Yes / Congruent with economic stability and environmental sustainability, the ninth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG - Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) plays a crucial role in undergirding the industrial revolution. Conversely, it is inevitably complex for underdeveloped and emerging economies to meet the ninth SDG's 2030 agenda due to a lack of sufficient financial resources and the slow adoption of technology. With China expanding its Belt and Road Initiatives (BRIs) globally, mainly few findings espouse the significant link between BRI and the ninth SDG, and its probable impact remains understudied. Hence, a considerable gap yet exists in contemporary understanding of the impact of BRI on sustainability. Therefore, we conducted an exploratory study on six different countries (Algeria, Ghana, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria and Palestine) to investigate the role of the BRI in achieving the ninth SDG. Face-to-face interviews and focus group discussions were applied. This qualitative data collection technique involved 26 participants representing industry experts and academic researchers. All interviews were recorded, transcribed, translated and thematically analysed. The result showed a significant progressive impact of BRI on the ninth SDG, and that the development of sustainable infrastructure is a key antecedent of the BRI policy enforcement in the six countries explored. The result also showed positive and negative spillover effects of BRI projects in the six countries. Government and Policymakers should design and enforce pro-growth and sustainable strategies to facilitate continuous implementation of policies that would align the execution of the BRI projects to bolster achievement of the ninth SDG.

Yes / Citizens play a crucial role in attaining the United Nations 2030 sustainable development goals (SDGs). There is growing awareness of the importance of understanding citizen perspectives on environmental issues, in relation to developing and maintaining sustainable lifestyles, and in addressing perceived threats to protection and restoration of ecosystems and biodiversity. This analysis sought to understand people’s attitudes towards environmental conservation, how they relate to perceived threats to the countryside, and to determine how attitudes and perceived threats vary demographically and between countries. A survey was administered to citizens (quota sampled on age, gender, education, and split between rural and urban residency) across five countries representative of differing biogeographical regions (N = 3,190): Czech Republic (n = 649) (Continental); Spain (Mediterranean) (n = 623); Sweden (Boreal) (n = 645); Switzerland (Alpine) (n = 641); United Kingdom (UK) (Atlantic) (n = 632). Attitudes were measured using the Environmental Attitudes Inventory (EAI-24) on 2 factors (utilization; preservation) and perceived threat to the countryside on 1-factor (15 items). Multigroup regression analysis indicated that preservationist attitudes were associated with greater perceived threat to the countryside in all five countries. Higher perceived threat was associated with activities linked to environmental degradation, socio-economic uncertainty and risks in agri-food supply chains in all countries. The “bad behaviour of visitors” was the greatest perceived threat in the Czech Republic, Switzerland and the UK, while “lack of young farmers taking over farming” was the greatest perceived threat in Spain and Sweden. To promote pro-environmental attitudes and obtain greater public support for policies and interventions targeting environmental conservation, communication about environmental threats is needed, together with threat mitigation measures. Raising peoples’ awareness of threats to the countryside through targeted communications could promote pro-environment attitudes and potentially result in pro-environmental behaviours. / The SUPER-G project (Grant Agreement No.: 774124) has received funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme.

