Quality of local governance and sustainable development: a review of normative principles

Along with the wealth of research, the many legal protections, international environmental agreements, governance innovations and the transboundary diffusion of new ideas in the field of sustainable development (SD), we have... [ view full abstract ]

Along with the wealth of research, the many legal protections, international environmental agreements, governance innovations and the transboundary diffusion of new ideas in the field of sustainable development (SD), we have observed an acceleration of human impacts on the planet and few clear messages of how to tackle these through effective problem-solving. On the contrary, many findings point to a clear failure to protect the critical Earth systems that allow for sustainable and thriving human societies and wellbeing. Even when there is an agreement among academics and policy-makers that current governance institutions and practices must be reformed if sustainable outcomes are to be achieved, the way it should be carried out varies immensely. The quality of local institutions is of uttermost importance for the implementation of SD policy instruments at the local level, and ultimately for the prospects of responding to global SD challenges. Local governments can make efforts to facilitate co-operation with multiple actors, using a range of policy instruments designed to either punish or reward, involve, devolve or share responsibilities. This demands a better understanding of complex processes and systems, including the quality of local governance (QoLG) and its capacity to meet SD objectives. Assessing the QoLG is challenging due to this complexity and currently there is neither a roadmap nor a widely accepted tool to do it. Therefore, this paper aims to present a systematic literature review in order to understand two important concerns. The first regards how the conceptualization of the QoLG is discussed in the literature, in order to structure the key comprehensive dimensions that may affect or determine the QoLG, as well as to understand how these dimensions connect to the need to address SD objectives. The second is to understand what assessment tools and methodologies have been proposed in the literature to evaluate the QoLG towards SD. Questions of how to define those concepts, how ‘universal’ they are, how to design measurement tools to operationalise and assess them, how assessments may mobilize popular and political will or how to foster their use to then improve governance are critical for this research, particularly when this debate is receiving high momentum at the international level. Decisive agreements on the new Post-2015 SD Goals and their financial mobilization, on the new climate change agenda and the new urban agenda (Habitat III) placed an emphasis on transforming governance for SD. Success in responding to these challenges requires reflection on existing local governance frameworks and their capacity to address local-global SD challenges.

Keywords: good local governance; policy instruments; governance practices; evaluation; sustainable development