Dr. Priti Parikh awarded funding through UCL Grand challenges

Policy Toolkit for achieving SDGs in Durban through sanitation (ToolSanDurban)

The interdisciplinary team is working with eThekwini Municipality to co-develop tools for the delivery of SDGs in Durban through improved monitoring and evaluation. In the short term, the project ToolSanDurban aims to support eThekwini Municipality in becoming a pioneer in the process of localisation and implementation of SDGs in the Global South. ToolSanDurban will demonstrate the wide-ranging benefits of sanitation supporting current initiatives in the municipality. In the longer term the project aims to impact outcomes for sanitation policies in the city as the work to be undertaken aspires to influence thinking on how improved policies for sanitation can deliver benefits across the SDGs. To that end, the team is collaborating with the eThekwini SDG Institutionalization Committee comprised of members from multiple governmental departments to rationalise and contextualise SDG Targets and engage with other relevant stakeholders.

ToolSanDurban will provide the evidence base required to leverage larger grants for the development of a longer-term collaboration with the eThekwini SDG Contextualisation Committee for which discussions are ongoing with potential external funders. There is potential to transfer lessons from this project and outputs such as the toolkit to other municipalities in the region and also to other sectors such as water, health and energy. This work will further lay the foundation for co-creating an online SDG monitoring platform and tools for municipalities.