The 1st OECD Roundtable on Cities and Regions for the SDGs was held at the OECD Headquarters in Paris on 7 March 2019, within the scope of the OECD programme on A Territorial Approach to the SDGs. The Roundtable brought together cities, regions, national governments, international organisations, private sector and other key stakeholders to identify trends and challenges in the localisation of the SDGs, including the experiences and key findings from the pilots of the programme.

1. City of Kitakyushu, Japan:
Highlights from the OECD First Draft Report
• Institutional and governance framework to implement the SDGs: SDG Headquarters, SDGs
Council, SDGs Club
• Civil society, universities and research institutes, private sector are engaged
• Turning one of its main problems into a strength : high levels of pollution in the 1960s to a green
economy model in the 21st century
• Collaboration between the local government, the industries and civil society - in particular women’s
associations - was key to overcoming pollution
• Kitakyushu part of the Japanese Government ‘s SDGs Future City programme : creation of the SDG
Future City plan with three pillars - Economy, Society and Environment
• Connecting Prosperity , Planet and People to meet challenges of population decline and ageing
population : e.g. offshore wind power generation, eco-tourism, culture and R&D offer attractive job
opportunities for youth and promote social cohesion
• Supporting cities in developing countries through decentralised development cooperation: waste
and water management in focus
• Among first local governments to present “Local Voluntary Review” at the UN High Level Political
Forum in 2018: building local indicators and reporting for SDGs
1

2. The City of Kitakyushu, Japan: Linking Planet to
People and Prosperity to promote the SDGs
• Support universities and the education systems including elementary and middle schools in
their ongoing efforts to raise awareness on the SDGs: link “Kitakyushu City Educational Plan for
Children’s Future” more to the 2030 Agenda
• Use the SDGs in designing and implementing international cooperation activities: universality
of the 2030 Agenda is a key opportunity to connect the “internal” activities for sustainability with
the international cooperation actions
• Strengthen the SDGs indicators system to
monitor progress and guide policies and
actions: evaluation culture and baseline for
benchmarking
• Promote synergies among SDGs: Use the
“strong” SDGs to improve the “weak” SDGs
to create opportunities in the economic and
social dimensions
• Use the SDGs Club to connect ongoing
efforts and promote good practices and the
development of joint and concrete actions
2

3. Gateway to East Asia
Kitakyushu
Japan
Tokyo
Shanghai
China
Osaka
Population：956,000 (2016)
Area：487Km2
GDP：$32 billion (2016)
Manufacturing City
TOTOYaskawa
Nippon steel &
Sumitomo Metal
Oyster
Castle
Tomato
Rich Nature, Food &Tradition
3
Kitakyushu and SDGs
City of Kitakyushu, Japan
7th March 2019
India
Seoul
Thailand

4. PresentSerious pollution1960s
From Gray City to Green City
Citizens movement
Partnership
Citizens
Kitakyushu
city
Companies
Agreement to prevent pollution
Women’s association
Smoky sky and Ocean
contaminated
Overcame
Blue sky and Ocean
4

5. National Governance system for SDGs in Japan
5
SDGs Promotion Headquarters (Cabinet Office)
Headed by Prime Minister
SDGs Future City
Kita-
kyushu
LG LG
10 are supported financially
for SDGs projects
29 municipalities
PPP Platform
Chair: Kitakyushu Mayor
Private companies
Ministries/Agencies
Municipalities
Matching
Sharing
Voluntary
National
Review
Voluntary
Local
Review
Alignment
to VNR
format
Kitakyushu
&
2 other LGs
・ ・ ・ ・
・
・
・
LG LG ・ ・ ・ ・
・
・ ・ ・ ・
・ ・
・ ・ ・ ・
・ ・
Kitakyushu
SDGs Future
City Plan

6. Local Governance system for SDGs in Kitakyushu
City’s SDGs Promotion HQ
Headed by Mayor
6
SDGs Council
F
F F
F M M
M M
ChairVice-Chair
Collaboration
Over 200 members
78 Private companies
50 Organizations
11 Schools
71 Citizens
SDGs Club
-Matching
-Exchange info.
4 out of 8 committees are female
-Environment Plan
-Education Plan
-Gender Equality Plan
-Child Care Plan, etc.
Instruction to
incorporate SDGs into
administrative plans.
Collaboration
Advice
(City considers equal gender balance)

7. Kitakyushu
International environment Contribution
Localized indicator:
Number of promotion projects of
export environment related
technologies
Prosperity
(Economy)
People
(Society)
Planet
(Environment)
7
Example of Synergy and Trade-Off (1)
-Prevent climate change
-Aim at Low carbon society
-Affordable energy
in partner cities
-Expand business field
to overseas
-City-to-city collaboration
-Citizen enlightenment
Cities in Asia etc.

8. 8
Example of Synergy and Trade-Off (2)
The Community Restaurant for Children
People
(Society)
Prosperity
(Economy)
Planet
(Environment)
Localized indicator:
Proportion of people who feel
the child care is supported by
the community
-Save the cost for
waste disposal
-Low price food
for families
-Reduce food loss
-Circulation
-Well-balanced meals
for children etc.
-Purpose of life
for elderly
-Education by university
students

9. 9
Example of Synergy and Trade-Off (3)
Offshore wind power generation
People
(Society)
Prosperity
(Economy)
Planet
(Environment)
Localized indicator:
Amount of renewable energy
introduced into the city area
-Activities of women,
youth, elderly, etc.
-Reliable and disaster-
resistant town planning
-Circulation of economy
-Revitalize environment-
related industry
-Expansion of Clean energy
-Energy circulation in the area

10. Reference: Evaluation by External Entities
10
1st Japan SDGs Award (2017.7)
by Cabinet Office (SDGs Promotion Headquarters
Kitakyushu won the Partnership Award
Sustainable Cities Ranking (2019.1)
by Nikkei Newspaper (major media in Japan)
Kitakyushu was ranked 1st place for “Social” Dimension
(2nd place for total) in 815 cities
(1,800 municipalities)
Appraised Points in Social:
Kitakyushu’s measures for - child poverty
- bullying
-gender and diversity