17.05.2016

Local and regional governments convene at the Second World Assembly toward Habitat III

On 15 May, local and regional governments and networks from around the world convened at the first session of the Second World Assembly of Local and Regional Governments in New York City to provide input into the United Nations Habitat III Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development.

This meeting was the first in the three-part Second World Assembly series organized by the Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments. The World Assembly is the mechanism through which the local and regional government constituency will participate in the Habitat III process and shape the New Urban Agenda to guide global urban development over the coming decades.

Gino Van Begin, Secretary General of ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, and Maimunah Mohd Sharif, Municipal President of the Municipal Council of Seberang Perai, Malaysia and Member of the ICLEI Global Executive Committee, delivered interventions at the Second World Assembly.

Through their remarks, Van Begin and Maimunah welcomed the Zero Draft of the New Urban Agenda, noting that its ambitious agenda needs further strengthening through implementation mechanisms that will effectively transform the global urban agenda.

The Zero Draft is particularly strong in that it:

• Establishes an inclusive and innovative Habitat III consultation process;

• Introduces new and innovative concepts around urban development, including the right-to-the-city and the need for a territorial approach and increased metropolitan governance; and
• Includes a number of stakeholder proposals, such as reserving 20 percent of national budgets to local governments, the adoption of United Nations Decade for Sustainable Urbanization and the establishment of an International Multi-Stakeholder Panel on Sustainable Urbanization.

ICLEI also called for a stronger Zero Draft that:

• Ensures Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 on cities as well as urban dimensions of the other SDGs are strongly anchored in the New Urban Agenda;
• Outlines national commitments and specifies concrete mechanisms for implementing the New Urban Agenda; and
• Empowers local and regional governments with sufficient resources and capacity to foster a multilevel, holistic and integrated approach to sustainability.

Maimunah will also deliver remarks on 17 May at the Habitat III Informal Hearings for Local Authorities.

More information

The full response from ICLEI to the Habitat III Zero Draft is available here. 

A webcast of the Second World Assembly is available on UN Web TV.

For day 1 coverage from the Informal Hearings for Local Authorities, please visit IISD Reporting Services.

Follow the #Listen2Cities campaign to see what local and regional governments and their networks are saying about Habitat III.

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