**5. Discussion and Conclusions**

In response to the research question "Which design and context factors are associated with the influence and long-term viability of community indicator initiatives in Latin American cities?", this study showed that 49 initiatives located in 10 countries had an average continuity or survival rate of 55% after seven years. This is a conservative estimate since some of the remaining 45% may be active in a different or less institutionalized form.

Our finding that many initiatives fizzled out over time complements evidence from other continents (e.g., [4]). Underneath the regional averages, we found significant differences at the country level. Some countries studied for this article—notably, Colombia evidenced high continuity rates of 90%, with further institutional growth in recent years. Importantly, community indicator initiatives struggle in different contexts for different reasons. Our data suggest that in higher income and more democratic countries, maintaining institutional funding and sustained (media) attention are common difficulties, while the absence of immediate policy impacts constitutes a main reason for disillusionment among practitioners. In poorer or more violent contexts, however, scarce availability of reliable public data and political intimidation often represent additional existential threats for community indicator projects. This finding aligns with the growing body of literature about

the fate of transparency and accountability initiatives [36] and makes a new contribution to community indicator research, which has hitherto been biased in favour of high-income countries, while ignoring developments in the Global South.

Regarding their organizational set-up, virtually all Latin American community indicator initiatives are civil society alliances excluding governmental stakeholders. This differs from other world regions and challenges "best practice" recommendations about the inclusion of governments [11]. Moreover, successful Latin American initiatives show diversity in their organizational set-up; whereas some are governed by a small set of founding members (notably, philanthropic foundations, media firms, and universities), others function as looser networks.

The implementation of citizen perception surveys proved an expensive yet effective way of gaining wide (media) attention. This mirrors similar trends found by scholars elsewhere [2,37]. Many Latin American initiatives also offer training in data literacy and indicator use to diverse target groups, such as public servants, journalists, and community leaders. According to key informants, and corroborated by evidence including representative household surveys, several initiatives also gained significant name recognition in their cities among the general public, technical staff of local governments, and political decision-makers, such as the mayor and councillors. Using their standing, some initiatives successfully influenced public policies such as municipal development plans; another achievement in several cities concerned the approval of new legal requirements for local governments to incorporate sustainability considerations and citizen-led accountability fora into their planning and reporting systems. For relatively small organizations with usually less than 10 staff members, these are significant achievements in megacities such as Bogotá, São Paulo, Lima, and La Paz, where numerous pressure groups vie for attention.

This study is exploratory in nature, which implies methodological limitations. Tracking dozens of initiatives over time required selecting a limited set of research constructs, and thereby disregarding the complex nature, evolution, and interaction between a country's and city's context and a networked community indicator initiative. However, to avoid blind spots, we supplemented the deductive analysis of constructs derived from previous research with qualitative, inductive feedback from key informants.

More research is needed. Our findings and the conceptual models developed (cf. Figure 3, Table 1) contain leads for further investigations. To facilitate follow-up research, a number of hypotheses (and the countries serving as relevant cases) were identified for each of the main dimensions of the conceptual model, as listed in Table 4. In terms of context, for example, we surmise that the demise of civil society-run community indicator initiatives in Chile and Uruguay may partially be attributable to the relatively better quality of government-run indicator systems in these countries (cf. [38]). In terms of organizational set-up, partnerships with media firms perceived as unbiased (where available) are hypothesized to foster organizational continuity. Further research on internal leadership and the choice of working as broad networks or via a small group of stakeholders will help elucidate the relative advantages of each strategy and how these play out over time. Such studies may be informed by findings in the literature that any (performance) indicator system requires continual reconsideration [39], and that citizen participation tools should be aligned to a local population's evolving "sustainability literacy" [40]. Regarding activities, we hypothesize (based on findings in various countries) that the implementation of surveys that tap citizens' satisfaction with mayors may bring attention but also accusations of partisan meddling. Beyond these hypotheses, further research is needed for several other issues, such as the precise nature of community engagement strategies, including cooperation with other urban movements [41], and various ways of using indicators and indices, as well as relating local monitoring efforts to international frameworks such as the UN's Sustainable Development Goals [42].


**Table 4.** Hypotheses for further research.

We conclude by positing that 20 years of sustainability indicator projects in Latin America offers a wealth of lessons for this and other world regions. Arguably, the "socioecological niche" and potential positive contribution of community indicator projects is globally increasing due to three major trends: (i) continued urbanization, (ii) increased data availability due to public investments, technological developments, and open data laws and (iii) many increases in socio-economic inequalities, recently exacerbated by the viral pandemic. Sadly, the more unequal a city, the more informative and newsworthy a localized comparison of relevant indicators. In this endeavour, collaboration involving researchers, practitioners, and policymakers is key, as is stamina. As an Argentine informant (AR#3) recommended to others wanting to start a community indicator project, "It is very important to have and guarantee the continuity of the work long-term. Keep in mind that we work with people and that the generation of trust is a central point for the success of the initiative. It is very important to achieve the most heterogeneous participation possible so that different sectors feel identified and represented".

**Supplementary Materials:** The following are available online at https://www.mdpi.com/article/10 .3390/su13095133/s1.

**Author Contributions:** L.N.: Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing—Original Draft; T.H.: Supervision, Writing—Review and Editing. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study. As explained in the Methods Section, all respondents were anonymized.

**Data Availability Statement:** Cf Supplementary File for additional material.

**Acknowledgments:** We sincerely thank numerous activists and observers of the "Latin American Network of Just, Democratic and Sustainable Cities" for generously sharing their experiences. For feedback on the draft manuscript, we are very grateful to Hans de Bruijn, Senj Temple and three anonymous reviewers.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
