Governing in partnership: UCLG contributing to power the SDG Rescue Plan at the 2024 HLPF

The local and regional government constituency gathered in the Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments (GTF)  brought over 50 elected officials to the  2024 High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) from all regions and many networks of the GTF, including Regions4, ORU-Fogar, CLGF, ICLEI, CEMR, UCLG-Africa, UCLG-MEWA, FLACMA, UCLG-Eurasia.

The constituency presented this year a local track of activities and resources aimed at keeping localization at the forefront of the HLPF. Throughout the year, numerous initiatives contribute to this mission and align with the UN Secretary-General’s “to-do list” for rescuing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These actions include comprehensive reports, dynamic events, learning modules, and ongoing processes to advance the localization of global agendas.

The SDGs under review at the 2024 High-Level Political Forum (1, 2, 13, 16, and 17) were the guiding thread of the activities of our constituency. From the Local and Regional Governments Forum, to the constituency’s report to the HLPF, and including the publications and the participation of local elected officials throughout the HLPF, our engagement was geared towards showcasing the importance of local and regional governments in localizing equality, climate action and peace, and ensuring that they are understood as part of the same agenda.

Below you will find a summary of the key events that UCLG engaged in this year’s HLPF.

An in-depth overview of the events of the constituency can be found here

Transformation from the ground up: Acting at local level.

The session Transformation from the ground up: Acting at local level organized by UNDESA and chaired by Robert Rae, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations brought participants together to address what it means to bring transformation from the ground-up to overcome current challenges  and fully localize the SDGs.

UCLG Secretary General Emilia Saiz moderated the session, who introduced the debate with a reminder that, while transformation does indeed come from the bottom-up, and is driven by communities, more often than not these communities -represented by their local and regional governments adn their associations- aren’t given enough space to present their innovations and take the decisions that will affect their communities at the global table

Bandiougou Diawara, Président of the region of Kayes, Mali, reminded of the importance of involving local governments, including intermediary levels of government, to fight poverty, exclusion and inequalities. The session also counted on the participation of Tatiana Molcean Executive Secretary of UNECE;  Cielito Pérez, Executive Director of the Center for Women’s Resources and Bernd Voehringer, Vicepresident of the COE Congress of Local and Regional Authorities

The session was a spot-on example of the increased recognition of SDG localization by a wide array of stakeholders, where we were able to witness how national governments invited to participate gave the floor to their local counterparts so they could speak on their own SDG localization efforts on their own behalf.

Monitoring and reporting from the local to the global level: the VLR-VSR Days

Since 2018, 235 LRGs from all world regions have submitted a total of 295 Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs). Since 2020, LGAs from 38 countries have produced 44 VSRs, which analyze the state of SDG localization throughout a country. These reviews cover a total population of over 1.7 billion, and demonstrate LRGs’ clear commitment to bolstering SDG localization from the ground up and providing national governments with the necessary localized data and information.

Many local and regional governments and their associations who participated at the HLPF had the chance to present their VLRs and VSRs, thus contributing to placing at the core of the discussions the local reporting and localization efforts, from the Nordic associations presenting their first-ever Nordic VSR, to small municipalities like Tierp (Sweden), cities like Kiel and Bonn (Germany) and Niterói (Brazil) and intermediary levels of government such as the Basque Country (Spain) as well as Manabí and Imbabura (Ecuador).

Co-organized with UN-Habitat and UNDESA, the third edition of the VSR-VLR Days was held on 15 and 16 July in the framework of the 2024 High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. The Days contributed to harnessing the potential of the VLR and VSR processes to bolster SDG localization across the globe. Bringing together LRGs, their associations, national governments, international organizations and other partners, the Days successfully addressed the challenge of ensuring that the vision and commitments written in the reports are transformed into tangible, innovative and inclusive actions to accelerate the attainment of the SDGs. Amongst others, the associations of Costa Rica, Ecuador, Brazil, Mauritania, South Africa, Nepal and the Nordic countries were able to present their new VSRs, along with the local governments such as Tierp, Irbid, Mendoza, Aland, Brisbane, Udon Thani, Ramallah, Nakuru, Tucumán, Cascais, Kisumu and Karatay.

Four thematic sessions were organized, focusing on how VLRs and VSRs can be strategic levers to enhance multilevel governance, trust in governments, the provision of basic services to the communities, and the elaboration and implementation of more evidence-based policy-making through sufficient funding and guarantees.

Throughout the sessions, participants were able to ascertain how VLRs and VSRs help local and regional governments and their associations integrate the SDGs into their policymaking, track progress, and showcase success stories in sustainable development across all planning areas, including strategy, budgeting, procurement, data, monitoring, evaluation, coordination, and stakeholder engagement. VLRs and VSRs have proven to be innovative frameworks that have revolutionized the way we approach sustainable development, ensuring that every level of government is engaged, accountable and aligned with our collective goals. As these transformative processes accelerate SDG achievement and support advocacy for a more enabling environment before national governments, UN entities and other stakeholders, the third edition of the VLR-VSR Days allowed participants to come out of them with clear, bold and necessary next steps to bring the SDG localization and reporting movement forward.

