Sustainable development goals against COVID-19: The performance of brazilian cities in SDGS 3 and 6 and their reflection on the pandemic

ABSTRACT

The aim of this article is to understand the relationship between two of the Sustainable Development Goals (UN Agenda 2030) – Good health and well-being (SDG 3) and Clean water and sanitation (SDG 6) – and the statistics of the COVID-19 pandemic (number of cases and deaths) in Brazilian cities. To analyze this relationship, we used secondary data from public organizations on the SDG panorama by city and conducted a moderated regression analysis. The sample was composed of 649 cities with a population exceeding 50 thousand inhabitants. The results show that the higher were the indicators used to measure SDGs, the lower was the number of cases and deaths from the disease. We have also proved that cities’ population density and their distance from the pandemic epicenter moderate this relationship, since a higher level of these moderation variables increases the impact of a lower level of SDGs 3 and 6 coverage in society on the number of cases and deaths from COVID-19. Thus, the efficient and effective investment to reach SDGs 3 and 6 is directly associated with cities’ ability to successfully deal with infectious diseases and the resulting number of deaths. As for its contribution, this research innovates by establishing a model for analyzing the impact of compliance with SDGs on cities’ performance in their fight against COVID-19, which may also suit other nations. © 2021, Russian Geographical Society. All rights reserved.