Summary

Local governance is a key focal point for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). National and global initiatives encourage SDG governance by promoting the overall SDG framework, targets, and indicators and by providing data, rankings, and visualization about the performance of nations, states, and selected cities. Soon after the SDGs were adopted in 2015, efforts turned toward localization—that is, a focus on local governance as the engine for progress and innovation, which engendered many efforts to develop indicators to measure sustainability. In addition to this emphasis on measurement strategies, the use of the SDGs as a holistic and integrated framework that is essential for improvement, implementation, and innovation began to emerge. Despite challenges to SDG-based local governance, promising strategies that exemplify “SDG 360 Thinking” have emerged. These approaches reflect practical insights related to political incentives, local relevance, and simplicity or feasibility. They address key aspects of the planning and implementation cycle and echo evidence-based approaches deriving from systems thinking and implementation science. SDG 360 Thinking uses a holistic systematic approach to focus on identification of co-benefits; reduction of harm, waste, and error; and equity trade-offs. The clarity of purpose, systematic approach, and revelatory power of SDG 360 Thinking, combined with a practical, inclusive, and robust economics, offer the promise to enable local governments to realize the potential of the SDGs.