ADD2364 London Sustainable Development Commission’s Programme

This piece of work is being commissioned by the GLA to support the work of the London Sustainable Development Commission (LSDC). The London Sustainable Development Commission was appointed in 2002 to independently advise the Mayor on ways to make London a more sustainable city and promote sustainability in London.

The London Sustainable Development Commission (LSDC) has agreed a work programme to develop an approach to adopting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in London, which it aims to deliver via the present project proposal.

This work aims to assess London’s performance against the SDGs by developing a set of indicators that ‘translate’ the global Goals into a locally relevant London context, whilst consulting stakeholders on indicator development and creating a network of ‘SDG Champions’ to boost London’s capacity to deliver the SDGs.

In 2005, the Commission published a report on London’s ‘Quality of Life’ (QoL) indicators, which assessed London’s performance on a cross-cutting range of social, economic and environmental measures. This report provided the evidence base that informed the LSDC’s work programme and advice to the Mayor. The LSDC subsequently reported on the QoL indicators in 2005, 2009, 2012, 2015 and 2017. The 2017 QoL report is online here.

The 2017 QoL report featured an initial mapping exercise to understand where the existing QoL indicators align with the SDGs. This was supported by an additional mapping exercise conducted by the GLA Intelligence Unit in May 2018, which explored the availability of data for each SDG indicator.

The intention is that the future report on London’s SDG performance will update that QoL report but will go further by offering a comprehensive assessment against the full set of (relevant) SDGs, in order to situate London’s performance and leadership in a global framework and context.

However, it is important to note that this report will not assess the Mayor’s performance against GLA policies and programmes. Instead, it provides a snapshot of the city as whole using a wide range of metrics, many of which apply to issues falling outside the Mayor’s remit.

In 2018-19, the LSDC continued its SDG workstream by commissioning research on the views of young Londoners on a range of sustainability issues and mapping their priority issues against the SDGs. That work will be published in a report due to launch in September 2019.

The proposed SDG mapping exercise therefore builds on and extends the work above, and is hence supported by a wealth of existing data, expertise and stakeholder buy-in.

Relevance of the work

The SDGs were adopted by world leaders in 2015. Since then, they have become a unifying global language for how nations, cities, businesses and others can take decisive action to improve our social, economic and environmental conditions by 2030.

The SDGs are not just about ‘green’ issues – they cover a wide range of policy areas relevant to GLA programmes, including tackling inequality, decent jobs, good growth, education and wellbeing.

The SDGs are increasingly being used by local authorities, businesses and others as a framework to define corporate strategy and performance monitoring on social responsibility.

However, although many national and local governments have already taken significant action on the SDGs (e.g. New York, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, Bristol), the UK government has been criticised for its failure to act.

Objectives

• raise public awareness of the SDGs and their strategic value and convene expertise and dialogue;
• develop an approach to ‘translating’ the global Goals into a set of locally relevant indicators that are tailored to London’s context;
• report on London’s sustainability performance against that set of indicators;
• analyse the data to identify areas of good practice and any gaps and make recommendations for improvements; and
• convene a network of ‘SDG Champion’ organisations to adopt ownership of delivering the Goals, facilitated by the LSDC. Hence build London’s capacity to deliver the SDGs and enable the GLA to facilitate the delivery of benefits to Londoners in areas where the Mayor does not have direct powers or resources to deliver initiatives.

Outputs

• In order to achieve these aims, the (LSDC) wishes to undertake the following work. Some of this work will be conducted by GLA staff and is presented for context. Only the sections marked with in an * are to be delivered by consultants.
• Engage with stakeholders during October - November 2019 (and beyond):

- *convening a series of round tables with stakeholder groups to raise awareness and convene expertise and dialogue;
- building a network of SDG champions, to be convened by the Commission, creating ownership of London-wide actions and momentum for future progress; and
- launching the report and network in the first half of 2020 (exact dates tbc).

• Publish a report on London’s SDG performance:

- scope which SDG indicators are relevant to London;
- establish suitable indicators, and ensure data availability, working with data and policy teams in order to develop ‘localisation’ approach; and
- *collect and analyse data (identifying good performance and opportunities for improvement), then write a report on the above, to be published during the first half of 2020 (exact dates tbc).

Further details on the consultants’ deliverables:
Stakeholder engagement:

• Consult on approach to localising the SDGs. Raise awareness of SDGs and create dialogue. Initiate ‘champions’ network.
• Conduct a series of roundtables with a range of stakeholder groups, in order to raise awareness of the SDGs, create dialogue, gain buy-in for the approach to ‘localisation’ of the indicators, and sow the seeds to later initiate a ‘London SDG champions network’.
• Suitable invitees, as well as corporate partners to host workshops (pro bono), to be drawn from Commission and GLA networks. The consultants are also invited to make suggestions.
• Each workshop will present a proposed approach to localisation, which will have been developed by LSDC and GLA officers. The workshops will gain stakeholder input / buy-in on scoping, priorities / materiality, data, localisation.
• The consultants will facilitate dialogue in each workshop, building buy-in and consensus, support the development of networks and positive relationships.
• The consultants will record the key points raised in the workshops, in order that stakeholder feedback is captured and incorporated within the report.
Analyse data and produce report:
• Gather raw data: Download performance data from sources identified by GLA policy teams and Intelligence Unit. For example, trends in London’s carbon emissions, average life expectancy, unemployment rates. No new data will be collected – it will be drawn from existing sources, to be decided by the stakeholder engagement process above.
• Analyse data and produce report: Analyse the data, in order to interpret real-world meaning and policy implications, and identify gaps and opportunities for improvement. Sense check with GLA policy teams, including giving expert opinion on suitability of indicators / approach.
• Write up report based on the above. This will consist of a standalone document containing the executive summary, and a full report document, which will include:

