Municipal Sustainability Index

The Municipal Sustainability Index (MSI) aims to reflect on the level of sustainability of each municipality of the country, by diagnosing the Sustainable Development at the municipal territory. It is a monitoring and evaluation tool, that helps to define municipal strategies that value the local communities’ role as agents for development.

It takes into consideration global indicators that can be applicable to the local reality that better translates the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, 160 Targets and 231/244 constant indicators of the 2030 Agenda, aiming to keep the coherence and the alignment between the various levels of analysis (global, national, local) for the 308 Portuguese municipalities. The citizens’ perception (subjective evaluation), measured by local inquiries, can be aggregated to the global indicators, made available by OECD, INE, the municipalities, CESOP, and other official entities.

The index allows for comparison between administrative territories:

1-    At it’s global value
2-    At intermediary levels, at the main dimensions of Sustainability: Governance, Economics, Social, and Environmental, e de 2030 Agenda’s 5P’s (People, Prosperity, Plant, Peace and Partnership)
3-    At each indicator.

The methodology used in the ISM is shared internationally through the Local 2030 - Localizing the SDGs, and positions itself as a pioneer on the international movement of monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals at local level.

A reference instrument in Portugal, that also supports Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs), Sustainability Reports and Urban Monitoring Framework from UN-Habitat.

It is cited and analyzed in various international reports such as Comparative study on SDG monitoring systems at local and regional levels, AACID, Barcelona Provincial Council, UCLG, UNDP, 2021; Country Profiles on SDG localization Local and regional governments stepping forward for achieving the 2030 Agenda, United Cities and Local Governments, 2022; SDG monitoring and reporting for a local policy with impact: Inspiration for local governments, Association of Flemish Cities and Municipalities, 2022.

Each year, each of the municipalities of the CESOP-Local Network gets automatically the MSI Report corresponding to its territory, and accesses the current results to analyze the walked path since 2018, through the MSI Portal.

According to the management culture of each municipality, one can also obtain the Municipal Sustainability Index +, a MSI report without a limit on indicators, in constant update a customized to the specifics of each territory.

The Municipal Sustainability Index is on its sixth edition (MSI 2023) and gathers a total 146 indicators (125 without duplication), related with 70 targets from the 2030 Agenda, available for all municipalities. A new member of the CESOP-Local Network gains access to their results in 24 hours.