Stina Hansson

Developing and testing the urban sustainable development goal’s targets and indicators – a five-city study

The campaign for the inclusion of a specifically urban goal within the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was challenging. Numerous divergent interests were involved, while urban areas worldwide are also extremely heterogeneous. It was essential to minimize the number of targets and indicators while still capturing critical urban dimensions relevant to human development. It was also essential to test the targets and indicators. This paper reports the findings of a unique comparative pilot project involving co-production between researchers and local authority officials in five diverse secondary and intermediate cities: Bangalore (Bengaluru), India; Cape Town, South Africa; Gothenburg, Sweden; Greater Manchester, United Kingdom; and Kisumu, Kenya. Each city faced problems in providing all the data required, and each also proposed various changes to maximize the local relevance of particular targets and indicators. This reality check provided invaluable inputs to the process of finalizing the urban SDG prior to the formal announcement of the entire SDG set by the UN Secretary-General in late September 2015.

Politics and Development in a Transboundary Watershed - The Case of the Lower Mekong Basin

This introductory chapter presents the main theme of the volume: the perceived dilemmas in pursuing IWRM in a transboundary context. The chapter discusses the IWRM approach and its package of progressive values and practices that focus on integration and participation and contrast it to transboundary politics and its tendency to remain within a state logic that emphasises sovereignty and national interests. In order to realise sustainable, efficient and inclusive water management, the chapter argues that it is essential to recognise and visualise power asymmetries and politics in regional water politics. Based on this assumption – that politics matter – the chapter contends that there is a need to explore how the perceived dichotomy between the interests of state sovereignty and (progressive) transboundary water management is played out in the Mekong River Basin. Together with its 50-year history of institutionalised cooperation and the river basin’s significance in terms of supporting local livelihoods and its contribution to the region’s national economies, the case is of paramount importance and interest. The disputed results and uncertain future in the region illustrate the complexity of achieving efficient, equitable and ecologically sustainable water management in a competitive international system. It thus makes up an excellent case study to illuminate the politics of IWRM in a transboundary setting. The different chapters of the volume, which are set to unpack, scrutinise, and illuminate the politics of the Lancang-Mekong Basin, are introduced at the end of the chapter. This section thus indicates some of the possible ways forward, challenges, dilemmas and incompatibilities in sustainable water management in the region which will be dealt with in more depth throughout the book.

Dependence and Autonomy: Conditions of Possibility for Nigerien Ownership in the Water Sector

In order for development assistance to contribute to sustainable reform it is considered necessary for recipient states to become owners of and assume leadership over their own policies and strategies. Based on state–agent narratives and participation in ministry–donor negotiation meetings and workshops, this paper investigates the process of achieving Nigerien ownership in the water sector through the implementation of the programme approach. Against the backdrop of new mechanisms of aid and promises for the future, the article shows how Nigerien ownership in the water sector is imagined as the ability to act, which requires the close presence of donors rather than autonomous decision-making. At the same time, the promise of agency creates a space for negotiation of the role of the state that may or may not be utilized.

The role of trust in shaping urban planning in local communities: The case of Hammarkullen, Sweden

Abstract Urban planning is increasingly focusing on the social aspect of sustainability. The 2014 report Differences in Living Conditions and Health in Gothenburg shows important and increasing inequalities between different parts of the city, a development seen in cities across the world. The city of Gothenburg has set as its goal the decrease in inequalities by joining forces with civil society, the private sector, academia and people living in the city. Participation and inclusion become important tools in city planning processes for the authorities to understand local conditions, particularly to understand the living conditions of people in socio-economically marginalised areas, whose voices are rarely listened to, and to enable their active participation in shaping outcomes. In this article, we explore the role of trust in improving urban planning, and in shaping possibilities for participation that is positively experienced, in the sense that it increases people’s sense of control over their neighbourhoods. Based on empirical work in Hammarkullen, a socio-economically marginalised area in Gothenburg, the article shows how specific local configurations of trust have an impact on local development plans. It further shows how participatory practices coarticulate with the local social situation to shape outcomes in a certain way. Grounded in the empirical study, the paper argues for the importance of understanding the local conditions of trust and how they interact with planning processes in shaping outcomes and future possibilities of cooperation. Further, the paper argues for the need to take the local conditions of trust into account early in the planning phase.

Politics vs Development in a Transboundary River Basin – The Case of the Mekong Basin

This concluding chapter looks at the nexus of development and politics in a transboundary basin by bringing together the different contributions to the volume and their different approaches to this problematique. Together they help us unpack the perceived incompatibility between an integrative participatory approach and international dynamics relying on a sovereignty logic in a contested space. Four central themes are discussed, namely the limitation of institutions and agreements; the securitization and national prerogative in water management; the tendency of IWRM approaches to hide politics and allow business as usual; the politics of participation and the challenges to its implementation; and finally knowledge management as a key to make a difference – given that its inevitable politicization is taken into account. Taking a critical stand the chapter still emphasizes the possibility to alter politics, on condition of its recognition. The challenges and dilemmas should not be used as an argument for not continuing to work with the politics of water management.