29
the value proposition for Los Angeles, reinforces the value of the commitment to staff,
residents, and external partners. It positions
the city to take advantage of the mobilizing
effect that can result from credible pursuit of
outcome-based, time-bound goals.
3.6
Recommendations:
Maximizing Value
from the SDGs
The proposed LA SDG framework is holistic,
ambitious, reflective of the city’s values and priorities, and serious about focusing the city’s
attention on its most vulnerable populations and
communities. The extent to which it will receive
special attention, or be used by the mayor and
senior officials as a tool or guidance for budget
and policy decisions, remains unclear.
The city has opted not to create a special highlevel SDG committee or internal task force. Its
internal organization against the SDGs resembles
a hub-and-spoke configuration, through which its
chief SDG coordinator engages policy owners as
appropriate throughout the city government.
It seems unlikely that the city will seek to create a comprehensive SDG-specific strategy to
accompany a finalized framework. The proposed
framework already contains and affirms many of
the mayor’s priorities, articulated through other
processes and policies. Indeed, one might view
all of Mayor Garcetti’s executive directives, taken
in total and combined, as the core of the city’s
SDG strategy.
Yet moving from alignment against the SDGs
to analysis and action can create significant value
for the city.
• Analyze policy gaps and opportunities:
Deeper analysis of the localized framework,
by using evidence to map past trends and develop
future scenarios, can identify areas where progress is likely to be insufficient, key challenges are
going unnoticed, or opportunities for scaling
high-impact interventions are hidden. Work
undertaken in late 2018 by faculty and students
from USC’s Institute on Inequalities in Global
Health to view the city’s approach to homelessness through the lens of human rights provides a
promising example. Universities and communitybased organizations might also work with the
appropriate city staff to use the multi-disciplinary
aspects of the SDGs to surface new perspectives
and develop integrated initiatives to advance
progress on clustered issues, such as those related
to homelessness.
The city presented a Voluntary Local Review
(VLR) in 2019. A VLR is a report, notionally to
the UN, of a city’s specific contributions to the
SDGs. Pioneered by New York City in 2018,
14
the format is based on the approach taken by
countries’ official reports on their SDG progress,
presenting Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs)
at the UN. The process of preparation provides an
immediate opportunity to stimulate and incorporate such analysis. Publishing and publicizing the
localized framework, once finalized, offer opportunities to community organizations and universities to undertake outside research relevant to
city priorities.
• Develop a platform for coordinated
governance:
While city government leadership will be
instrumental, achieving the LA SDGs will depend
upon strong shared city governance, with multiple segments of Los Angeles society contributing. Global experience with the MDGs and SDGs
has demonstrated that specific, time-bound targets, with the right political attention and
accountability, can have a mobilizing effect with
businesses, investors, universities, civil society,
and faith-based organizations. Los Angeles might
explore models or platforms to enable publicprivate governance that generates and elevates
multi-stakeholder efforts to advance specific priorities or the agenda overall. Hawai’i Green
14 New York’s Office for International Affairs (2018, July).
Voluntary Local Review: New York City’s Implementation
of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Retrieved from https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/international/downloads/pdf/NYC_VLR_2018_FINAL.pdf
3 Los Angeles: Measuring Its Ambition to Achieve the SDGs
the value proposition for Los Angeles, reinforces the value of the commitment to staff,
residents, and external partners. It positions
the city to take advantage of the mobilizing
effect that can result from credible pursuit of
outcome-based, time-bound goals.
3.6
Recommendations:
Maximizing Value
from the SDGs
The proposed LA SDG framework is holistic,
ambitious, reflective of the city’s values and priorities, and serious about focusing the city’s
attention on its most vulnerable populations and
communities. The extent to which it will receive
special attention, or be used by the mayor and
senior officials as a tool or guidance for budget
and policy decisions, remains unclear.
The city has opted not to create a special highlevel SDG committee or internal task force. Its
internal organization against the SDGs resembles
a hub-and-spoke configuration, through which its
chief SDG coordinator engages policy owners as
appropriate throughout the city government.
It seems unlikely that the city will seek to create a comprehensive SDG-specific strategy to
accompany a finalized framework. The proposed
framework already contains and affirms many of
the mayor’s priorities, articulated through other
processes and policies. Indeed, one might view
all of Mayor Garcetti’s executive directives, taken
in total and combined, as the core of the city’s
SDG strategy.
Yet moving from alignment against the SDGs
to analysis and action can create significant value
for the city.
• Analyze policy gaps and opportunities:
Deeper analysis of the localized framework,
by using evidence to map past trends and develop
future scenarios, can identify areas where progress is likely to be insufficient, key challenges are
going unnoticed, or opportunities for scaling
high-impact interventions are hidden. Work
undertaken in late 2018 by faculty and students
from USC’s Institute on Inequalities in Global
Health to view the city’s approach to homelessness through the lens of human rights provides a
promising example. Universities and communitybased organizations might also work with the
appropriate city staff to use the multi-disciplinary
aspects of the SDGs to surface new perspectives
and develop integrated initiatives to advance
progress on clustered issues, such as those related
to homelessness.
The city presented a Voluntary Local Review
(VLR) in 2019. A VLR is a report, notionally to
the UN, of a city’s specific contributions to the
SDGs. Pioneered by New York City in 2018,
14
the format is based on the approach taken by
countries’ official reports on their SDG progress,
presenting Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs)
at the UN. The process of preparation provides an
immediate opportunity to stimulate and incorporate such analysis. Publishing and publicizing the
localized framework, once finalized, offer opportunities to community organizations and universities to undertake outside research relevant to
city priorities.
• Develop a platform for coordinated
governance:
While city government leadership will be
instrumental, achieving the LA SDGs will depend
upon strong shared city governance, with multiple segments of Los Angeles society contributing. Global experience with the MDGs and SDGs
has demonstrated that specific, time-bound targets, with the right political attention and
accountability, can have a mobilizing effect with
businesses, investors, universities, civil society,
and faith-based organizations. Los Angeles might
explore models or platforms to enable publicprivate governance that generates and elevates
multi-stakeholder efforts to advance specific priorities or the agenda overall. Hawai’i Green
14 New York’s Office for International Affairs (2018, July).
Voluntary Local Review: New York City’s Implementation
of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Retrieved from https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/international/downloads/pdf/NYC_VLR_2018_FINAL.pdf
3 Los Angeles: Measuring Its Ambition to Achieve the SDGs