Die Studie „Restrukturierung nationaler Institutionen: Demokratisierung und Entwicklung in Laos“ untersucht die Auswirkungen von Normensetzung in der internationalen Entwicklungszusammenarbeit, wie „Sustainable Development Goals“ (SDGs), auf Institutionen und Entwicklungspolitik in Laos. Untersucht wird wie die internationalen Entwicklungsnormen die Macht der laotischen Regierung sowie ihre Fähigkeit, Ziele in der Entwicklungspolitik erfolgreich umzusetzen, beeinflussen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen erstens, dass die Umsetzung der SDGs in Laos durch die Zusammenarbeit von internationalen Entwicklungspartnern und der laotischen Regierung in vier verschiedene Dimensionen eingeteilt wird: Wirtschaftliche Entwicklung, ökologische Nachhaltigkeit, soziale Inklusion und „good governance“. Alle haben dazu beigetragen, Institutionen und Entwicklungspolitik in Laos internationalen Standards anzugleichen. Gleichwohl ist es den internationalen Entwicklungspartnern unmöglich, die politische Macht der Partei als Regierung einzuschränken, indem sie die SDGs zur Verbreitung einer eigenen politischen Agenda nutzen. Zweitens: die Partei kann ihre Macht in der Innenpolitik und ihre Kontrolle über die Gesellschaft aufrecht zu erhalten. Diese umfassen Ideologien, die eine Mischung aus marxistisch-leninistischen und nationalistischen Elementen darstellen, die Betonung von Erfolgen in der Entwicklung des Landes sowie die Unterdrückung des revolutionären Potenzials. Dies führt zu einer Konservierung der politischen Struktur, in der sich die Macht der Partei in einer Institution manifestiert. Diese wird durch Parteimitgliedschaft, Regierung, Nationalversammlung und Volksgerichtshof konstituiert - ohne Beteiligung der Bürger. Drittens: trotz der Bemühungen der internationalen Entwicklungszusammenarbeit, die Kapazitäten des Staats im Bereich der Entwicklungspolitik auszubauen, dieser noch Schwierigkeiten in Bezug auf Finanzverwaltung, Personalwesen und institutionelle Leistungsfähigkeit aufweist. / The research titled “Restructuring Domestic Institutions: Democratization and Development in Laos” aims to analyze how international development norms, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), have shaped Laos’ domestic institutions and development policy. It also aims to investigate the influence of international development norms on Lao state power, as well as its capacity to achieve development goals. The research results show that: First, the development partners support the SDGs in Laos through international development assistance to the Lao government in economic development, environmental sustainability, social inclusion and good governance, all of which have helped shape Lao domestic institutions and development policy to meet international standards. However, the development partners cannot curtail the political power of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (the Party) or the Lao government in manipulating the SDGs to serve a political purpose. Second, the Party is able to maintain its power in domestic politics and control over Lao society. Second, the Party is able to maintain its power in domestic politics and control over Lao society. These include blending Marxist-Leninist and national ideologies, highlighting development achievements and suppressing the revolutionary potential. Therefore, the political structure in Laos retains the Party’s power in an institution overlapping between the Party member, the Lao government, the National Assembly and the People’s Court without the citizen’s participation. Third, even though the development partners seek to enhance the Lao state’s capacity to achieve the development goals, the Lao government has encountered difficulties in financial management, human resources, and institutional capacities.

Im Jahr 2015 wurde die Agenda 2030 erlassen, welche insgesamt 17 Ziele in Form von Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) umfasst. Inhalt dessen stellen menschliche sowie planetare und politische Absichten im Bereich der Nachhaltigkeit dar, an welchen 169 Länder beteiligt sind. Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, die Vergleichbarkeit und Verfügbarkeit der Indikatoren aus den Sustainable Development Goals zu prüfen. Zur Umsetzung wurden die Länder Deutschland, Brasilien und Norwegen hinsichtlich ihrer Messdaten näher betrachtet. Diesbezüglich ist im Rahmen der Gegenüberstellung eine Auflistung der jeweiligen Fortschritte der einzelnen SDGs erfolgt. Zudem werden die Indikatoren bezüglich ihrer Messbarkeit und Verlässlichkeit auf Basis nationaler Berichte analysiert. Deutlich wurde dadurch, dass ein Vergleich des Fortschritts der Sustainable Development Goals nicht eindeutig möglich ist. / In 2015, the Agenda 2030 was adopted, which comprises a total of 17 goals in the form of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs represent human as well as planetary and political intentions in the field of sustainability, in which 169 countries are involved. The aim of this work is to examine the comparability and availability of indicators from the Sustainable Development Goals. For the implementation, the countries Germany, Brazil and Norway were examined more closely with regard to their measurement data. In this context, a listing of the respective progress of the individual SDGs has been made as part of the comparison. In addition, the indicators are analyzed in terms of their measurability and reliability on the basis of national reports. Evidently, a comparison of the progress of the Sustainable Development Goals is not clearly possible.

