Post 11-1: Interlinkages between SDG 11 and other SDGs explained

SDG post #11-1 - Interlinkages between SDG 11 and other SDGs

Hi #sustainability champions, today we continue our  journey exploring the individual SDGs one by one to polish our knowledge and upscale in SDG learning. As mentioned before we send out a post approximately once or twice weekly until we have gone through all 17 SDGs. However, to keep things interesting we deviate briefly from the normal roll of SDGs, by providing a short post on reminding ourselves about the deep and intricate interconnectedness of all SDGs, which is really clear and obvious with SDG 11. 

Again, you can follow or connect with us and see what we have to offer related to upscaling your change maker abilities (of tools and training) on our SDG toolkit webpages. ✔

So let’s briefly explore SDG interlinkages and particularly interlinkages between SDG 11 and other SDGs in a concise manner suitable for learning.

As has been already discussed in some detail in one of the first posts on connections between SDGs, it is important to reiterate that addressing one SDG often advances progress on multiple others, reflecting the interconnected nature of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, but can also hinder each other (so called trade-offs).

The interdependence between the goals is crucial. For example, initiatives that promote clean energy (SDG 7) or clean water (SDG 6)  can also enhance climate action (SDG 13), reduce poverty (SDG 1) and increase health and well-being (SDG 3). This interconnected framework highlights the importance of coordinated and whole systems based and holistic efforts across sectors (and sometimes silos) to achieve sustainable progress, at times requiring new and innovative approaches and processes in order to break out of outdated modes of operating, planning, design and project development or implementation. .

However, it is also important to consider the potential tradeoffs that can arise. For instance, prioritizing economic development (SDG 8) without addressing environmental sustainability (SDG 12) may lead to short-term gains but long-term challenges, affecting many other goals along its paths (like SDG 2, SDG 3, SDG, 13, SDG 14, SDG 15 etc). Understanding these tradeoffs is critical for creating strategies that balance immediate needs with future impacts. It is inherent in complex systems that sometimes small changes can create significant downstream effects, positive or negative, which need to be carefully considered and evaluated. 

In that sense it is at times useful to visualise at least some of the interconnections between various SDGs and how they affect each other even though such visualisation does not capture every possible connection or tradeoff, it serves as a useful tool for visualising the complex relationships between the goals. It provides a foundation for developing integrated strategies that reflect the holistic nature of sustainability, exemplary for SDG 11 (with some further thoughts available here). For larger real world projects (beyond the local) there are also sometimes sophisticated systems analysis models available to analyse such interconnections in detail (e.g. iSD SImulator by the Millenium Institute).

This approach underscores the importance of adopting a comprehensive view when tackling global to local challenges, ensuring that actions in one area contribute to broader progress across all 17 SDGs.

In that context the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has notably placed a significant emphasis on urban areas, with Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11) at the forefront, aiming to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.

This focus on urbanisation is not just an isolated effort but is intricately woven into the broader tapestry of the Agenda, highlighting the complex interdependencies across various development goals.

SDG 11, with its comprehensive approach to urban challenges, spans a wide array of objectives. These include tackling slum conditions and urban housing, enhancing affordable transport, reducing urban sprawl, and improving urban governance and urban services, along with addressing cultural and natural heritage, urban resilience, climate change, pollution, resources use, waste management, and ensuring access to safe public spaces and inclusive planning and more, essential ingredients to making urban areas livable but also sustainable, resilient safe and inclusive futureproof places.

Cities and urban areas are the heartbeat of most societies. They are complex systems that bring together diverse communities to work, live and play. Just as the battle against climate change will be won or lost in cities, so too will the battle for sustainable, resilient, equitable and just societies.

The goal's 10 targets and 15 indicators, primarily measured at the city level, underscore the critical role urban areas play in the global sustainable development landscape.

However, the importance of SDG 11 extends beyond its immediate urban focus, as it applies to all human settlements. Its targets and indicators are deeply interconnected with several other SDGs, creating a network of goals that collectively address the multifaceted nature of sustainable urbanisation and communities everywhere.

