ABSTRACT
SDG campaign reached a milestone in 2020 when it completed one-third of its timeline. Some SDGs have achieved a reasonable progress within the first five years: unfortunately, SDG 11 is not among them. This chapter presents a brief discussion on SDG 11 accomplishments, issues and some potential ways to overcome challenges. UN’s 2020 SDG Report and Progress Chart, both alluded to the marginal progress made by SDG 11. While indicators 11.B.1 (proportion of local governments with disaster risk management strategies) and 11.6.1 (proportion of urban solid waste collected/managed) have shown little progress, 11.6.1 (population living in slums) has made a negative (deteriorated) progress since 2015. It also seems that there is a time lag between collection and reporting SDG 11 data: by 2020 the last year with a decent record of data was still 2016. While the COVID19 pandemic may have slowed down SDG 11 achievements, the same has also reminded us of the importance of making our cities sustainable and resilient to face any such future disasters. There is a dire need to pick up the pace on achieving SDG 11 and circular economy, nexus thinking and synergies between the SDGs are a few things that may help in this regard.
