From 15-17 May 2016, over 100 representatives of sub-national governments from around the world gathered at UN headquarters in New York to share our vision for the New Urban Agenda and call for our recommendations to be heeded at Habitat III
The delegation kicked off on 15 May with the first session of the Second World Assembly of Local and Regional Governments, convened by the Global Taskforce. The Second World Assembly is the mechanism through which the local and regional government constituency will make its joint inputs to the Habitat III process. This session in New York was a historic occasion, marking the first such meeting since the First Assembly at the Habitat II Conference in Istanbul twenty years ago.
In New York, the Assembly agreed on the recommendations of Local and Regional Governments, in response to the Zero Draft of the New Urban Agenda. These recommendations are based on the ongoing international dialogue and collaboration between local and regional governments on sustainable urban development. Issues highlighted by elected local leaders at the Assembly included: the role of metropolitan areas, intermediary cities and small towns and rural areas in the agenda; the impact of migration in cities; the role of culture in sustainable development; the right to the city, the need to strengthen municipal finances, the links between the New Urban Agenda and the SDGs, and the transformative potential of decentralization and local democracy.
In his wrap-up of the session, Habitat III Secretary-General, Joan Clos, captured the mood of the day by calling for development partners to “think locally and act globally” to ensure sustainable development.
Habitat III Hearings for Local Authorities
From 16-17 May, mayors and local leaders presented our recommendations at the Habitat III Hearings for Local Authorities and shared our perspective on national legal frameworks, urban planning, and the implementation and follow-up of the New Urban Agenda.
As the first UN consultative process to recognize and treat sub-national governments as a specific constituency, the Local Authority Hearings represented a milestone for the international municipal movement. Furthermore, the hearings treated cities and countries as equals, with each on the same level, occupying half of the floor space. This arrangement was an important symbolic gesture to the role of local leaders in the New Urban Agenda.
As U. N. Deputy Secretary-General, Jan Eliasson, said to local and regional delegates: “your institutions are among the closest to citizens — to ‘We the Peoples’, in the words of the U. N. Charter… you face daily challenges in terms of housing, jobs, basic services, infrastructure and many more tasks affecting our citizens’ life in a very tangible way.”
At the Hearings, local leaders joined their voices to call for a seat at the global table in the global governance mechanisms for the implementation and follow-up of the New Urban Agenda. They praised the inclusivity of the Habitat III process to date and expressed their hope that the negotiations on the final text will continue in this spirit.
Recommendations of local and regional governments towards Habitat III
Report on the #Listen2Cities social media campaign
IISD Report on the Habitat III Local Authorities Hearings
IISD Policy Update: Local Authorities Bring Input to Habitat III Draft Outcome
