Incorporation of SDGs in town planning – Development of the 2030 Vision of Shimokawa Town in participatory way and incorporation of SDGs into the town’s master plan

<Results>
The Shimokawa’s 2030 Vision was formulated in April 2018 as a result of discussions among local residents. The vision consists of seven goals. The town is now trying to incorporate the Shimokawa Vision 2030 into the Sixth Comprehensive Plan, its highest level municipal plan to be formulated by the end of March 2019, with target years of 2019-2030. The draft of the Comprehensive Plan explicitly indicates SDGs should be incorporated into all city planning. Under the new plan, all major sectors including welfare, education, living environment, local economy and industrial promotion and local autonomy will aim to achieve the Shimokawa Vision in consideration of interlinkage of these sectors. Indicators that fit to monitor and access the status of progress toward the vision are developed and those indicators include those developed by local residents through their discussions. The activities under the plan will be monitored in a sustainable way following the PDCA cycle.

<Impacts>
In the development of the 2030 Vision of Shimokawa, local residents learned about the 2030 Agenda and SDGs, with subcommittee members putting the SDGs into a regional context for discussion on local issues. This practices brought new perspectives to the sub-committee members. Some members pointed out that this practice allowed them to think more deeply about issues that they normally didn’t consider—such as marine resources (SDG 14) —since Shimokawa is an inland municipality and the residents do not think about marine issues much in their daily life, as well as issues related to peace (SDG 16). The chair of the subcommittee reflected the discussion process and mentioned that “we found that considering areas based on the objectives of the 17 SDGs offered helpful guidance in identifying local issues that had not been discussed in such an upfront manner before, such as gender and marine resources.”

During the deliberation at the subcommittee, its members gained a deeper understanding of the SDGs while stimulating a broader discussion. Voluntary citizens meetings were organised to discuss the ideals of the town in 2030 outside of the subcommittee itself. Even after the vision was finalised, a meeting was organized to study public comments received for the draft vision so as to reflect them in the development process of the town’s comprehensive plan. Inspired by discussion on gender (SDG 5), the active role of women in bearing and raising children while taking an active role in society for local sustainability was recognized, and female members formulated voluntary gatherings of women outside of the subcommittee that are now leading to new activities.