“Ask the UN Sign the Pact for the Future”

An annual meeting of the most active members of the World Organization "United Cities and Local Governments" and its main partners took place from February 20 to 24. It is traditionally held in Barcelona under the name “Retreat”. The purpose of the event was to discuss actions that local and regional governments can take to implement the policies of the organization.

The first two days were actively attended by staffers of regional sections and partner organizations. The main topic for discussion was the implementation of the Pact for the Future, which was adopted last October during the UCLG World Congress in South Korea. It is based on three pillars: people, planet, governments. Among its main objectives are to achieve equity, multilevel dialogue, biodiversity and environmental sustainability. Representatives of local and regional governments and international organizations presented their ideas for the implementation of the Pact for the Future and its basic tenets: "We Care", "We Meet", "We Learn", "We Listen", "We Research", and "We Act".

Rasikh Sagitov, Secretary General of UCLG-Eurasia, spoke in the direction of “we learn”:

“Today we can say with confidence that UCLG has achieved its earlier goal of being a learning organization. We, as the Eurasia section, highly appreciate and actively use learning modules prepared by the World Organization on the Sustainable Development Goals, resilience and decentralized cooperation”, said Rasikh Sagitov.

Participants of Retreat also took part in interactive activities that allowed them to share their vision of achieving the Pact's goals.

"UCLG is a facilitator of the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals locally, thereby promoting the Agenda 2030 adopted by the UN. Now let ask the UN sign the Pact for the Future and become a partner with the UCLG in advancing it!" - José Manuel Ribeiro, Mayor of Valongo (Portugal), came up with an ambitious idea.

Retreat was held in a hybrid format. About three hundred representatives of local and regional governments, staffers of regional sections, and representatives of international organizations participated in person. These included ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability), C40 (Cities Climate Leadership Group), FMDV (Global Fund for Cities Development), UN-Habitat, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) and others.

The signing of a memorandum of understanding between the UCLG and the World Blind Union (WBU) deserves special attention. The WBU, one of the founders of the International Disability Alliance, is a global organization representing approximately 253 million blind or visually impaired people. The agreement is designed to strengthen and enhance the partnership between the two organizations, to ensure the active and meaningful participation of people with disabilities in the development and implementation of urban policies, and to remove all kinds of barriers.

27.02.2023

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