Incheon City Council Seeks Implementation Plans for SDGs... "Strengthening Sustainability through Legislation and Budget"

The Incheon Metropolitan City Council's research group, 'Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Based Incheon Citizen Participation Research Group (Representative Member Yoo Seung-bun)', held a study meeting to explore practical implementation plans and roles of local councils regarding SDGs.

According to the Incheon City Council, this research group recently held a meeting in the seminar room of the Administrative Safety Committee of the City Council, discussing how local councils can support Incheon’s sustainable development by utilising their legislative and budget review powers. This meeting was organised to seek policy alternatives to bridge the gap between field administration and legislative activities.

Attending the meeting were the representative member of the research group, Yoo Seung-bun, along with members Shin Young-hee and Jang Sung-sook, Director Yoon Kyung-hyo from the Korea Sustainable Development Center, Secretary-General Choi Jun from the Incheon Sustainable Development Council, and Team Leader Jo Soo-hyun.

Director Yoon Kyung-hyo presented on the topic of 'The Role of Local Councils in Implementing SDGs', highlighting the current status of SDGs implementation in the international community and proposing specific role tasks that utilise the core functions of local councils, such as legislation, budgeting, oversight, and collaboration. He particularly emphasised the need to establish an SDGs implementation organisational system suitable for the conditions of the Incheon City Council and to develop a phased execution roadmap by 2030.

In the subsequent discussion, the need for institutional arrangements was raised to ensure that citizens do not remain mere beneficiaries of policies but can participate in the policy design process, alongside securing the council's execution capability.

Member Yoo Seung-bun stated, "The sustainable future of Incheon is possible when the voices of citizens are practically realised within the council's system," and expressed hope that this meeting would serve as a starting point for the council to take the lead in policy and drive change. He further stated, "In the future, I will focus our capabilities on establishing legislative and financial foundations."

Meanwhile, based on the results of this discussion, the research group plans to carry out policy research services from this month until May to concretise the Incheon model for SDGs implementation and practical policy alternatives.