Giving Compass' Take:

• This Brookings article explores how cities in the US are taking on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), using them as a framework for prioritizing, measuring, and mobilizing progress across a wide variety of initiatives.

• Supporting local, grassroots organizations — along with municipal partnerships — could be a good strategy for funders who want to have an impact on the SDGs.

• Here's more on what’s needed from communities to achieve the SDGs.

Despite a crisis of confidence at the national level, a significant majority of Americans still believe in the ability of their local governments to deliver. This is good news, because U.S. cities are increasingly responsible for taking on local challenges with global implications, such as pollution, violence, climate change, and economic opportunity and security.

As municipalities go about their business, they are increasingly turning to their peers, engaging in city-to-city networks and communities of practice (an estimated 300+ globally) to share best practices, experiment with innovations, and design new solutions. It reflects a problem-solving mentality that has earned many U.S. city leaders a reputation for pragmatism over politics.

This is the way American cities such as Los Angeles, New York City, and Pittsburgh come to the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs). The SDGs, collectively agreed by the world’s nations in 2015, reflect national commitments to end poverty, achieve economic prosperity, and reduce inequality and injustice while promoting environmental sustainability and tackling climate change.

Read the full article about how US cities can help the world achieve the SGDs by Anthony F. Pipa at Brookings.