A Atenção Primária à Saúde (APS) é vista como condição essencial para o cumprimento dos Objetivos de Desenvolvimento Sustentável (ODS) acordados internacionalmente. Porém, mesmo quando o uso do geoprocessamento tem sido considerado um poderoso aporte para a Saúde Pública, o potencial desta ferramenta não tem sido suficientemente explorado como instrumento de pesquisa e gestão dentro do trabalho diário dos serviços de APS, o que poderia prejudicar o cumprimento das metas destes serviços, quanto dos próprios ODS. Sendo assim, o objetivo deste estudo foi explorar abordagens territoriais na APS e nos ODS, pelo uso do geoprocessamento e pela análise de planos municipais de saúde. A metodologia inclui uma revisão sistemática do uso do geoprocessamento na APS no mundo todo, uma revisão integrativa respeito das técnicas de geoprocessamento utilizadas em APS, e uma revisão da convergência entre agendas municipais de saúde e os ODS, tomado como exemplo os municípios de Santiago do Chile e São Paulo no Brasil. Os resultados mostraram que o uso do geoprocessamento melhora a abordagem territorial da APS, contribuindo para uma gestão mais eficiente dos serviços, influenciando também uma mudança na forma de trabalho das equipes de saúde, que se reflete em benefícios concretos para a comunidade. Contudo, a relação entre a APS e os ODS não foi informada adequadamente dentro dos planos municipais de saúde estudados. Conclui-se que se requer de maior alinhamento dos planos e políticas locais, nacionais e globais de saúde, maior divulgação das ações realizadas pela APS, e maior uso e difusão de tecnologias já disponibilizadas à abordagem territorial e intersetorial destes serviços. / Primary Health Care (PHC) is seen as an essential condition for achieving the internationally agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, even when the use of geoprocessing has been considered a powerful contribution to public health, the potential of this tool has not been sufficiently explored as a research and management tool within the daily work of PHC services, which could hinder the achievement of the targets of these services, as well as the SDGs. Thus, the objective of this study was to explore territorial approaches in PHC and SDGs, through the use of geoprocessing and the analysis of municipal health plans. The methodology includes a systematic review of the use of geoprocessing in PHC worldwide, an integrative review of the geoprocessing techniques used in PHC, and a review of the convergence between municipal health agendas and the SDGs, taking as an example the municipalities of Santiago de Chile and São Paulo in Brazil. The results showed that the use of geoprocessing improves the territorial approach of PHC, contributing to more efficient management of services, also influencing a change in the way of work of health teams, which is reflected in concrete benefits for the community. However, the relationship between PHC and SDGs was not adequately informed within the municipal health plans studied. It is concluded that is it required greater alignment of local, national and global health plans and policies, greater dissemination of actions carried out by PHC, and greater use and diffusion of technologies already available for the territorial and intersectoral approach of these services.

Circular economy has emerged as a new economic paradigm to solve problems of natural resource scarcity and environmental pollution by using resources more efficiently and designing products to minimize waste. This study examines the potential of circular economy to enable the achievement of sustainable development and the Sustainable Development Goals in Europe. This thesis, through a qualitative content analysis of four overarching European reports related to circular economy strategies, uses a social-ecological systems perspective to: (a) analyze how the three aspects of sustainable development are addressed in the reports and (b) pointing out at missing elements in the European circular economy project that could hinder the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals. Circular economy is a good start to change habits in terms of recycling, reusing and repairing but it also raises awareness about the link between our level of consumption and production and its impact on the environment. However, the results of this study show that the link between Sustainable Development Goals and circular economy is weak and that the economic aspects are highlighted in all the reports to the detriment of environmental and social aspects. As a consequence, the current application of circular economy in Europe does not provide systemic and structural changes, fails to address the root of the problem and reflects a weak vision of sustainability.

Greenhouse gasses, such as carbon dioxide and methane absorb and emit heat radiation, which contribute to global warming. Human activities such as increased emissions through burning of fossil fuels and deforestation drive this climate threat. International treaties such as the Paris agreement, enables stakeholders to mitigate effects of climate impact and create new sustainable markets. Various carbon offset projects on the voluntary market are an attempt to neutralize climate impact. In this report we identify five main project types for carbon offsets: i) forestry and land use, ii) renewable energy and energy effectivization, iii) transport, iv) waste handling and v) household devices. These project types are evaluated against UNs 17 sustainable development goals. The results show a net positive impact on goal 13, Climate action, for all project types, which is congruent with the focus on carbon offsetting. The results also show that impact varies depending on how the project is deigned. Climate offsetting has enabled multiple stakeholders to contribute to climate change mitigation. Despite many global benefits, carbon offsets have been subject to criticism in cases where the concept is not used as intended. There are currently no clear guidelines as to when focus for companies should shift from internal reduction to external reduction through offsetting. Validation of carbon offsets is another problematic aspect, as there is no one standard for the market to secure the quality of projects.

