TY - CHAP
T1 - The Leadership and Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals in Finnish Municipalities
AU - Lähteenoja, Satu
AU - Schmidt-Thomé, Kaisa
AU - Päivänen, Jani
AU - Terämä, Emma
PY - 2021/6/17
Y1 - 2021/6/17
N2 - Cities and municipalities play a vital role in accelerating the transition towards reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In an urbanised world, many of the most significant sustainability initiatives are carried out locally. This study discusses the results of action research run with 12 forerunning municipalities in Finland. The research identified the current baseline in the municipalities’ cross-sectoral strategic leadership work related to sustainability and co-designed solutions for more long-term and coherent SDG leadership at the local level. The conceptual framework links the literature on sustainability transitions seen as systemic sociotechnical change with the public administration scholarship. The study showed that embedding sustainability in the practice of local level leadership is a matter of both procedures and substance. The local level administration needs to know how to orchestrate its sustainable development efforts but also know which themes and actions to concentrate on in order to utilise the full local potential. As a result, this chapter presents three models of SDG leadership at the local level. A participatory process, where the SDGs are localised in a cross-sectoral manner, gives the opportunity to bring sustainable development to the very centre of strategy work at the local level and can be recommended.
AB - Cities and municipalities play a vital role in accelerating the transition towards reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In an urbanised world, many of the most significant sustainability initiatives are carried out locally. This study discusses the results of action research run with 12 forerunning municipalities in Finland. The research identified the current baseline in the municipalities’ cross-sectoral strategic leadership work related to sustainability and co-designed solutions for more long-term and coherent SDG leadership at the local level. The conceptual framework links the literature on sustainability transitions seen as systemic sociotechnical change with the public administration scholarship. The study showed that embedding sustainability in the practice of local level leadership is a matter of both procedures and substance. The local level administration needs to know how to orchestrate its sustainable development efforts but also know which themes and actions to concentrate on in order to utilise the full local potential. As a result, this chapter presents three models of SDG leadership at the local level. A participatory process, where the SDGs are localised in a cross-sectoral manner, gives the opportunity to bring sustainable development to the very centre of strategy work at the local level and can be recommended.
UR - https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-70948-8_14
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-030-70948-8_14
DO - 10.1007/978-3-030-70948-8_14
M3 - Chapter
SN - 9783030709471
VL - 1
T3 - Sustainable Development Goals Series
SP - 203
EP - 217
BT - Sustainable Development Goals for Society Vol. 1
A2 - Nhamo, Godwell
A2 - Togo, Muchaiteyi
A2 - Dube, Kaitano
PB - Springer
CY - Cham, Switzerland
ER -