Self-Assessment Tool for Sustainable Urban Development strategies
Summary
The Self-Assessment Tool for Sustainable Urban Development strategies (SAT4SUD) is designed for Local Authorities and national and regional Managing Authorities of EU Cohesion
Policy, in charge of building or updating sustainable urban development strategies.
The tool aims to support Local Authorities and relevant actors to assess to what extent the strategy builds on an integrated and participatory approach as set in the New Leipzig Charter and supported in Cohesion Policy 2021-2027. Furthermore, it provides guidance when evaluating the strategy’s completeness and quality, from its design and implementation, to its monitoring and evaluation. The tool can also be used by Managing Authorities when assessing the strategies and providing feedback to Local Authorities during the strategy design and implementation processes.
The tool focuses at promoting self-assessment as an important learning practice to critically reflect on the strategy, recognise strengths and identify opportunities for improvement. Moreover, the tool can usefully support and provide valuable information for other activities, such as discussion and working sessions between Local Authorities and relevant stakeholders, peer-reviews, benchmarking, dissemination activities as well as external expert involvement (e.g. TAIEX-REGIO PEER 2 PEERexchanges).
It is important to notice that the self-assessment exercise may require time and resources to set the process, organise the tasks and collect information.
The SAT4SUD allows tackling all the main elements of the EU integrated approach to territorial development in urban areas, which according to the Handbook of Sustainable Urban Development Strategies promote:
- A strategic vision for the sustainable development of urban areas.
- Integration across spatial scales, from neighbourhoods to wider functional territories, targeting cities of all sizes.
- Multi-level and multi-stakeholder governance coordinating different actors according to their respective roles, skills and scales of intervention, ensuring that citizens are actively engaged.
- Integration across sectors, pushing cities to work across policy areas.
- Integration of multiple sources of funding.
- Result-oriented intervention logic, establishing frameworks for monitoring and evaluation.