Thiam Sokhna, Aziz Fati, Kushitor Sandra Boatemaa, Amaka-Otchere Akosua Baah Kwarteng, Onyima Blessing Nonye, Odume Oghenekaro Nelson
African Population and Health Research Center, West Africa Regional Office, Dakar, Senegal.
Institute for Health Research, Epidemiological Surveillance and Trainings (IRESSEF), Dakar, Senegal.
Sustain Sci. 2021;16(6):1923-1944. doi: 10.1007/s11625-021-01042-6. Epub 2021 Oct 14.
It is almost 6 years since the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted, and countries have less than 10 years to achieve the set targets. Unlike most of the world, sub-Saharan African countries have reported only minimal progress, one that the COVID-19 pandemic has unfortunately disrupted. Transdisciplinary research (TDR) has been conceptualized as important for achieving sustainability goals such as the SDGs. In this paper we (i) analyze the contributions of the five TDR projects toward the achievements of the SDGs at the city level in Africa, and (ii) explore the interactions between the assessed SDGs across the five projects. The projects' contributions towards the achievements of the SDGs were examined in three thematic areas: (i) contexts, (ii) processes and (iii) products. The five projects were funded under the Leading Integrated Research for Agenda 2030 in Africa (LIRA) programme. The projects were being implemented in nine cities across five African countries Accra (Ghana), Kumasi (Ghana), Korhogo (Ivory Coast), Abuja Metro (Nigeria), Mbour (Senegal), Cape Town (South Africa), Nelson Mandela Bay Metro (South Africa), Grahamstown (South Africa) and Kampala (Uganda) and data were collected on each of the five projects in these cities. The contextual contributions include co-analysis and reflection on policy and institutional silos and social innovations amenable to contextual complexity. A shift in how actors perceived and conceptualized sustainability challenges and the role of the projects as transformative social agents constituted the two main process contributions. Tool development, virtual models and maps, and handbook are the product contributions by the projects. Our analysis of the SDG interactions indicated the need for cross-sectoral collaborations to ensures resource use efficiency, knowledge and experience sharing, and seamless flow of information and data to accelerate the SDG implementation.
联合国可持续发展目标（SDGs）通过至今已近6年，各国实现既定目标的时间不到10年。与世界上大多数国家不同，撒哈拉以南非洲国家报告的进展甚微，而不幸的是，新冠疫情扰乱了这一进程。跨学科研究（TDR）被认为对实现可持续发展目标（如SDGs）很重要。在本文中，我们（i）分析了五个TDR项目对非洲城市层面实现SDGs的贡献，以及（ii）探讨了五个项目中评估的SDGs之间的相互作用。项目对实现SDGs的贡献在三个主题领域进行了考察：（i）背景，（ii）过程，以及（iii）成果。这五个项目是在“非洲2030议程综合研究领军计划”（LIRA）下资助的。这些项目在非洲五个国家的九个城市实施，分别是阿克拉（加纳）、库马西（加纳）、科霍戈（科特迪瓦）、阿布贾地铁区（尼日利亚）、姆布尔（塞内加尔）、开普敦（南非）、纳尔逊·曼德拉湾地铁区（南非）、格雷厄姆斯敦（南非）和坎帕拉（乌干达），并收集了这些城市中五个项目各自的数据。背景方面的贡献包括对政策和机构孤岛以及适合背景复杂性的社会创新进行共同分析和反思。行动者对可持续发展挑战的认知和概念化方式的转变以及项目作为变革性社会主体的作用构成了过程方面的两个主要贡献。工具开发、虚拟模型和地图以及手册是项目在成果方面的贡献。我们对SDG相互作用的分析表明，需要跨部门合作以确保资源利用效率、知识和经验共享以及信息和数据的无缝流动，从而加速SDG的实施。
