A Participatory Multi-Stakeholder Approach to Implementing the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development: Theoretical Basis and Empirical Findings

The Agenda 2030 provides a universal target system covering a broad thematic spectrum including the key areas of people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership. There is a consensus among policy-makers and scholars that the implementation of the global goals relies on both an integrated (nexus) approach and the participation of all levels, especially the local level. Therefore, the paper focuses on the research question of how integrated management and participatory multi-stakeholder approach can be systematically realized at the local level, thus contributing to the implementation of the Agenda 2030. The authors aim to answer this question on the basis of experiences and results of a project which took place between January 2016 and April 2018 in North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany). In this two-and-a-half-year process, 15 municipalities developed individual Integrated Municipal Sustainability Strategies (IMSS) in the context of the Agenda 2030. The paper presents the methodical approach of the participation process and the results of a project-internal process-oriented monitoring and evaluation. The results show that the participation design has a direct influence on the outcome of the process. The central influencing factors identified are (1) political support from the heads of the administration, (2) the avoidance of creating parallel working structures by forming project-related working groups, (3) the independent working of the working groups, (4) the composition of steering committees (the representation of relevant stakeholders), (5) the involvement of important political decision-makers, and (6) an open negotiation process that ensures the participation of all participants/stakeholders.