FROM GLOBAL TO LOCAL: PRIORITISING THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS BY LOCAL GOVERNMENTS IN ROMANIA

Abstract

The paper examines how local government representatives in Romania prioritise the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by perceived importance. We use survey data from the 2023 Romanian Voluntary Subnational Review. The survey included a subsample of communes’ (rural localities) representatives (N=539) and a subsample of municipalities’ (large urban localities) representatives (N=70). The findings show that funding availability, local needs and context strongly influence the rankings. We also expected that differences in municipal development levels relative to communes would lead to differences in SDG rankings. We used a chi-square test of homogeneity to assess whether the two subsamples (communes vs. municipalities) share the same proportions in their SDG rankings. The results were surprising and counterintuitive. Regardless of access to funding and levels of development, local government representatives from communes and municipalities ranked the SDGs by importance in the same order and in broadly similar proportions. The ranking of SDGs by importance was as follows: SDG 6, SDG 7, SDG 9, SDG 11, SDG 4, and SDG 3.