The Sustainable Development Goals Implementation: Case Study in a Pioneer Brazilian Municipality

Abstract

Knowing how cities are planning, monitoring, and implementing the 2030 Agenda has been considered by the literature as crucial to the advancement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this context, the main purpose of this article was to investigate the performance of the municipality of Birigui (São Paulo State, Brazil) in the implementation of the SDGs. To achieve the objectives proposed in this study, first a literature review was carried out on the subject of the SDGs and the importance of the counties for their effectiveness. Next, a case study was realized to understand “how” and “what” practices had been adopted by the county. The results confirm the importance that counties have, as well as the relevance of partnerships for the effective implementation of the SDGs. In addition, it presents the various practices adopted to leverage the SDGs in the county that may serve as an example for other counties in Brazil, in emerging countries and around the world, or for various types of sectors and organizations. Therefore, this work fills an important research gap in bringing to light a personalized study of how the SDGs have been planned, monitored, and implemented in a local government (city) in Brazil.