- an executive summary;
- background to the context of the SDGs, including research conducted by the LSDC;
- performance data and relevant case studies for each indicator;
- short factual analysis on each indicator, along with brief commentary on the real-world implications; and
- overall conclusions.

Audiences

• There are multiple audiences for the report: The GLA Group, businesses, decision-makers in local authorities and other public bodies. Consequently, the report should have two levels of accessibility:

- a technical level providing data and information and the ability to drill down to specifics; and
- a non-technical level providing a narrative explaining the direction of travel for the headline issues.

The project will comply with the GLA’s policies on equality and accessibility, and public sector duties to promote equal opportunities, avoid unlawful harassment and discrimination, and foster good relations between people who have a protected characteristic and those who do not.

This work is not expected to have any negative impact on protected groups or others.

The primary potential for inequality to arise through the process of this work would be for the stakeholder engagement process to pay insufficient attention to the views of vulnerable groups / those with protected characteristics, resulting in an indicator set and report that does not sufficiently reflect their priorities and needs. This will be mitigated through the careful selection of a wide and diverse range of groups to participate in the engagement programme, using the networks of the GLA and the Commission.

The project plan also includes extensive engagement with GLA policy teams, including those with a remit to tackle inequality, and their advice will be sought to avoid discrimination and exclusion of groups.

The LSDC has already worked extensively to listen to the voices of young people, and ensure their specific concerns are heard by decision-makers though the ‘Young Londoners’ research (report due to launch in September 2019), and subsequent ongoing dialogue.

The existing Quality of Life indicators have also gone through their own equality process engaging with internal and external stakeholders, and this project builds on that previous work.

Overall the work is expected to have a positive contribution to reducing inequality, and advancing equality of opportunity. The principle of ‘leave no one behind’ is a key tenet of the SDGs - this means prioritising the needs of the most vulnerable in society. This approach will be manifested in the report, which will highlight inequalities issues and how they might be addressed.

Unlawful discrimination will be avoided in the tender process through clear guidelines on how the contract is to be awarded.

1. Key risks and issues:

2. Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities

1. Due to the wide-ranging nature of the SDGs, this programme of work covers issues and indicators that link directly to several Mayoral strategies: The London Plan, Economic Development Strategy, the London Environment Strategy and others.

1. However, it is important to note that this report will not assess the Mayor’s performance against GLA policies and programmes. Instead, it provides a snapshot of the city as whole using a wide range of metrics, many of which apply to issues falling outside the Mayor’s remit.

3. Impact assessments and consultations

1. This programme of work has been designed – and will be delivered - in collaboration with officers from the GLA directorates and departments to ensure that the methodologies and results applied are robust and relevant.

1. In particular, the GLA Intelligence Team conducted a mapping exercise that identified how the SDGs map to London’s existing Quality of Life Indicators.

1. The Governance Team conducted an exercise to map the SDGs’ alignment with the GLA’s strategies.

1. The SDG work programme has been presented a number of GLA policy officers, and their comments have helped shaped the proposed work plan.

1. Production of the outputs of this programme of work will be developed with consultation from key GLA teams who cover the issues and areas of focus for the report – e.g. Economic Development, Health, etc.

4. Conflicts of interest

The GLA’s Assistant Director of Environment, who would normally authorise this spend, is the partner of one of the LSDC Commissioners. It has been decided that in order to mitigate the potential for any associated risks, this decision form will instead be authorised by another senior manager. The relevant Commissioner will also not be one of the team of six Commissioners involved in procurement decisions and delivery of this project. In addition, bids will not be considered from commercial suppliers that have the potential to financially benefit any GLA officer or LSDC Commissioner involved in this project.

5. Tender evaluation criteria:

1. The evaluation process will be conducted to ensure that submissions are evaluated fairly to select the most economically advantageous offer. The quotation evaluation process will take account of the following:

1. The letting of the contract will be managed by the GLA’s Sustainable Development Team. A contract will be granted after a competitive tender process.
3. The final outputs be produced with consideration to making it accessible to Londoners, with non-technical summaries available for the public.

Assistant Director’s approval is sought for the expenditure of up to £20,000 engaging a consultant to map London’s delivery of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on behalf of the London Sustainable Development Commission (LSDC).

This expenditure will be funded from the Sustainable Development Programme budget 2019-20.