For instance, the efforts to combat poverty and improve health under Goals 1 and 3, respectively, are closely linked to the urban context of SDG 11. Similarly, issues of water and sanitation (Goal 6) and clean energy (Goal 7) are integral to achieving sustainable urban environments.

These interlinkages are not merely coincidental but are reflective of the inherent complexity and interdependence of sustainable development challenges. Urban areas, being hubs of economic, social, and environmental activity, are at the crossroads of these challenges. After all, cities account for 65 percent of SDG targets and 86 percent of SDG indicators. That means that making cities more sustainable, safe, resilient and inclusive will help us to achieve many of the SDGs. 

Poorly managed urbanisation and human settlement development can exacerbate issues like climate change, energy security, air pollution, water and waste management, which in turn affect broader goals such as education, gender equality, and good governance, addressed by SDGs 4, 5, and 16, respectively.

It is acknowledged that there has been a significant uptake of SDG related work and projects by many local governments around the world, trying to include the Agenda 2030 and SDGs into their projects and operations in one way or another, all the way to an increasing number of particularly cities conducting Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs) of the implementation of the SDGs within their jurisdictions. However, experience shows that many attempts and approaches (not just by local authorities and cities) often lack systemic or holistic approaches (to overcome silos) nor are they very inclusive (including participatory processes) as is meant as part of SDG 11 alone, but in that sense still way off track and as all others needs reinvigoration and acceleration. .  

The interconnectivity of SDG 11 with other SDGs underlines a vital principle of the 2030 Agenda: the challenges of sustainable development are interconnected, and so must be the solutions. The focus on urban and any human settlement areas offers a unique lens through which to view and address these challenges, making cities and communities not just the backdrop for sustainable development but active, dynamic participants in achieving these global goals, one local community and bioregion at a time.

This exactly reflects the approach by Gaia Education for regenerative design and development, which is about the context specific potential of each and every place and community, locally. Hence, we want to support the life affirming or life regenerating local to bioregional conversations and co-creative processes, also for inclusive planning and decision making as part of the SDG 11 targets,  which should be a starting point of whole systems based realisation of SDG 11 and all strongly linked and all other SDG systemically together. From this you already know that with our SDG Flashcards and related tools, we provide tools and approaches for starting local to bioregional community based conversations and processes in a multidimensional manner in the social, ecological, economic and worldview/cultural dimensions. Again, SDG 11 which is about local communities is particularly suitable for applying community level processes (in cities or elsewhere alike) for tackling this and all related SDGs head on.

As you have already seen and experienced in previous posts (and hopefully by further exploring our tools and offerings) this can  provide you with some ideas on how one can possibly work with the SDGs in different (not top down but bottom up) and generative approaches. Based and part of the Gaia Education SDG Flashcards, they contain more than 200 questions on the system-wide approach to achieving the 2030 Agenda.

The cards and our other tools and approaches enable a participatory and problem-centric group conversation and solutions oriented multi-perspectival dialogue. They invite participants to engage and to collaborate to identify actions and solutions to implement the SDGs in ways that are relevant to their lives and communities, locally. This is an effective way to establish local to bioregional community ownership and realisation for the UN SDGs.

The SDG Flashcards are used in the SDG Training of Multipliers. If have not done yet, check out the freely downloadable SDG Training of Multipliers Handbook for a detailed description of how to prepare, promote, and how to use the cards  more easily to promote community activist training, in various settings (e.g. local public bodies, communities, schools, universities, business etc.) as well as many other tools from our SDG webpages.

And this is also exactly what our trainings on Agenda 2030 and the SDGs and beyond  are about to learn the background,  approaches and methods to practically work with the SDG in your local to bioregional context and your local community we encourage you  to start or re-invigorate your personal SDG journey through the upcoming online SDGs Multipliers course, starting on 20th October 2025. 

SDG Multipliers course

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