Initiative Description

The Alliance 2030 project aims to drive a shared multi-stakeholder effort to improve commitment to the 2030 Agenda and sustainable development from Local Entities in the province of Córdoba. The goal is to develop and agree upon a Multi-stakeholder Provincial Plan for the implementation of a Provincial Sustainable Development Strategy 2030.

Alongside this, the project promotes the creation of Local 2030 Agendas for municipalities wishing to integrate the leverage policies that drive and receive from multi-level agendas (such as those provided by the Córdoba Provincial Council) and the construction of a Multi-stakeholder Provincial Network of SDG Promoters.

The Alliance 2030 platform has been created to transform the province of Córdoba, address challenges, and prioritize actions for its sustainable development. It is a web space for visualizing the action laboratory of the SDG promoters within this Provincial Network.

Among the actions to be carried out are:

• Co-creation and consensus of the Provincial Alliance 2030 and a Multi-stakeholder Provincial Plan for the Implementation of the 1st Provincial Sustainable Development Strategy
• Co-create and agree on a technological procedure that allows for the agile, standardized, and rapid incorporation of any multi-stakeholder action into the Provincial Sustainable Development Strategy 2030 and the 2030 Agendas of local entities, so that any of the actors can gain competitiveness and resources in grant calls.

The Alliance 2030 project will respond, as a requirement of the call, to the incorporation of the best available methodology (following the 2030 Agenda Localization Guide, the Spanish Action Plan for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, and the Spanish Strategy for Sustainable Development 2030), to favor, led by local entities in Córdoba, the 2030 Agenda process and agree on those actions that accelerate their commitments to transform the province of Córdoba, address challenges, and prioritize actions in its sustainable development.

Execution Period

The planning and governance systems generated for its execution will extend until 2030, but it has a future projection.

Methodology

Driving the project’s various activities to achieve its three specific objectives. The aim has always been to integrate all areas, themes, and considerations of territorial sustainable development to generate broad participation in the process.

Furthermore, a significant communication plan has been promoted, managed by the Communication Office of the Córdoba Provincial Institution, to inform all interested stakeholders about the major meanings of the project:

• A Provincial Multi-stakeholder Alliance 2030 to develop and maintain a Multi-stakeholder Implementation Plan for the Provincial Sustainable Development Strategy 2030.
• What are the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda.
• The Provincial Network of SDG Promoters.
• Communicate multi-stakeholder pilot experiences and the results being achieved through their involvement in sustainable development.
• Highlight the significance of planning, governance, capacity building, and the securing of public and private resources for provincial sustainable development, which, although accelerated in 2023, is intended to continue for the remainder of the Decade of Action.

Resources

Technical resources included the contracting of assistance for technical support in the execution of project activities (7 technicians), the updating of the project website, and a technological tool for continuous updating of sustainable development strategies until 2030 and the evolution of 2030 Agenda implementation.

Economically, the project received a grant from the Secretary of State for the 2030 Agenda of €364,069.04 and self-financing from the Provincial Institution of €177,726.92, bringing the total cost to €541,795.96. These funds covered personnel costs, all activities, and operating expenses.

Additionally, with the price review carried out, the Córdoba Provincial Council approved an increase in this co-financing worth €252,798.72 in the March 2023 plenary session.

Stakeholder Involvement and Alliance Building

It has been centralized on an online platform of the Provincial Multi-stakeholder Network of SDG Promoters, with adherence from the electronic headquarters of the Córdoba Provincial Council, for SDG promoters who, through it, identify themselves as such, around the following categories to form alliances, where their members can be seen:

• Public institutions
• Universities and training centers
• Private sector
• Organized civil society
• Volunteering
• General public

Coordination

INTERNAL. Through an Interdepartmental Technical Commission for the 2030 Agenda and with a Head of the 2030 Agenda.

EXTERNAL. The external agents involved are the following:

• Alliance 2030 Steering Group
• Provincial Multi-stakeholder Network of SDG Promoters
• Alliance 2030 Forum
• Córdoba Provincial Council’s Advisory Council for Sustainable Development

Innovation: What are the most innovative aspects contributed by the initiative?

The Provincial Multi-stakeholder Network of SDG Promoters is generating an Alliance 2030 that incorporates the multi-stakeholder element present in the province of Córdoba to achieve:

• Multi-stakeholder Implementation Plan for this 1st Provincial Sustainable Development Strategy
• Implementation Plan for the 2030 Agenda by the Córdoba Provincial Council, with a long-term scope until 2030, and the 1st Mandate Action Plan integrating the SDGs for 2023-2027.

• A similar Implementation Plan for Sustainable Development Strategies 2030 or Local 2030 Agendas for 33-43 municipalities in the province, as well as their specific Mandate Action Plans with SDGs for 2023-2027.

What elements should be considered for the replicability of the initiative in another Local Entity?

• Political will and leadership for other provincial contexts with the support of their Local Entities
• Technical staff to help implement the methodology.
• Using the 2030 Agenda as a roadmap for the specific SDG targets of their territories.

Obstacles: What have been the main obstacles encountered in the different phases of the project?

• Technical and political knowledge.
• Capacity building.
• Co-creation of strategies and mandate action plans with available data sources.
• Lack of available time.

Triple impact: Is the project sustainable from an environmental, economic, and social point of view?

• Social: by considering the necessary multi-stakeholder participation, leaving no one behind, up to the consensus of strategic actions and the involvement in their own implementation by each actor. This includes the leverage policies of multi-level agendas related to the SDGs most connected to the people sphere and the synergies that other SDGs generate in these, such as SDG 10, 12, and 16 (particularly with target 7 and 16.b) and the means to carry them out from SDG 17. This multi-stakeholder and participatory space of the Provincial Multi-stakeholder Network of SDG Promoters represents social innovation.
• The technological effect contributed by the project, by developing and agreeing on the use of a technological procedure for a rapid, agile, simple, and standardized update of actions that any actor wishes to upload to the specific 2030 Agenda of the local entity in the territorial scope of their interest, either because it is an observed challenge or a priority contributed, or due to the identification of their participation in it. All of this, so that it can be incorporated into a strategic instrument in no more than two months. This will be a political innovation by implementing a new way of making public policy from local entities with the project.

• Environmental: by including the leverage policies of multi-level agendas related to the SDGs most connected to the planet sphere and the synergies that transversal targets of SDGs 5, 8, 11, 12, and 16 have for public management, as well as the measures of SDG 17 that are necessary for the fulfillment of the rest. Something that can also be observed from the involvement in this implementation by the other actors.
• Economic: by including the leverage policies of multi-level agendas related to the SDGs most connected to the prosperity sphere.

And alongside this, it impacts the possibilities of multi-stakeholder extrapolation, extending it not only within the province of Córdoba but also to other Spanish or international territories as it becomes known during 2023 and in subsequent years.

The Alliance 2030 project aims to show that many of the activities to be carried out serve as measures and commitments to ensure the future sustainability of the project.

Results, Measurement, and Impact

Participants

• Dipucordoba 2030, 2023 version.
• Provincial Multi-stakeholder Plan for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
• Implementation plans for the 2030 Agenda and mandate action plans integrating the SDGs of Local Entities
• Revised Alliance 2030.
• Advisory Council for Sustainable Development in the provincial institution.
• Agreements with the Multi-stakeholder Network of SDG Promoters (agreements, accords, and adhesions).

Initially, the project’s outcome indicators have been integrated, and subsequently, the service and impact indicators that these results offer for the remainder of the 2030 Decade of Action have been localized.

Link of interest:

https://agenda2030.dipucordoba.es/