 With the support of the Ford Foundations and Citis Alliance, the local and regional authorities stressed the importance of acknowledging the positive role that urbanization plays in development. Josep Roig, the Secretary General of UCLG, thanked all the participants for attending the gathering and underlined that all local and regional networks share the same concerns and views in the Sustainable Development Agenda. Joan Clos, Executive Director of UN-Habitat, expressed to all partners how timely it was to work on a joint message. He recalled the importance of linking Rio+20 and Habitat III, the UN sustainable urban development conference that will revitalise the urban agenda for the 21st century. All participants worked on a list of recommendations that will be submitted to the United Nations. They advocate for a new multi-level governance that promotes effective partnerships in building sustainable cities and call on members-states to take into account the specific perspective of local and sub-national governments. Local and regional networks recommends that Sustainable Cities should be a crosscutting issue in the Sustainable Development Goals and those goals should contain issues related to the access to basic services, to social inclusion and equity, and to environment. Furthermore, cohesion among territories in development policies should be fostered and culture needs to be another important dimension of sustainable development. Finally, participants have called for the development of legal and financial mechanisms for local and subnational governments that should be considered as hubs of green growth. |
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