Development inequity: Advancing distributive justice by localizing SDG indicators for municipalities in Chile By Diego H. Castillo Peredo B.S. Business and Economics Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile Santiago, Chile (2012) Submitted to the Department of Urban Studies and Planning in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in City Planning at the MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY May 2020 © 2020 Diego H. Castillo Peredo. All Rights Reserved The author here by grants to MIT the permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of the thesis document in whole or in part in any medium now known or hereafter created. Author__________________________________________________________ Department of Urban Studies and Planning May 15, 2020 Certified by______________________________________________________ Associate Professor Gabriella Carolini Department of Urban Studies and Planning Thesis Supervisor Accepted by_____________________________________________________ Professor of the Practice, Ceasar McDowell Chair, MCP Committee Department of Urban Studies and Planning 2 Development inequity: Advancing distributive justice by localizing SDG indicators for municipalities in Chile by Diego H. Castillo Peredo Submitted to the Department of Urban Studies and Planning On May 15, 2020 in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in City Planning Abstract Through examining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at a municipal scale in Chile, this thesis demonstrates that localizing the development agenda is required for advancing distributive justice in the country. Because the mainstream development narrative suffers from contradictions similar to those of the discourse of Chile’s economic progress, the SDGs are expected to be insufficient for revealing inequities, which compromises their own goal of “leaving no one behind.” Despite the improvements in poverty reduction and access to basic services, three conditions suggest significant distributional and spatial equity concerns: the heterogenic conditions among Chilean municipalities; the presence of a unitary and centralized government; and the high dependence on economic factors of the local capacities for advancing development. However, the localization of the 2030 Agenda presents an opportunity for elevating local conditions and balancing national and local capacities. Through the disaggregation of eleven SDG indicators, this research analyzes the development performance of municipalities based on their internal dispersion and precision, spatial distribution, and correlation with sociodemographic and economic characteristics. Data is obtained from publicly accessible sources used by the country to calculate its official statistics and progress reports. Using a resource-based and capabilities approach on distributive justice, the quantitative analysis serves to assess to what extent localization can help advance spatial equity. The results show that aggregates can be deceiving, concealing significant local variation and masking important deficiencies, and that the lowest-performing areas are biased toward rural, satellite, less-accessible, and resource-scarce municipalities. These findings support the need for localizing development agendas to subnational scales as a way of promoting distributive and spatial justice. Moreover, increasing the resources and the agency of municipalities to take action upon their own development is also necessary to advance distributive justice. This analysis underscores the limitations of the SDG framework in exposing less developed areas within the country and their shortcomings in advocating for an appropriate narrative of development. As their adoption and influence increase, this research contributes to expand knowledge on how to operationalize them for advancing sustainable development with equity. Thesis Supervisor: Gabriella Carolini Title: Associate Professor, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT Thesis Reader: Samantha Dotto Salve Title: Data and Monitoring Officer, United Nations Keywords: Chile, SDG, sustainable development, localization, municipalities, distributive justice, development indicators, disaggregation 3 Acknowledgements To the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, the Lloyd and Nadine Rodwin Fund, and MISTI Chile, for your generous support, which was essential for the fulfillment of this research. To Gabriella, my thesis advisor, for the incredible dedication and guidance in this process. I am extremely grateful for your trust in me and for helping me expand my thinking and constructively challenge my ideas. Also, to my reader, Samantha, for responding to my random contact for a short inquiry but then giving me such insightful feedback. To the Asociación Chilena de Municipalidades and Ministerio de Desarrrollo Social y Familia for the shared resources, knowledge, and time. To the team at MITOS, for their constant support and flexibility, and for giving me an incredible opportunity to learn. Brian, Ken, and Yael, it was a pleasure to work with all of you. To the MCP cohort and everyone at DUSP for their kindness and warmth, particularly to those who opened their doors (literally) and invited me in, making me feel welcomed in a foreign place. A toda la familia latina de DUSP, sin su compañía no hubiese sobrevivido estos dos años en Cambridge; me hicieron sentir que no estaba tan lejos de mi casa. Dani, Dani, Vane y Nati, gracias por la paciencia en escuchar mis aburridas ideas y por la oportunidad de ser parte de sus propias tesis por todo un año. To my good friends, Shail, Dani, Zoë, Radhika, Julia, Cami, Ángeles, and Meesh, for making me laugh, hearing me complain, and joining me to the Muddy’s throughout these two years. To my roommates, Zack and Stephen, for bearing with me the tribulations of writing a thesis in social isolation during the COVID19 pandemic. And to Apaar, for sharing with me this journey and inspiring me every day to be more passionate and ambitious. Finalmente, también quiero agradecer a mi familia por su preocupación, por siempre confiar en mi, y por su apoyo incondicional en esta loca idea de renunciar y venirme a MIT, sin ese apoyo no hubiese podido hacerlo. A todos mis amigos en Chile, a quienes afortunadamente coincidimos en Cambridge durante estos años, y a quienes han estado conmigo en los buenos y difíciles momentos de esta etapa. 4 Table of Contents List of tables ..................................................................................................................................... 6 List of figures .................................................................................................................................... 7 Acronyms .......................................................................................................................................... 8 Chapter 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 10 1.1. The Chilean narrative ...................................................................................................... 10 1.2. The development discourse ............................................................................................. 12 1.3. Challenges for a representative message ......................................................................... 14 1.4. Opportunities for an adequate discourse .......................................................................... 19 1.5. Research approach and methodology .............................................................................. 20 Chapter 2. Background ................................................................................................................... 24 2.1. The idea of sustainable development ............................................................................... 24 2.2. Measuring sustainable development ................................................................................ 32 2.3. Implementing sustainable development in Chile ............................................................. 37 2.4. Localizing sustainable development ................................................................................ 42 Chapter 3. Analysis ......................................................................................................................... 50 3.1. Description and methodology .......................................................................................... 50 3.2. Results and analysis ......................................................................................................... 58 Chapter 4. Discussion ..................................................................................................................... 71 4.1. Localization, sustainable development, and distributive justice ..................................... 71 4.2. Further reflections ............................................................................................................ 76 Chapter 5. Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 79 Appendix ........................................................................................................................................ 85 A. Municipalities .................................................................................................................. 85 B. Metadata .........................................................................................................................