Supporting sustainable and resilient societies in urban and rural areas

Stakeholders, experts, practitioners and policy-makers from all over the world are invited to engage in a global dialogue on specific aspects of the 2018 ECOSOC theme of "From global to local: supporting sustainable and resilient societies in urban and rural communities". The 2018 e-Discussion will provide the Economic and Social Council with suggestions and recommendations on how to best address implementation challenges of the new Agenda, with a special focus on the national level.

If the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is to be truly transformative – an Agenda “of the people, for the people, and by the people” – it needs to be implemented and fully realized at the local level. It is at the local level where it can most directly and positively impact people’s lives. One of the biggest paradigm changes emerging from the Agenda is its emphasis on the promotion of integrated solutions to complex development challenges. The local spheres remain, for the vast majority of men and women, the most accessible level of engagement with public authority and state institutions. Local governments stand in a unique position to identify and respond to development needs and gaps and be responsible for a wide range of functional responsibilities that go beyond basic service provision. But local governments cannot succeed on their own. They need to engage the private sector, civil society organizations and academia to assist in transforming the global goals into local realities, while coordinating with all other levels of governance.

As we are in the third year of implementing the SDGs and the second year of the New Urban Agenda. It is important that Governments (local, sub-national and national), Civil Society, private sector, academia and development partners make a critical review of what has been, and what remains to be, accomplished.

To take this discussion forward, we propose the following two questions:

• What are the current and emerging challenges to building sustainable and resilient societies and what actions can be taken, especially at the local level to address these challenges?

• How are national and subnational institutions translating the sustainable development goals into concrete actions? What institutional frameworks for sustainable development are required, and how can they be built?

We encourage all participants to share concrete national and subnational examples, lessons learned and experiences to feed into policy recommendations and guidance for the 2018 ECOSOC substantive session and beyond.

Please check out the event website and join the discussion.

Source: UNDESA, UNDP