ADD2462 LSDC's programme on UN Sustainable Development Goals: top-up

1.1. This work is being commissioned by the GLA to support the work of the London Sustainable Development Commission (LSDC). The LSDC was appointed in 2002 to independently advise the Mayor on making London a world-leading sustainable city.

1.2. The LSDC has established a work programme to map London’s performance (but not the Mayor’s) against the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Its goal is to support sustainability in London’s decision-making, and enable a green and fair recovery.

1.3. Under ADD 2364 (contract value: £20k), the LSDC engaged The University of Newcastle upon Tyne to develop a localised SDG indicator set tailored to London, produce a draft report on performance, and engage with stakeholders. The majority of these outputs have now been delivered.

1.4. However, during delivery it became necessary to the extend the scope of the work by developing and analysing additional indicators, despite rigorous scoping research beforehand drawing on best practice from leading global cities. (The original brief was for around 50 indicators – this expanded to 100+.)

1.5. A further £4,000 is now therefore requested to complete the work, taking the total project cost to £24,000. No further funding will be sought subsequently: this top-up, costs of which have been fully itemised, will complete the project.

1.6. Exemption is requested from the Contract and Funding Code, and a Single-Source Justification has been authorised for The University of Newcastle upon Tyne to deliver this work on the basis it represents best value for money. This work is an indivisible continuation of an existing project and it would not be practical or cost-effective for this for it to be delivered by another party. The total requested project value is below the £50,000 threshold to re-tender.

1.7. A further £5k funding has been leveraged from The University of Newcastle upon Tyne, which can be unlocked if the present ADD is approved. This will deliver stakeholder engagement with marginalised groups in London.

Work completed to date:

1.8. A localised SDG indicator set, tailored to London, was developed in partnership with relevant GLA policy teams. This has helped inform the development of the GLA’s recovery indicators.

1.9. Indicator data was analysed to produce a draft evidence report, currently being finalised and due to be published later in 2020.

1.10. An insights paper was published in July 2020: ‘The role of the SDGs in London’s green and fair recovery’, drawing on the SDGs evidence base as well as more recent post-pandemic data. It has helped develop the GLA’s approach to a sustainable recovery.

1.11. External stakeholders have been engaged to raise awareness of the SDGs whilst helping inform our approach, via several conferences, workshops and webinars. Key audiences were boroughs, organisations representing marginalised communities, and the private sector.

Relevance of the work

1.12. This work supports the Mayor’s commitment to London’s green and fair recovery, by providing an evidence base to help embed sustainability in decision-making across a range of issues – including tackling poverty and inequality; decent jobs and good growth; health and wellbeing; housing and planning; and the environment.

1.13. Commitment to the UN SDGs demonstrates London’s leadership stance on social equality and the environment on the world stage, at a time when a global outlook has never been more important.

1.14. The SDGs were adopted by world leaders in 2015 to transform global social, economic and environmental conditions by 2030. Although the SDGs were initially focused on national governments, they have become a unifying global language on sustainability for cities, businesses and others. New York and other global cities are using the SDGs to frame their Covid-19 recovery strategies, and Kate Raworth’s influential ‘Doughnut Economics’ model is partly based on the SDGs.

Objectives

2.1. Provide a cross-cutting indicator set and evidence base on a range of policy issues – including inequalities, health, housing, jobs and the environment – in order to support more joined-up decision-making that benefits all Londoners, and especially supporting London’s green and fair recovery.

2.2. Galvanise coordinated action by the boroughs, the private sector and others, to deliver these goals.

Outputs and outcomes

2.3. The consultants will complete their report on London’s performance on the SDGs, which will be published later in 2020.

2.4. The work will be disseminated via webinars and a series of Insights Papers – one of which has already been released on ‘The role of the SDGs in London’s green and fair recovery’ and has helped inform thinking on the Recovery process.

2.5. £5,000 funding has been leveraged from The University of Newcastle upon Tyne, which can be unlocked if the present ADD is approved. This will deliver stakeholder engagement with marginalised groups in London.

Audiences

2.6. There are multiple audiences for the report:

• GLA policy teams and London boroughs: engage in dialogue on how the SDGs can add help inform and deliver a green and fair recovery, as well as framing how sustainability is incorporated into policy-making – e.g. in the Royal Docks.