Reviewing the localization of the International Conference on Population and Development

In the framework of the historic memorandum of understanding signed last year, UCLG and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) have worked together to promote capacity building and build on common goals and milestones to advance the rights of girls and women in cities and territories from around the world, promoting urbanization, demographic diversity and universal access to family planning.

Local public service provision ensured by local and regional governments worldwide echoes the focus of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development adopted in 1994. Celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2024, UNFPA and UCLG organized a global consultation with local and regional governments, as part of the ICPD30 process. This includes reviewing and further supporting the role of the local and regional government constituency in localizing this population and development agenda: ending poverty, through universal access to all public services, including education, employment opportunities, and high-quality health services; as well as in redefining health as a local and global common, including sexual and reproductive health and rights and family planning public services; and reinforcing women’s and girls’ empowerment.

Emilia Saiz, UCLG Secretary General opened the global consultation with Diene Keita, Deputy Executive Director of UNFPA, recalling the role of local and regional governments as the closest to the people and best able to respond to their needs and aspirations, including regarding population trends and development priorities. Elizeu Chaves, Executive Coordinator of the  ICPD30 Secretariat, introduced the objectives of the session. Inclusive political participation and the Feminist Municipal Movement were the first topics touched upon, as overarching priorities of the constituency, as recalled by Fatiha El Moudni, Mayor of Rabat and Francine Farrugia, Councillor of Siggiewi and member of the CEMR / PLATFORMA Young Elected Officials Committee. Clare Hart, Vice-president of Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole, contributed to emphasize the role of local and regional governments in ending violence against women.

Maria Helena Jose Correia Langa, Member of the Municipal Assembly of Mandlakazi and Vice-President of REFELA, and Emil Broberg, Councillor of the Östergotland Region, shared insights on challenges and opportunities to end poverty. On public health, Gilia Ninfa Gutiérrez, Governor of Moquegua exchanged with Will Zeck, Chief, Sexual and Reproductive Health Branch, UNFPA, and highlighted the need for equitable provision of sexual and reproductive health services. Later, Véronique Bertholle, Deputy Mayor of Strasbourg, and Tapiwa Jhamba, Technical Advisor, Census, Population and Development Branch, UNFPA, focused on mobility and data, while André Viola, Councillor of the Aude Department, and Gail Macgregor, Councillor of Annandale North Ward and COSLA’s Environment and Economy Spokesperson, emphasized the role of climate action in responding to population and development needs from a rights-based and just perspective. Fabiana Goyeneche, Director of International Relations and Cooperation, Montevideo, highlighted the impact of education in this regard too. Finally, Elisenda Alamany Gutiérrez, Vice-President for International Relations and Digital Metropolis at the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, and Felix Koech, Risk and Opportunity Management Officer, Innovation Unit, UNFPA, discussed emerging aspects of local public policy related to technology and digitalization.

During this global consultation, local and regional governments renewed their commitment to responding to population, development and urbanization challenges to transform them into opportunities for equality and a just ecological transition across the urban-rural continuum. UCLG and UNFPA will continue working together to recognize the critical role of local public service provision as a means to guarantee a feminist politics of care, participation, and well-being, enabling both people and the planet to thrive.

The UN Secretary General Advisory Group on Local and Regional Governments

As we gear towards the upcoming Summit of the Future, the HLPF was also a space to present the progress of the UN Secretary General Advisory Group on Local and Regional Governments, which gathers 15 local governments gathered around the Global Taskforce, and five representatives from Member States, to provide recommendations to the UN Secretary-General to ensure the local perspective is listened to ahead of the Summit and promote a more inclusive, networked and effective multilateral system. This progress includes promoting a call to define a separate and differentiated status for LRG within intergovernmental processes that is now part of the Pact for the Future second revision.

The Summit of the Future will see the third and final meeting between the Secretary-General and the Advisory Group, which will serve to present their final report, including providing high-level political commitments, local actionable solutions for present and future generations, and multilateral strategies for implementation of all the global development agendas within the framework of the 2030 Agenda.

Beyond the Summit of the Future

The Summit of the Future and the World Social Summit are part of the same process towards a reinvigorated multilateral system in which all the global development agendas are acknowledged and implemented as one, involving all spheres of governance. For the self-organized constituency of local and regional governments together with its partnership ecosystem, these two milestones are to be crucial moments to galvanize a multistakeholder, multilevel coalition that delivers in the challenge of bringing about a global social agenda that, driven by local public service provision, puts reducing inequalities at the center of a new social contract to be delivered within the framework of a renewed multilateral system that is fit for purpose to address the needs and aspirations of current and future generations.

Visit the Flickr album to see all of the images of the Forum