The implementation of the madrid 2030 agenda: Policy alignment in programmes of urban regeneration

Abstract

This chapter aims to describe a series of programmes, and other instruments put into practice in the city of Madrid during the 2015–2019 period. The Strategy for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, presented in 2018, is a synthesis of the series of spatial urban policies for Madrid. The most original contribution of this document is the idea of Alignment of Municipal Public Policies to the SDGs. This means that many of the current spatial policies initially designed and developed by different departments of the local administration tend to merge in a common strategy, in particular, around a set of actions called areas of opportunity. The planning of these areas, now in the design process, can be considered the most interesting tool in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda’s spatial goals. This has established a common framework for these different former policies (programmes or actions) to align in a common direction. Our question is: Which is the principle that guides the alignment of a set of different former sectoral approaches in this common direction? Here the idea of Spatial Justice emerges as the complex synthesis that allows Madrid’s urban policies to overcome narrow approaches and the subsequent tendency to simplify urban problems. Instead, this alignment represents a sophisticated approach to the high level of complexity of the Agenda.