Sustainable Development Goals, perceived territorial capital and feeling of being able to live on its territory: a survey of young people in Cameroon

How to measure the impact of a local sustainable development initiatives on a given territory? How to measure the impact of fair trade on local populations? To answer these questions, our paper proposes a measurement tool based on the perceived territorial capital, a concept defined by Servillo et al. (2012). Considering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, the originality of our research comes from basing our measurement indicator on the individual subjective perceptions of the inhabitants of the area. Two qualitative surveys, followed by a quantitative survey (n = 367), were conducted in Cameroon. This research offers a 23-items 7-dimensional scale that assesses Servillo et al.’s perceived territorial capital at the individual level. The scale shows adequate reliability and validity, when tested among a sample of young people in Cameroon. It broadens the range of fair trade and SDGs assessment tools.