Trilateral team from Sub-Sahara Africa, North Africa and Europe officially kicks-of research and training project on how to incorporate SDGs in urban development.
The project SDGs GoGlocal! (2023- 2026) aims to strengthen research and teaching in how to localise and ground the SDGs meaningfully in urban planning and development practice. The official kick-off workshop in Windhoek took place 14 – 18 August 2023.
Sub-Sahara Africa is urbanising at unprecedented speed. To address the dynamic urbanisation process will be one of the strategic leverages for sustainable development both within the region as well as globally. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) put emphasis on the pressing need to “Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” (SDG 11). Often integrated and transdisciplinary approaches to localise the SDGs in urban development are seen as key, but how it exactly works is fairly unclear; particular on the level of so-called informal settlement communities.
Here ‘SDGs GoGlocal’ is developing a 3-pillar approach: development of teaching modules, a multi-actor learning hub and joint research activities.
‘SDGs GoGlocal’ follows the principle of shared learning experiences on eye-level between Namibia, Egypt and Germany. Moreover, SDGs GoGlocal will be based on the experience of the MSc Integrated Urbanism and Sustainable Design (IUSD) and involve civil society and local government representatives and is thereby closely working with the Namibia Housing Action Group (NHAG) and the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia (SDFN).
