Eurasia Regional Section of the World organization "United Cities and Local Governments"
Eurasia Regional Section of the World organization "United Cities and Local Governments"
On June 24, 2021, the city of Yakutsk (Russia) hosted the introductory seminar "Localizing the Sustainable Development Goals", as part of the Eurasia Local and Regional Governments Congress. This event was attended by representatives of local and regional governments of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).
The seminar aimed to raise awareness of the United Nations’ global agendas and the Sustainable Development Goals among participants. The program of the seminar was based on the training modules developed by the World Organization "United Cities and Local Governments", the United Nations Development Program and UN-Habitat.
The seminar was organized by UCLG-Eurasia, the Government of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and the Administration of Yakutsk.
At the beginning of the event, Project Coordinator of UCLG-Eurasia and moderator of the seminar, Tansylu Nurieva, presented the general information on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals.
The participants of the seminar got acquainted with such a notion as “localization of the Sustainable Development Goals” and its significance for cities and regions. Particular attention was paid to Goal 11 “Sustainable Cities and Human Settlements” and its linkage with other Sustainable Development Goals. It is important to note that this goal was included in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development on the initiative of the World Organization “United Cities and Local Governments”. During the workshop, it was emphasized that local action is essential for achieving sustainable development around the world, and that aligning urban development programs with the Sustainable Development Goals can improve the quality of life for citizens.
The participants of the workshop were presented projects of Eurasia cities in the field of localizing the Sustainable Development Goals. Among them were the Northern Sustainable Development Forum, which is held annually in the city of Yakutsk and serves as a platform for discussing the opportunities and challenges of sustainable development, socio-economic and ethnocultural development of northern regions. The Forum promotes a cross-country dialogue on the Arctic agenda. It was noted that this initiative is a contribution to the implementation mainly of Sustainable Development Goals 17 “Partnership for Sustainable Development” and 13 “Climate change”. The participants also got acquainted with the projects implemented by such cities as Yekaterinburg, Volgograd, Cheboksary, Perm, Rostov-on-Don, Ulyanovsk (Russia), Nur-Sultan (Kazakhstan), Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia).
A small online survey was conducted among the participants. According to its results, Sustainable Development Goals such as SDG 3 "Good health and well-being", SDG 6 "Clean water and sanitation", SDG 8 "Decent work and economic growth”and SDG 11“ Sustainable cities and human settlements” were selected as priority ones for the cities.
During the seminar, the participants also learned about activities of UCLG-Eurasia related to the implementation of global agendas, as well as the experience of its engagement in the preparation of the Voluntary National Review of the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in Russia.
At the end of the seminar, the participants were presented with a list of recommended literature that included publications of the United Nations, the World Organization and the Eurasia Section of UCLG.
30.06.2021
