Actions to achieve Sustainable Urban Development

Why actions matter in achieving the 2030 Agenda

We have less than seven years remaining to reach the Sustainable Development Goals. In 2020, the United Nations Secretary-General called upon a Decade of Action to accelerate and mobilise solutions at local and global levels and fully engage partners, people and communities across all sectors to leverage transformative changes. Therefore, it is crucial to collect and monitor committed actions and advance the progress and achievement of the Agenda 2030.

For more information: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/decade-of-action/

WUF 11 – The Katowice Declared Actions

The eleventh session of the World Urban Forum (WUF11) took place in Katowice, Poland, from 26 to 30 June 2022 under the theme Transforming our Cities for a Better Urban Future.

The theme’s relevance is stark as the world comes together to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable, especially after the devastating effects of Covid-19 and the refugee situation due to the crisis in Ukraine.

The WUF11 concluded with the Katowice Declared Actions. These declared actions will carry the sustainable development agenda forward to the next World Urban Forum in Cairo, Egypt in January 2024, and beyond. They include recommendations and commitments that representatives of government, civil society and the private sector take back to their home cities for further discussion and implementation. WUF11 Katowice Declared Actions are voluntary actions and commitments that support the NUA implementation and accelerate the SDGs’ attainment. 

WUF 10 - The Abu Dhabi Declared Actions
The Tenth Session of the World Urban Forum (WUF10) debated issues related to rapid urbanisation, building inclusive and resilient cities, and taking steps to accelerate their work towards the New Urban Agenda as an accelerator to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in the Decade of Action. WUF10 began with a call to action and concluded with the Abu Dhabi Declared Actions committed by different partners and stakeholder groups.

The Abu Dhabi Declared Actions comprises actions committed on a voluntary basis by governments, partners, individuals, communities, and the business sector from cities and countries around the world to accelerate the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. The Actions were produced in consultation with the WUF10 Advisory Group representatives from diverse urban development partners. The Actions are strategic level goals that will result from implementing new initiatives from various institutions and actors.

For more information on the Declared Actions, please visit here.

The first report on the implementation of the Abu Dhabi Declared Actions: one year of implementation was published in 2021. The report details successes and highlights actions partners are engaging in to fulfil their commitments.

Actions At-a-Glance

Actions

European Metropolitan Authorities Declaration

1) European Metropolitan Areas network shows its commitment to be involved and to participate in the reconstruction of Ukrainian cities through political, economic and technical support. 2) The political leaders of European Metropolises, undertake to counter-react the crises with new models of urban policies and solutions. We undertake to assist our municipalities and support the co-generation, cogovernance and creativity in sharing economies related to food, mobility, housing, etc. 3) we the EMA political leaders show our support for the REPowerEU objectives 2 with a simultaneous call to EU institutions about our readiness to participate as stakeholders, beneficiaries and demo areas of modern solutions. 4)With new challenges related to the refugee crises around the globe and especially in Europe, we the political leaders underline the power of both local and international exchange and support. 5) We, the local political leaders notice and underline the imperative of good governance but never through recentralization practices, we have faced during the COVID-19 pandemics. Governing future cities and metropolitan areas will with time be more complex and will require strong institutions with financial resources and participative approach. We strongly support informed policy-making and we call EU institutions to support us in our efforts, by enabling metropolitan areas directly participate and directly benefit from EU Policies in particular the Recovery and Resilience Facility and the cohesion instruments. These commitments will be measured through specific actions.
Source: World Urban Forum

Strengthening francophone habitat professionals capacities.

