Cocreated Data-Driven Approach to SDG Institutionalization, Localization, and Deepening: eThekwini Municipality

Although national governments made commitment on Sustainable Development Goals in 2016, there is now a prevailing global consensus that cities have a massive role to plan in ensuring that these goals are achieved by 2030. As a result, there has been a concerted effort to encourage cities to take up a leading role in the institutionalization, localization, and implementation of SDGs. Like most global cities, the City of Durban has made commitments to lead the process of institutionalizing and localizing SDGs at local level. However, this commitment is entangled in a number of local challenges that require innovation and collective effort to overcome. At the center of those challenges is the lack of quality, reliable, and integrated city-level data that is critical for monitoring and tracking SDG progress in cities. It is therefore the intention of this chapter to detail how the City of Durban has used a data-driven approach to center institutionalization, localization, and deepen SDG implementation. What this approach is helping the city achieve is fostering cocreation, coproduction, and strong multistakeholder ownership of the SDG process. At the same time, the approach has assisted the city understand the value of building a robust data ecosystem as central in SDG institutionalization and localization. The chapter highlights how the City of Durban has used data-driven approach to adopt a three-layered process of institutionalization, localization, and deepening.