Municipal Policies in Spain to Promote Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): An Approach to the Fourth Sector

This chapter analyzes the behavior of different municipal budget policies and their relationship to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) established in the 2030 Agenda. Starting from a general focus on the relationship of SDGs to public spending policies (known as spending programs) in local entities, this chapter examines companies that can sign contracts with public administrations under Public Administration Contract Law. Our study aims to relate municipal budgetary actions to the SDGs and to private companies that pursue social goals as well as economic benefit—that is, firms composing the fourth sector. Characterization of the local public sector’s contribution to sustainable development through budget policies focuses on the autonomic (regional) level. The methodology is based on the information in the budgetary settlements of Expenditures and Income presented to the Spanish Court of Accounts for the period 2010–2018 in over 8000 municipalities and other Spanish local entities. The database (big data) of over 2,000,000 records was processed using data mining techniques to extract a set of indicators based on the expenditure level of each local entity and other indicators. The results also indicate the spending policies/programs related to the SDGs and the economic nature of spending with companies in the fourth sector. The results thus provide a geographical view of how local spending is distributed in Spain in absolute terms (millions of euros), per capita, and in terms of local entities’ spending on SDGs and fourth-sector companies across the different regions.