Background to the SDGs in Bristol

Introduction

Since 2016, Bristol has been working to use the UN Sustainable Development Goals in how it operates as a city. Bristol has a long history of environmental and social action and for a number of years was one of the fastest growing cities outside of London. Since its 2019 Voluntary Local Review, several significant developments have occurred in the city.

These developments have not only further highlighted the challenges local governments face in acting upon the SDGs but have also shown how important it is for local governments to be active participants and decision makers in the delivery of the 2030 agenda.

COVID-19

The disruption of COVID-19 has shaken the systems of the world. Because of the high concentrations of people and higher transmissibility in urban areas, cities and local governments were at the forefront of much of the pandemic response. The frontline workers who dedicated their time, and in some cases their lives, were rightly honoured, but there was also recognition that many people across the city face racial and socio-economic inequalities.

While many were aware of Bristol’s inequalities, the reality of those issues was thrown into stark relief by COVID-19. Cities, we learned, are not separate from nature or natural forces and COVID-19 tested the resilience of our institutions and our systems. We discovered the importance of our connection to the natural world, the beauty of cleaner air and the need to take urgent action in the face of a crisis. We reflected on the way the world works and considered new ways of living and working. Additionally, like most others around the world, Bristol’s local authority had to divert resources from other ambitions to respond to the crisis and protect the lives and livelihoods of Bristol residents.

Black Lives Matter

During the pandemic, the murder of George Floyd in the USA sparked protests around the world. Bristol’s legacy and engagement with the trade of enslaved Africans is rooted throughout much of its society. As such, when the Black Lives Matter protests spread to Bristol, the campaign was close to the hearts of many local citizens.

On June 7th 2020, the statue of a Bristol merchant and trader of enslaved African people, Edward Colston, was toppled by protesters and thrown into Bristol Harbour. The toppling sent shockwaves around the world. It sparked a national conversation about history, memory and justice and, following counter protests in the city, both revealed the complexities of delivering citywide social and economic equality and demonstrated the extent to which many in society feel left behind. The toppling was a highly symbolic moment, emphasising how far the city is from real equality and bringing the concerns of multiple marginalised communities to the fore.

The drama and complexity was captured in our cultural discourse through shows like David Olusoga’s Statue Wars and the fictional drama Outlaws. Even before June 7th, a lot was being done to address these concerns. However, the protests and resulting conversations show the distance Bristol still has to travel to resolve many issues that cut across multiple Sustainable Development Goals.

Mayoral referendum

Even more recently, the city held a mayoral referendum to decide its governance for the coming 10 years. The results of this vote have determined that as of 2024, Bristol will be run by a system of committees made up of elected councillors, replacing the current model of a directly elected Mayor. The exact nuances of this new system are to be determined over the coming years, however the common framework of the SDGs may provide a strategy and direction of travel that all parties can agree on.

A collaborative approach

In the light of these challenges and the impacts they have had on Bristol’s progress towards the SDGs, the need for a collective partnership-based approach has never been stronger. Bristol’s response to the SDGs has always been focused on partnerships, originally through the SDG Alliance and then increasingly through the Bristol City Office and One City Approach. This collaborative way of working was developed by the Mayor in recognition of the fact that many of the largest and most pressing issues Bristol faces are not solvable by the local authority operating alone: climate change, racial and socio-economic inequality and the cost-of-living crisis cannot be fixed by any one organisation.

The City Office became a key response mechanism during the COVID-19 pandemic and the development of Bristol’s recovery strategy. It is also fundamental to the delivery of the city’s health and wellbeing strategy. Bristol’s Director of Public Health, Christina Gray, said: “If we didn’t have a One City Approach, we would have had to create one”.

This VLR updates the data for Bristol in light of some of the challenges over the past three years. Due to the opportunities that partnership working provides and the strong network of partnerships addressing the SDGs in Bristol, it primarily focuses on initiatives taking a partnership approach to the delivery of the goals. The report is structured with one chapter per SDG. Each chapter presents an overview of some of the key findings for that SDG and provides examples of action delivering against it in Bristol. We hope these partnership examples will inspire others to consider a similar model or seek to adopt some of our ideas in their local context.

Bristol context

Bristol’s work on the UN Sustainable Development Goals began in the aftermath of its European Green Capital year in 2015. A network of public, private and civil society stakeholders interested in the recently created global 2030 Agenda came together to discuss how it could be adopted at the local level.

This network formed the Bristol SDG Alliance. The Alliance members have been working since early 2016 to advocate for, raise awareness of and deliver the SDGs locally within their own organisations, the city and the region. In 2017, the Alliance commissioned a report on the utility of the SDG agenda compared to other sustainability frameworks that were being considered at the time, such as the Rockefeller 100 Resilient Cities project. This work drew University of Bristol impact acceleration funding to create an SDG Research and Engagement Associate role. The role provided academic expertise to support the city in its adoption and implementation of the SDG agenda.

City Office

Concurrently, Bristol was undergoing a period of strategic governance restructuring with the development of the City Office. The new form of governance came about in response to the need for coordinated partnership working to tackle the most entrenched challenges the city faces. Mayor Marvin Rees launched the Bristol City Office at the first City Gathering, where partners from the city’s anchor institutions, businesses, communities, public sector organisations and unions met to discuss Bristol’s biggest challenges and opportunities.

One City Plan

Like many local authorities across the country, Bristol’s budget was decreasing. The city’s response was to focus on coordinating partnerships so that it could rise to the challenges identified at the City Gathering and show that the city could be more than the sum of its parts. This One City Approach crystalised into the creation of the One City Plan. Working with the SDG Research and Engagement Associate and the SDG Alliance, Bristol embedded the SDGs into its new long-term vision and objectives. The SDGs were a core component of incorporating holistic sustainability into the work of the City Office and the One City Plan. It is through the One City Plan, the corporate strategies of other organisations and partnership working, that Bristol aims to deliver on the SDGs.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the SDGs gained further importance to the city through the delivery of the One City Economic Recovery and Renewal strategy, providing an integral framework for the development and content of Bristol’s local planning policy.