Achieving the SDGs: Evaluating indicators to be used to benchmark and monitor progress towards creating healthy and sustainable cities

•Given rapid urbanisation, city planning is key to achieving the SDGs.•UN indicator frameworks do not include many determinants of city outcomes.•A more comprehensive set of indicators for cities is required.•This will better facilitate monitoring of progress toward attaining the SDGs. In 2016, the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Health policy (Amsterdam) Vol. 124; no. 6; pp. 581 - 590
Main Authors: Giles-Corti, Billie, Lowe, Melanie, Arundel, Jonathan
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Ireland Elsevier B.V 01.06.2020
Elsevier Science Ltd
Subjects:
21st century
Access
Built environment
Cities
City planning, methods
Climate change
Global health
Health behavior
Health policy
Health status
Health status indicators
Healthy people programs/methods
Indicators
Inequality
Integrated planning
Internal Medicine
Intervention
Liveability
Policy
Public health
Review
Smart Growth
Social determinants of health
Sustainability
Sustainable development
Sustainable Development Goals
Urban
Urban areas
Urban planning
Urbanization/trends
Policy
Social determinants of health
Global health
Urbanization/trends
Liveability
Smart Growth
Built environment
Review
Sustainable development
Urban
Climate change
Health policy
Healthy people programs/methods
City planning, methods
Integrated planning
Health status indicators
Cities
Sustainable Development Goals
Indicators
Health Policy
ISSN:0168-8510, 1872-6054, 1872-6054
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:•Given rapid urbanisation, city planning is key to achieving the SDGs.•UN indicator frameworks do not include many determinants of city outcomes.•A more comprehensive set of indicators for cities is required.•This will better facilitate monitoring of progress toward attaining the SDGs. In 2016, the World Health Organization declared that ‘Health is one of the most effective markers of any city’s successful sustainable development’ (World Health Organisation, 2016). With estimates that around 6.7 billion people will live in cities by 2050, 21st century city planning decisions will play a critical role in achieving the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They will determine the city structure and access to health-enhancing (or health-damaging) urban environments, and ultimately lifestyle choices that impact both individual and planetary health. Benchmarking, monitoring and evaluating city planning policies and interventions is therefore critical to optimise urban outcomes. In 2017, the UN adopted a global SDG indicator framework, calling for complementary national and regional indicators to be collected by member countries. UN Habitat has also developed an indicator action framework specifically for cities. This paper examined the extent to which the UN indicators will help cities evaluate their efforts to deliver sustainability and health outcomes. It identified inconsistencies between the two UN indicator frameworks. Many of the SDG indicators assess outcomes, rather than the comprehensive and integrated ‘upstream’ policies and interventions required to deliver outcomes on-the-ground. Conversely, the UN Habitat framework incorporates intervention indicators, but excludes health outcome indicators. A more comprehensive approach to benchmarking, monitoring and evaluating policies designed to achieve healthy and sustainable cities and assessing spatial inequities is proposed.
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ISSN:0168-8510
1872-6054
1872-6054
DOI:10.1016/j.healthpol.2019.03.001