President of UCLG-Eurasia Took the Floor at the UNGA

Ilsur Metshin, Mayor of Kazan, President of UCLG-Eurasia, is taking part in the UN High-level week.

Within the frameworks of the 74^th session of the UN General Assembly a number of high-level meetings are taking place. On September 24-25, 2019, the Local and Regional Governments’ Forum is held. This is the second edition of the Forum that is held due to the close cooperation between the UN and UCLG. Thanks to the partnership of the two world organizations, local governments have the opportunity to take a floor there along with the leaders of national governments.

It is important to note that Ilsur Metshin is the only speaker from the Eurasian region. Among the participants of the event are Maimunah Mohd Sharif, Executive Director of the UN-Habitat Programme, Ada Colau, Mayor of Barcelona, Bill Peduto, Mayor of Pittsburgh, Tri Rismaharini, Mayor of Surabaya, President of UCLG ASPAC, Evgeniia Lodvigova, Vice-Mayor of Kazan, Rasikh Sagitov, Secretary General of UCLG-Eurasia, etc.

In his speech, Ilsur Metshin told about the initiative of UCLG-Eurasia to build partnerships with national and regional associations of local governments. The aim of the partnership is to hold training workshops for local and regional leaders on the practical understanding of the SDGs and how to integrate the Sustainable Development Goals into the daily work of the municipalities.

An important step in the implementation of the SDGs at all levels of government, according to the mayor of Kazan, is the synchronization of efforts of local and national governments of Russia in preparing a voluntary national review on the SDGs achievement. UCLG-Eurasia and a number of regional associations of local authorities were included in the commission for the preparation of the report.

Describing the achievements of UCLG-Eurasia, Ilsur Metshin gave the examples of the implemented projects in the field of SDGs in member cities of the Eurasia Regional Section.

Thus, one of the striking examples of achieving the SDG 3 “Good Health and Well-being” is the initiative of Nur-Sultan to open medical outpatient clinics. The project will help provide citizens with a 20-minute walking distance from family health centers.

In Ulaanbaatar, special attention is paid to the implementation of the SDG 5 “Gender Equality”. In the capital of Mongolia was created a business incubator for women where for four months they are trained to run a specific business, and then are given access to the sales market.

In order to improve the environment, the municipal transport of Yakutsk will become natural gas powered. The cities of the Astrakhan region, the Republic of Dagestan and the Republic of Tatarstan held training workshops on the Sendai Framework.

The mayor’s speech was specially focused on the fact that waste sorting classes were introduced in Kazan schools. Since 2016, more than 25 thousand pupils have taken part in them.

“Of course, we can cast a doubt on what city-wide school lessons mean for the global Agenda. But what if this small project is distributed in many cities of the world? Thus, we will bring up a generation of residents for whom a responsible attitude to waste will be completely natural. This will be a tremendous contribution to the sustainable future of our planet!”, Mayor of Kazan noted.

The UN High-level week is held at the UN’s headquarters from September 24 to 30, 2019. During this period, various events are organized there, including the SDGs Summit. Among the participants of the event are heads the UN member states, business community and civil society.

Local and regional governments participate in the Summit to share best practices, explore challenges and develop recommendations to achieve the SDGs.

Photocredits to kzn.ru

25.09.2019

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