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China has recorded impressive economic achievements driving the structural transformation of its society. However, this transformation is marked by rising inequality, environmental pollution and stark provincial disparities. In 2015, the launching of the Agenda 2030 provided a common ground at the international level conceptualizing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper analyses the provincial performances towards the Agenda 2030 in the period 2015–19 by introducing the integrated sustainable development index cluster; convergence and econometric analyses are then used to explore synergies and trade-offs among SDGs. The empirical results capture the dynamics of sustainable development of China’s provinces and provide a clearer understanding of how policies may influence different the SDGs’ achievements, exploring the relationship between environmental versus different aspects of development. These results are used to draw policy recommendations that highlight the importance of identifying the appropriate mix of strategies to promote integrated sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If the transformative potential of the Agenda 2030 is to be realised, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have to be fully embraced at the local level. Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs) have recently emerged as a powerful tool to localise the SDGs, representing an innovation by and for the cities to advance progress on their local priorities in a participatory, inclusive and transparent manner. Through the capability lens, this paper briefly analyses recent experiences of a range of VLRs, by focusing on four issues. First, VLRs strengthen the innovation of data and measurement frameworks at the local level; second, through participation and inclusion of communities and minorities, VLRs foster transparency and accountability, hence contributing towards (re)building the social contract; third, VLR processes have been widely anchored to the design of new long-term strategic plans for sustainable human development; and, fourth, VLRs contribute to overcome institutional fragmentation and foster multilevel policy coherence towards the SDGs. Our policy insights and recommendations intend contributing to laying the foundation for the next generation of local reviews in line with the core elements of the Capability Approach and the sustainable human development paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The capability approach has the power to examine how different societal arrangements can be pivotal for the fulfilment and/or deprivations of individual human capabilities and human development [Sen, A. K. 1999. Development as Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press]. However, little analysis has been so far devoted to the centrality of the local community for human capabilities, which constitutes the most proximate socio-institutional setting that most directly shapes individual and collective well-being. In order to reflect about the relations between community and capabilities, this paper embraces a geographical definition of community (complementary—not superior—to other conceptualizations) with a twofold scope. Firstly, it aims at filling the theoretical vacuum presenting an extension of the STEHD framework (Sustainable Territorial Evolution for Human Development) introduced by Biggeri and Ferrannini [2014a. Sustainable Human Development: A New Territorial and People-centred Perspective. New York: Palgrave Macmillan], which links the individual, collective and local community dynamics affecting human capabilities. Secondly, it aims at showing how this framework can help to examine the different processes in place at the community level, by applying to the case study of a Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR) programme implemented in Mandya and Ramanagaram Districts (Karnataka State, India). The paper is structured into five sections. After the introduction, the second section introduces the STEHD framework and reveals its potential to frame the local community dynamics. In the third section, the case study is introduced and the main results in terms of human development outcomes are discussed. In the fourth section, the dynamic processes of individual, collective and community change fostered by the CBR programme are analysed by applying the STEHD framework. The last section concludes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the importance of and value added by applying the capability approach to strategize, design, monitor or evaluate development initiatives, by operationalizing this agency-oriented (participatory) and opportunity-based perspective and by widening standard methods to deal with new informational spaces. In the first part of the paper a dynamic analytical framework on capabilities expansion/reduction processes—which places at the central stage the opportunity gaps between valuable community functionings and individual capability sets—is presented. These gaps represent the policy area where tailored and appropriate place-specific and people-centred development initiatives can entail the maximum expansion of real freedoms. Then, on the basis of this framework, the paper presents an original participatory methodology—the “O-Gap Analysis”—which can complement standard methods to provide systematized assessments of capabilities within communities to inform policy actions. An empirical case study is also discussed, analysing the application of this methodological procedure regarding a community-based rehabilitation project in Uganda. Applying the capability approach policy interventions cannot be necessarily unique for all individuals or social groups experiencing opportunity gaps for what they have reason to value, as different barriers or mix of barriers and conversion factors, values, desires and aspiration call for tailored people-centred development initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]