The main immediate result we expect is the forming of an international francophone group guided by a Charter for action. This would orient the collaborative process towards multidimensional strengthening of capacities and acceleration of debate on local, regional and global urban issues from a francophone perspective. This would ultimately lead to improved cohesion among francophone professionals around the idea they have a different practice and voice in the world, which builds on a more socially-oriented consideration (including ecological and cultural dimensions) for the spatial and urban planning practice.
Source: World Urban Forum

Nuestra organización se compromete a impulsar los centros de agricultura urbana en zonas urbanas para contribuir al alcance del ODS 1,2, ,05,11,

Con los Centros de Agricultura Urbana más personas podrán acceder alimentos nutritivos cultivados por ellas mismas para combatir el hambre, lograr cohesión social, desarrollar el comercio local. etc
Source: World Urban Forum

Development+ Art

Introduction Abarigani is Swahili, translated in English, What's the News? Abarigani has become a start-up, which Doumafis, in collaboration with a cadre of local artists, launched in Boston, MA, in December 2021, to bridge the gap in planning and design inherent in the implementation of strategic master plan intended to revitalize certain inner-cities that have experienced long-term urban blight. The UN Habitat, in its most recent report on Urbanization, noted there is a lack of planning in neighborhoods that need it the most. Abarigani shares the vision of municipalities to build the Better Urban Future. Toward this end, it measures its outcome by the number of developments it connects its clients. Description At its core Abarigani is a Learning Organization that empowers its clients to take action for better neighborhood future. The best practices of Abarigani emanate from the evidence that shows sustainability occurs through information sharing. This empowerment is achieved based on a comprehensive community action plan that emphasizes purpose, design, agenda, and follow-up. Getting the right clients on board is a prerequisite to building the team of empowered participants to envision, develop, operate, and evaluate the project. It then follows, Hybrid Meeting is conceived as decision making for strategy, policy, business, and financial oversight. Marketing The ongoing marketing and outreach to highlight the service and product that Abarigani offers to private developers, city planners, and owners of small- medium-enterprises (SME) is based on the concept of Community Building. At its lowest level it involves the positive message distributed by word of mouth, posting, and information table. Its upper level consists of email marketing and social media engagement through hashtag and other memes.
Source: World Urban Forum

MALAYSIA SDG CITIES

Localizing the global goals at cities and urban areas is important for an urban nation like Malaysia and the Malaysia SDG Cities will ensure integration between national and state policies at all levels are aligned to the SDG by realizing the aspirations and ensuring of its effective implementation locally. 1) Raise local government awareness, commitment and capacities towards sustainable agenda. 2) Set local priorities and focus attention on urgent urban challenges to harness future opportunities. 3) Create a platform for partnership to mobilize and empower stakeholders to identify practical integrated and innovative Solutions. 4) Develop an Action Plan to match the SDSG and synchronized and align with National, State and Local development agendas. 5) Facilitate local government access to funding resources and develop business models to to finance SDGs actions 6) Strengthen role of Local Governments to monitor, evaluate and report SDG progress to national and state level. 7) Enable Local Governments and communities to be the catalyst of local change.
Source: World Urban Forum

Vitoria Gasteiz’s commitment to implementing SDGs in cities

First of all Vitoria Gasteiz is commited to implementing SDGs in the municipality. To make this commitment a reality, the city has developed Vitoria-Gasteiz´s Urban Agenda 2030. The Urban Agenda and the 2030 Agenda are presented as tools to reflect on the reality in which we live and to think about the municipality in which we want to live, a future for which the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set a clear direction for us. This is, in short, the opportunity that Vitoria-Gasteiz has now: to rethink the resources, strategies and projects for the future, and to do so through a work process that fosters collaboration and co-responsibility of all the actors of the municipality and that allows the definition of a comprehensive roadmap for the next decade. A document co-created with the citizens, especially with young and elderly people, and with people from the strategic social and economic sectors of the city as well as politicians. This document has been developed in three phases, an initial diagnostic phase, a second phase establishing the strategic framework and a third phase of contrasting and choosing the driving projects and transforming levers that will take Vitoria-Gasteiz to the year 2030. All three phases are aligned with the SDGs and also have a comprehensive system of indicators that will help us track all actions and projects to be carried out in the next 8 years that will help us achieve the SDGs in our city. Vitoria-Gasteiz also participates at regional and national level in other SDG implementation initiatives in cities such as: At the regional level: the working groups of Udalsarea 2030, network of Basque municipalities for sustainability. At the national level: Network of local entities for the 2030 Agenda. We are also part of the 100 Climate Neutral and Smart European Cities Mission by 2030 and the European Mission for Adaptation to Climate Change by, which shows a clear commitment to decarbonization and adaptation to climate change. Finally, another commitment that the city has made to achieving the SDGs in cities is its participation as a pilot city in UN-Habitat's SDG Cities initiative. In this regard we request UN-Habitat’s Executive Director to initiate a process within the UN System to establish an official SDG Cities Certification mechanism that recognizes the efforts and achievements of cities to accelerate the achievement of SDGs.
Source: World Urban Forum

