Local and Regional Governments contributions to the 2020 HLPF
Local and regional governments gathered under the Global Taskforce constituency, including Regions4, have contributed its position paper to the 2020 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, to be held on 7-16 July at the UN Headquarters in New York (further details available soon).
In the midst of the COVID-19 global emergency, the LRG have raised their voice to highlight the role that public service provision has played to address the pandemic and how peer-learning and decentralized cooperation between LRG are key mechanisms to address the window of opportunity to bend the curve of the current unsustainable trajectory.
The current global crisis has shown again that all development agendas need to be addressed as one, with coordinated localization between all levels of government and stakeholders at its core. Incorporating the 2030 Agenda into local and regional plans and policies, and rooting the implementation of the universal agendas into local and regional plans, and policies, is key to develop a new framework of governance that communities can adopt as their own.
Furthermore, as localization of the SDGs varies widely across countries it is critical to revise the strategies to mobilize and involve LRGs in the Voluntary National Review (VNR) processes. In particular, LRG call for local and gender disaggregated data that will enhance ownership of the goals with a bottom-up approach and communities at their core.
LRG also call on the international system to promote the necessary reforms tostrengthen local and regional resources and to create spaces to discuss governance mechanisms together with adequate regulatory frameworks that allow for the alignment of national, regional and local plans, in order to finally unlock the means of implementation for LRGs to carry out the global goals.
Finally, the constituency acknowledges the steps being taken to empower and support cities and regions, and the inclusion of themes -such as climate adaptation, biodiversity conservation, and urban-rural linkages within the HLPF, and reiterates their commitment to the universal development agendas, and to the promotion of Voluntary Local and Regional Reviews.
Read the full position paper here.
