Local Partnerships, Global Impact: Lessons from Lamspringe and Amahlathi
What does it take to turn global goals into local actions? As municipalities bring their experiences to the High-Level Political Forum in New York, the partnership between Lamspringe in Germany and Amahlathi in South Africa shows how cooperation, shared learning and local participation can bring the 2030 Agenda closer to people’s everyday lives.
A Local Story for a Global Forum
A walking trail may seem like a modest place to begin a global story. Yet in Lamspringe, a rural municipality of roughly 5,000 inhabitants in Lower Saxony, a planned “SDG walking trail” is set to bring the partnership with Amahlathi Local Municipality in South Africa into the heart of everyday community life. Through multilingual stations, examples from both Lamspringe and Amahlathi, and complementary digital resources, the trail will offer an engaging and accessible introduction to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). By symbolically connecting two communities thousands of kilometres apart, the trail takes the SDGs from conference halls to the places where they ultimately need to make a difference: streets, schools, public spaces and town halls.
Too often, global sustainability is imagined as something negotiated far away by national governments, diplomats and large cities. Yet municipalities play a key role in implementing the 2030 Agenda: according to the OECD, around two-thirds of its 169 targets cannot be achieved without the meaningful participation of local and regional governments. The success of the 2030 Agenda will therefore be decided in places like Lamspringe and Amahlathi.
Perspectives from German Cities and Municipalities
The High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) in New York City – the UN’s central platform for reviewing SDG progress – focuses on goals that are deeply local: clean water and sanitation (SDG 6), affordable and clean energy (SDG 7), industry, innovation and infrastructure (SDG 9), sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11), and global partnerships for sustainable development (SDG 17). These goals are not abstract. They determine whether people have access to reliable services, whether young people can see a future in their communities, whether public spaces are accessible, and whether climate adaptation becomes more than a technical term.
At the forum, Germany’s delegation reflected this local dimension. It brought together perspectives from cities such as Heidelberg, Augsburg and Saarbrücken, as well as from smaller municipalities like Lamspringe and Geestland. Ahead of the HLPF, German municipal associations made their expectation clear: local governments are not merely responsible for implementing decisions made elsewhere. They bring practical experience, political and administrative responsibility, and close contact with citizens. They should therefore be systematically included, recognised and supported in international Agenda 2030 processes – not merely consulted after key decisions have already been shaped.
Moving from Dialogue to Concrete Cooperation
Lamspringe’s partnership with Amahlathi builds on a broader commitment to turning global sustainability goals into local action. In 2019, the municipality became the 100th member of the Club of Agenda 2030 Municipalities – a network that brings together German municipalities that have committed themselves to implementing the 2030 Agenda locally, based on a model resolution developed by the German Association of Cities and the German section of Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), in cooperation with the Servicestelle Kommunen in der Einen Welt (Service Agency Communities in One World, SKEW).
As one of twelve model municipalities in the “Global Sustainable Municipality in Lower Saxony” project, Lamspringe aligned its local priorities with the 17 SDGs and developed its own sustainability strategy. The partnership with Amahlathi marked Lamspringe’s first municipal partnership beyond Germany. In less than three years, it has become a visible part of the municipality’s sustainability work. It is based on trust, regular exchange and personal meetings between representatives of Lamspringe and Amahlathi. SKEW funding supports joint activities and participation in formats such as the Partnership Conference, helping the partners move from dialogue to concrete cooperation.
From Reviews to Local Practice
Amahlathi, in turn, has followed Lamspringe’s example and published its own Voluntary Local Review (VLR). A VLR is a report through which cities, municipalities or regions assess and communicate their progress towards the SDGs. But a VLR is more than a technical report: holds up a mirror to a municipality. It asks local authorities to look honestly at where they stand, which groups benefit from their policies and which people are still being left behind. A first VLR does not yet demonstrate long-term change. Instead, it creates transparency about progress, gaps and areas that require further attention.
When two partner municipalities use this instrument, the reviews can create a shared language for learning across different administrative systems, histories, capacities and contexts. The purpose is not to compare like with like, but to ask similar questions: What is working? Who is benefiting? Where is further action needed?
Where Global Goals Become Local Questions
At the local level, this work is carried forward by people who rarely appear in global debates. In Lamspringe, a steering group meets four times a year, bringing and together representatives from the administration, local politics, schools, churches and business associations, as well as engaged residents. Their work has helped establish sustainability as a responsibility shared across municipal departments and sectors. It has also contributed to a sustainability strategy formally adopted by the municipal council. This is where global goals become local questions: How can fair procurement become part of everyday municipal practice? How can the town centre be developed sustainably and inclusively? Whose needs are considered when decisions are made – and whose are overlooked?
: Lamspringes Mayor Andres Humbert meets representatives from South Africa in New York.
@ Andreas Humbert
This is exactly the kind of story the HLPF needs more of. Not because small municipalities are automatically more inclusive or sustainable, but because they reveal the real conditions under which the SDGs must be implemented: tight budgets, limited staff, dependence on temporary funding programmes, political scepticism and the constant challenge of keeping long-term sustainability on the agenda. At the same time, they demonstrate one of local government’s greatest strengths: proximity. Municipalities quickly learn whether a policy is working because residents raise their concerns at the school gate, in the town hall, at local events or during public meetings. Success and failure are visible in people’s daily lives. As Andreas Humbert, Mayor of Lamspringe puts it: “The HLPF in New York made one thing clear once again: the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals remain abstract theory unless we bring them to life at the local level. The partnership between Lamspringe and Amahlathi is a powerful example of what localising the SDGs means in practice. We engage as equal partners, learn from one another and tackle global challenges together.”
Participation Depends On Who Is in the Room
The 2030 Agenda’s promise to “leave no one behind” also applies to municipal partnerships. Localising the SDGs means asking who is involved, who is heard and who remains excluded. Sustainability is experienced differently by women and men, young and older people, people with disabilities, migrants and low-income households. A new public space, for example, may appear equally accessible on paper while remaining difficult to use for people with limited mobility, those who feel unsafe or those who cannot afford the journey to reach it.
Partnerships such as the one between Lamspringe and Amahlathi can create spaces to reflect on these differences – particularly when diverse voices from both municipalities are deliberately included. Participation, however, requires more than inviting people into a room. It also means enabling them to influence what is discussed and decided.
Simple, but Demanding Lessons
Municipal participation at the HLPF should therefore be more than a symbolic act. Without the systematic involvement, adequate financing and political recognition of municipalities, global sustainability commitments risk remaining declarations of intent. Municipal partnerships between Germany and the Global South should therefore be supported as long-term relationships rather than through short project cycles. VLRs can make local progress visible and facilitate mutual learning, provided that smaller municipalities receive support suited to their capacities and resources.
The lesson of the partnership between Lamspringe and Amahlathi is simple but demanding: global goals become credible when they are rooted locally and shared internationally. The HLPF can open doors, but the real work continues afterwards – in town halls, partner municipalities, steering groups, schools and public spaces. And sometimes, a global transformation begins with something as ordinary as talking a walk.
