Abstract
Localising and realising the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be a daunting and abstract prospect for policy makers, researchers and practitioners alike. This presentation will focus on the main outcomes of a forthcoming collective book (Membretti, Taylor and Delves, eds., 2022: Sustainable futures in southern Africa’s mountains. Multiple perspectives on an emerging city), that brings together contributions from diverse actors in Phuthaditjhaba, a remote, under-serviced Sotho city in the Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains in South Africa. Following a multidisciplinary approach, addressing different aspects of
Phuthaditjhaba, the presented research applies a cross-sectional methodology to the study of this burgeoning, yet informal, city. By employing the SDGs as a common lens which can be used by researchers, policy makers and practitioners, the book presents a practical, yet nuanced, discussion about sustainable development in this city facing multilevel social, political and environmental challenges. The research and the publication here presented are the fruit of an on-going North-South research partnership between institutions in South Africa (University of the Free State - AfroMontane Research Unit; University of Pretoria and other
academic collaborators) and Europe (United Nations University - EURAC Research). The
book investigates various aspects of Phuthaditjhaba and its surrounding areas with the overall
objective of shedding light on the challenges faced by the city with regards to sustainable
development. These challenges are embedded in the complex environmental, socio-cultural
and political contexts of the city. The challenges faced in Phuthaditjhaba are similar to those
in many growing cities in the developing world. They include governance challenges,
underinvestment, unemployment, poverty and the historical inequality associated with
colonialism. In addition, the effects of climate change are still under-researched but will
undoubtedly play a role in the future of the city, most notably in water provision. Water is just
one service provided by the mountain ecosystems on which Phuthaditjhaba depends, and
many services are threatened by anthropogenic activity including climate change.