• Businesses: the business community (especially large corporations) already use the SDGs to underpin their strategic approach to social responsibility and the environment. This work can engage them and help leverage further private sector action on the environment and social responsibility.

• Cities and local authorities across the UK and globally: Many are seeking best practice examples of how to deliver the SDGs – disseminating London’s work will scale up action and position London as a global leader.

• NGOs and civil society groups: Sectors which are already heavily engaged in the SDGs agenda will be kept informed of this work.

3.1. 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.

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

3.3. 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, particularly in the context of the Covid-19 recovery. This approach will be manifested in the report, which will highlight inequalities issues and how they might be addressed.

3.4. 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 (as has already been done via the webinar invitations).

3.5. 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.

3.6. 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 (published in September 2019), and subsequent ongoing dialogue.

Key risks and issues

Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities

4.1. Due to the wide-ranging nature of the SDGs, this programme links with nearly all of the Recovery missions and cross-cutting principles, as well as several Mayoral strategies: The London Plan, Economic Development Strategy, the London Environment Strategy and others. All relevant policy teams have been engaged to ensure alignment.

4.2. 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.

Impact assessments and consultations

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

4.4. The GLA Intelligence Team conducted a mapping exercise that identified how the SDGs map to London’s existing Quality of Life Indicators.

4.5. The Strategy Team conducted an exercise to map the SDGs’ alignment with the GLA’s strategies, and have been engaged throughout on how the SDGs can support a sustainable recovery.

4.6. All relevant policy teams helped co-develop the SDG indicator set, including a roundtable workshop held in November 2019, and more focused one-to-one meetings. At the workshop, officers gave a range of strategic and technical input to ensure that data sources were reliable; to ensure we measured the right things; and to ensure that measuring inequalities was at the heart of the exercise.

4.7. The report will be discussed with all relevant teams, to ensure data and interpretations and correct, and to ensure any technical and policy comments are addressed.

Conflicts of interest

4.8. 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 by authorised by another senior manager. The relevant Commissioner is also not one of the team of six Commissioners involved in procurement decisions and delivery of this project.

4.9. The supplier does not have the potential to financially benefit any GLA officer or LSDC Commissioner involved in this project.

5.1. Approval is being sought for the additional expenditure of up to £4,000 to continue the Authority’s work on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), on behalf of the London Sustainable Development Commission (LSDC).

5.2. The funds will be spent on commissioning The University of Newcastle upon Tyne, who have previously been procured, to complete a report on the delivery of the SDGs in London. If approved the total expenditure on this piece of work from the GLA will be £24,000.

5.3. It should also be noted that The University of Newcastle upon Tyne has agreed to contribute a further £5,000 to enhance this work with additional funds being sought from private sector partners.

5.4. This requested £4,000 will be funded from the 2020/21 Sustainable Development Programme budget

6.1. The foregoing sections of this report indicate that the decisions requested of the director fall within the statutory powers of the Authority to promote and/or to do anything which is facilitative of or conducive or incidental to promoting the improvement of the environment within Greater London and in formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought officers have complied with the Authority’s related statutory duties to:

(a) pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people;

(b) consider how the proposals will promote the improvement of health of persons, health inequalities between persons and to contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom; and

(c) consult with appropriate bodies.

6.2. In taking the decisions requested of him, the director must have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty; namely the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010, and to advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (race, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment) and persons who do not share it and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010). To this end, the director should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report.

6.3. The procurement of the consultancy services from The University of Newcastle Upon Tyne is valued at up to £4,000. This expenditure brings the total spent on this project with The University of Newcastle Upon Tyne to £24,000. Section 10 of the Authority's Contracts and Funding Code (the "Code") requires that the Authority undertake a formal tender process or make a call off from an accessible framework for procurements with a value between £10,000 and £150,000. However, section 10 of the Code also provides that an exemption from this requirement may be justified on the basis of previous involvement by the service provider in a specific current project or continuation of new work that cannot be separated from the new project. The officers have set out at paragraph 1.6 above the reasons why the procurement falls within the said exemption. Accordingly, the director may approve the exemption, if he be so minded.