Capacity building key to localise SDGs in India

The Government of India has accorded high priority to meet the Sustainable Development Agenda 2015-2030 adopted by the United Nations, by designating the NITI Aayog as the national level nodal agency to track progress in achieving different Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

At a conceptual level, the SDG framework rests on two crucial pillars— governance through goal setting and synergy across goals. For this purpose, the 17 SDGs are sub-divided into 169 targets and 231 indicators to act as a decision support system for high-level policymakers. Monitoring of these indicators can provide inputs regarding the performance of different plans and programmes, and facilitate evidence-based decision making. Moreover, parameters set under different goals are designed to be mutually interdependent to a large extent to promote an integrated approach towards policymaking.
Within the global sustainability framework, SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) occupies a particularly important position as its targets overlap with practically all other SDGs. For instance, improving the delivery of basic services like water and sanitation to slum areas (linked to SDG target 11.1) can improve the health (SDG 3 – health and wellbeing) of poor children by reducing the spread of diseases and, in turn, may increase their educational attainment by reducing sick days (SDG 4 – education), besides meeting targets under SDG 6 (access to water and sanitation). Thus, a targeted approach towards urban development can help us achieve multiple SDGs simultaneously.
There is no denying the fact that monitoring various sustainability indicators can make urban management processes more objective. However, the implementation of the aspirational global sustainability agenda in India faces critical operational challenges due to city-level data deficiencies and capacity constraints of the urban local bodies (ULBs).
The evidence-based decision support system which undergirds the SDG framework requires robust city level statistical data inputs, which are often hard to come by. It is pertinent to note here that monitoring of SDG 11 also requires a far larger quantum of data to be collected at the local levels as compared to other SDGs. Moreover, several of the targets, such as: land-use efficiency (11.3.1), civil society engagement (11.3.2) and availability of public spaces (11.7.1) are required to be monitored for the first time and would require new benchmarking protocols to be put in place.
Tracking of SDG 11 under the NITI Aayog’s SDG India Index and Dashboard are presently restricted to eight national-level targets, which pertain to SDG 11.1 (housing conditions), 11.2 (traffic safety) and 11.6 (solid waste management). However, monitoring of SDG 11 is likely to scale up in the near future as the central government has recently launched the National Urban Digital Mission (NUDM). The NUDM is highly ambitious in scope and is being designed to bring together key actors in urban governance and various city-centric stakeholders on a shared platform. Two important elements of the NUDM framework are: India Urban Data Exchange platform, and the National Urban Governance platform.
India Urban Data Exchange (IUDX) platform is being jointly developed by the Smart Cities Mission and Indian Institute of Science Bangalore. It is an open-source software platform designed to facilitate data exchange in a secure environment amongst various data platforms, third party applications, data producers and consumers. Data on urban environmental quality, natural hazards, traffic conditions, bike-sharing, water distribution network, solid waste management, and municipal finance are likely to be made available, to begin with.
National Urban Governance platform (NUGP) is being developed by the eGovernment Foundation and the Centre for Digital Governance at the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA). It is being designed to deliver municipal services in nine key areas like property tax collection, trade license, and no objection certificates in a much more people-friendly manner by 2022.
The NUDM is indeed a game-changing policy initiative and can bring in transformative change in the SDG localisation process in Indian cities. As part of its agenda, three key city level benchmarking indices, namely: Municipal Performance Index, Ease of Living Index, and Climate-Smart Cities Index, had been launched. The next step would require bringing methodological coherence among these indexes, to align them, on the one hand, with IUDX, NUGP and other such data platforms launched under the aegis of the NUDM, while on the other hand, to align them to the SDG targets. However, to realise the potential of indicator-driven national urban frameworks and apply such monitoring systems to achieve SDG targets, it is essential to focus on augmenting comprehensive urban management capabilities of the ULBs.
Until now, the capacity building of ULBs has not received adequate attention. Their functioning is being affected due to staff shortages, technical skill deficits, and the frequent transfer of key officials. Many state governments are yet to formalise municipal cadre systems, staffing norms, or systematic skill upgrading strategies. Whatever training programmes are held are intermittent, limited to routine administrative aspects, and lack long-term vision. Opportunities for regular and comprehensive knowledge building in urban management are extremely limited.
The issue of ULB capacity deficits began to be highlighted at the national level from the time of the JNNURM (Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission). To meet the needs of the mission, rapid training programmes were initiated. Besides this, a few regional capacity building hubs were established, and a mechanism was put in place for knowledge sharing between ULBs under the peer experience and reflective learning programme component of JNNURM. Since then, other central missions such as the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation have incorporated capacity building components to train ULB officials.
While the capacity building programmes under centrally funded missions are noteworthy and have made a positive contribution, according to the Report of the Working Group on Capacity Building for the Twelfth Plan (2011), and NIUA’s Study to Qualitatively Assess the Capacity Building Needs of Urban Local Bodies (2015), in the long-run, such mission-centric capacity building programmes are inadequate and fail to generate institutional memories within the ULBs.
To overcome this capacity gap, the 12th Plan report suggested the following: setting up five Indian Institutes of Urban Management; building and reforming municipal cadres with opportunities for the lateral hiring of professionals; training of central services officers as urban specialists; and the creation of a Reform and Performance Management Cell at the centre and state levels to monitor the function of ULBs.
For SDG implementation, urban management training needs of the local government staff needs to go beyond routine administrative matters, and requires to be buttressed with additional courses on urban sustainability and resiliency, advanced data analytics, and stakeholder engagement practices. These additional requirements can be partly addressed by leveraging the potential of the NUDM platform to deliver high-quality training materials to ULB staff through online mode. However, the state governments also need to take parallel action in sensitising the ULB staff about the training needs and institutionalising such processes as part of the organisational policy. Moreover, cities under the Smart Cities Mission may also need to designate the position of a Data Officer, with defined roles and responsibilities.
Focused attention towards improving the capabilities of the ULBs can indeed go a long way in meeting urban sustainability objectives and improve the quality of lives of people.