We created and analyzed a text classification dataset from freely-available web documents from the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals. We then used it to train and compare different multi-label text classifiers with the aim of exploring the alternatives for methods that facilitate the search of information of this type of documents. We explored the effectiveness of deep learning and transfer learning in text classification by fine-tuning different pre-trained language representations — Word2Vec, GloVe, ELMo, ULMFiT and BERT. We also compared these approaches against a baseline of more traditional algorithms without using transfer learning. More specifically, we used multinomial Naive Bayes, logistic regression, k-nearest neighbors and Support Vector Machines. We then analyzed the results of our experiments quantitatively and qualitatively. The best results in terms of micro-averaged F1 scores and AUROC are obtained by BERT. However, it is also interesting that the second best classifier in terms of micro-averaged F1 scores is the Support Vector Machines, closely followed by the logistic regression classifier, which both have the advantage of being less computationally expensive than BERT. The results also show a close relation between our dataset size and the effectiveness of the classifiers.

Social and economic challenges in one part of the world influence budgets, security, health, and well being of populations globally as was the case with the 2014 Ebola outbreak. Deficits in healthcare, education, governance, and the economy in African nations result in financial and social contributions from the diaspora residing in the United States. Many African-born immigrants to Florida came with useful knowledge and experience from their home nations that could be a valuable resource in carrying out effective development initiatives. However, accessing that knowledge is challenging. The purpose of this research was to explore the inclusion of members of the African diaspora community in Florida nonprofit development initiatives. The transnational theory of migration underpinned the following research question: What are barriers to, and opportunities for, including members of the African diaspora in Florida-based NPOs that carry out development programs in Africa? Semistructured interviews were conducted with Florida nonprofit leaders (N= 21) who have development projects in Africa. Manual and computer assisted methods using NVivo 11 were used to develop codes and themes for data analysis. Identified barriers to including African diaspora in NPOs included lack of established networks and organizational awareness as well as limited service areas, service locations, funding, and leadership roles. All respondents expressed interest in engaging with diaspora members and other nonprofit leaders via expat networks. Successful engagement with the African diaspora community could promote positive social change by improving program delivery, communication, and programmatic outcomes for a mutual impact in both African and Florida-based communities.

Today billions of people live without access to basic sanitation facilities, and thousands die every week due to diseases caused by fecal contamination associated with improper sanitation. It has thus become crucial for decision makers to have access to relevant and sufficient data to implement appropriate solutions to these problems. The Global Water Pathogen Project http://www.waterpathogens.org/ is dedicated to providing an up-to-date source of data on pathogen reduction associated with different sanitation technologies that are important if the world is to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to health and sanitation provision. In this research, a subset of the Global Water Pathogen Project (GWPP) data is used to access the reduction of bacteria and viruses across different mechanical and natural sanitation technologies. The order of expected removal for bacteria during wastewater treatment was reported as highest for a membrane bioreactor (4.4 log10), waste stabilization pond (2.3 log10), conventional activated sludge (1.43 log10), anaerobic anoxic oxic activated sludge (1.9 log10), trickling filter (1.16 log10), and upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor (1.2 log10). Furthermore, the order of expected removal for viruses was reported as highest for a membrane bioreactor (3.3 log10), conventional activated sludge (1.84 log10), anaerobic anoxic oxic activated sludge (1.67 log10), waste stabilization pond (1 log10), upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor (0.3 log10) and trickling filter (0.29 log10). It was found that hydraulic retention time (HRT) had a statistically significant relation to the reduction of bacteria in an anaerobic, anoxic oxic treatment system. Similarly, a significant relation was found between the number of waste stabilization ponds in series and the expected reduction of bacteria. HRT was also found to be a significant factor in virus reduction in waste stabilization ponds. Additionally, it was observed that waste stabilization ponds, trickling filters, and UASB reactors could obtain a greater reduction in bacteria (5-7 log10) when combined with additional treatment (e.g., chemical disinfection or use of maturation ponds). Also, mechanized systems, such as activated sludge systems and membrane bioreactors, obtained a greater reduction (2-3 log10) of viruses when compared to a natural system. It was concluded that the selection of the best suitable technology for pathogen reduction depends on environmental, design, and operational factors as well as considering the performance of specific wastewater treatment systems individually as well as when combined with other treatment technologies that may provide added removal of microbial constituents.