Scaling up disability inclusion, accessibility, and universal design in the implementation of the New Urban Agenda

The engagement of persons with disabilities and their representative organisations in decisions and processes guiding urban development at all levels is critical to hold governments accountable, address discrimination and remove accessibility barriers which sustain inequalities and exclusion of persons with disabilities. Persons with disabilities, like any other marginalised group in the community, must have a say in the decisions and plans that impact their lives and the future of their communities. In January 2020, WBU launched the Global Program for Inclusive and Accessible Urban Development to support participation of WBU members and Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) partners towards ensuring that disability inclusion, accessibility, and universal design are considered in the implementation of the New Urban Agenda in line with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD). WBU has developed collaborative, co-creative, and multi-stakeholder partnerships and initiatives, including a milestone agreement with UN-Habitat and the launch of a special issue of the Journal of Public Space “Universally Accessible Public Spaces for All” in partnership with City Space Architecture (See Abu Dhabi Declared Actions). Building on this, the World Blind Union (WBU) commits to make a comprehensive stocktaking and sharing of the learnings, knowledge, and practices generated through the WBU Global Program on inclusive and accessible urban development since WUF10, to inform and accelerate actions and partnerships between OPDs and urban stakeholders, including UN Habitat and local and regional governments, supporting localisation and realisation of the CRPD and the New Urban Agenda. Expected results include collection and sharing of learnings, knowledge, and practices via reports, tools, webinars, case studies and more, to model and support meaningful participation of persons with disabilities and the mainstreaming of disability inclusion, accessibility and universal design across all urban policies, programs, and practices in line with the CRPD. WBU’s declared action supports capacity development of urban stakeholders on how to respond to today’s challenges that impact persons with disabilities the most, including climate change, poverty and exclusion, the COVID-19 pandemic and humanitarian emergencies – recognizing that accessibility and universal design are integral parts of the solution to the challenges of urbanisation, including urban crisis, and constitutes the agent of transformative action for a more equitable urban future (see Katowice Declared Actions).
Source: World Urban Forum

Planificación urbana

Desarrollar un Plan de Movilidad Urbana y un Plan Maestro de Centro Histórico de la ciudad de Huancayo, que regenere procesos de renovación urbana.
Source: World Urban Forum

Platform of Cities Ecosystems

The Urban Ecology Lab proposes a research project in a partnership with the Council of Architecture and Urbanism of Santa Catarina (CAU/SC) through a collaboration agreement between the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) and CAU/SC. Its main objective is to organize a multidisciplinary network of researchers through a platform that fosters the resilience of cities in the Santa Catarina State, and in the future, of Brazil, based on a systemic and transdisciplinary approach to environmental regeneration associated with ensuring quality of life and reducing inequalities. This wide network of researchers linked to universities, technical entities and public agents should encourage the production, organization, systematization and monitoring of data related to urban dynamics – socioeconomic and environmental – of cities in Santa Catarina and in the future in Brazil. The initial studies for the Platform listed 14 preliminary thematic axes to support integrated solutions for projects and proposals for urban space. The 14 preliminary thematic axes are: water; community; consumption and disposal; economy; ecosystems; education; energy; equity; governance; mobility; housing; health and wellness; natural soil; and environmental vulnerability. The collaborative platform should allow the connection with other networks, observatories and platforms, and will consist of scientific, technical and other publications prepared by civil society, systematized at the intersection between the broad thematic axes, and that demonstrate the potential of contributions that associate positive impacts on several of these areas simultaneously. The proposal aims to assist local municipalities to develop urbanization plans that promotes a synergy among several governmental areas, usually fragmented, sharing mutual benefits. Therefore, the impact is measured by the implementation of such changes in their urbanization plans.
Source: World Urban Forum