
his city’s residents.
9 Measure of America. A Portrait of Los Angeles County.
(2017, November). Retrieved from https://ssrc-static.
s3.amazonaws.com/moa/PoLA%20Full%20Report.pdf
3 Los Angeles: Measuring Its Ambition to Achieve the SDGs