Page 187 - Shaping smarter and more sustainable cities - Striving for sustainable development goals

1.2 SSC challenges

The work developed by the different working groups of the FG‐SSC has brought to light several
challenges faced that cities need to address as part of the design and implementation of SSC
strategies in a complex multi‐stakeholder urban environment.
Some of the most likely challenges which SSC stakeholders could possibly face are the following:
 City vision challenges

There are various paths to becoming a SSC: each city has its own needs, and starts from a different
baseline. In this sense, standards are needed to create a common framework that can continuously
support and foster sustainable development as well as allow comparability and evaluation of results
for different cities and initiatives. The standards used in SSC would define any necessary baselines
and quantify improvements progressively. They would also become the foundations which cities
across the globe could develop upon based on their cities' priorities and capacity. This is particularly
important in smart sustainable cities as sustainable development policies often involve multiple
stakeholders at all levels of government.
The process of becoming a SSC is not a short one, and is a forward looking commitment to be fulfilled
in a long‐term future. To achieve the successful completion of a long term SSC roadmap it is
important that all political parties of the municipality are involved in the definition of the strategy
and remain committed to the project.

Finally, the approach to SSC must be holistic and inclusive. This is not easy to achieve because,
traditionally, city management is divided into different departments with little cooperation between
them. Therefore, it is crucial to increase interdepartmental communication and cooperation. The
same issue applies at the national level, where the management could be divided into different
ministries or departments. Achieving communication and cooperation at all levels of government is
of paramount importance as building the city's a common vision is not restricted to one level only,
but it requires a combined effort from at all levels of government.
 Economic and financial challenges
The lack of funding for city projects has become a common obstacle in the development of SSC. In
the case of developed countries, the recent global and regional economic recession has severely
restrained limited their capacity in investing in SSC initiatives. The recession between 2008 and 2012
has "reduced capital accumulation for new investments… these, in turn, affect the pace of
innovation and the general development of the green economy… in the U.S. investments in clean
technology dropped from 1 billion to 154 million… venture capital investment in clean technology
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also dropped from 991 million to 791 million." In the case of developing countries, limited
resources and widespread poverty simply mean that while these countries do invest in sustainable
development initiatives, other areas which require immediate attention become their priorities.
With 1.2 billion people still living on less than a dollar a day, and half of the developing world still
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lacking access to sanitation , it is not surprising that investment on a common SSC framework or
SSC services may not be a priority item in the development agenda. Additionally, there are
difficulties in accessing resources from financial institutions due to the lack of business models that
determine the return of the investment.

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8 http://tokyo2013.earthsystemgovernance.org/wp‐content/uploads/2013/01/0177‐OBANI_GUPTA.pdf
9 http://www.grida.no/publications/et/ep4/page/2632.aspx

ITU‐T's Technical Reports And Specifications 177