Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am happy to join President of GA and President of ECOSOC in welcoming you to this fifth edition of the annual Local and Regional Governments Forum, which is organized as a special event in connection with the 2022 UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. I am especially happy to be able to greet you in person, here at the UN Headquarters.
On behalf of UN DESA, I would like to start by recognizing our partners from the Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments, UN-Habitat, UNDP and Local 2030. We started this collaboration five years ago and I am proud of the consolidation of our joint efforts to support and promote the engagement of local and regional governments in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The world has been experiencing multiple and interlinked crises that are directly impacting progress towards the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, putting the entire achievement of the 2030 Agenda at risk.
Since 2020, the world has been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and consequent health emergency. More than six million people have died from the disease and millions more have suffered as a consequence of the strain placed on health care services.
The most vulnerable people are still not adequately protected. Many of our children are still out of school and many women have been cut off from job markets and subjected to physical, psychological and sexual violence.
Rising inflation, major supply-chain disruptions and unsustainable debt frameworks in developing countries, have hindered global economic growth and socioeconomic equality within and among countries -- a challenge compounded by the growing geopolitical tensions and conflict across the globe
Today, approximately 2 billion people live in conflict-affected countries, facing situations of humanitarian distress. The recent conflict in Ukraine has provoked the largest refugee crisis of modern time. In addition, food, fuel and fertilizer prices have skyrocketed, unsettling financial markets and negatively impacting development aid.
Moreover, climate change continues to affect the whole world and transitions to green economies, urgently needed, are still facing many disruptions. We will witness a climate catastrophe unless we all work together to take immediate action.
Ladies and gentlemen,
During these extremely challenging times, local and regional governments around the world have been at the forefront of action, responding to the pandemic and its impacts and tirelessly working to ensure the provision of key public services, including basic health, housing, education, clean energy and water, among others.
We have witnessed strong partnerships emerging at local level, and between local, regional and national levels that have kept the SDG implementation at the forefront of public policies. We have learned about some of them during the virtual segment of this Special Event, held last week.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
An analysis of the Voluntary National Reviews presented by Member States at the HLPF over the last several years has shown that, in many instances, the implementation of the SDGs relies on the concrete application of programmes and policies at the local level.
In this context, it is encouraging to see how the practice of carrying out local and subnational reviews - also known as the Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs) - has been increasing, embraced by local and subnational governments. Recent research shows that, between 2020 and 2021, the total number of VLRs available worldwide doubled, from approximately 40 VLRs in June 2020 to more than 100 in June 2021.
We are also tracking how VLRs are increasingly being prepared not only by capitals and large cities, but also by provinces, states, districts and small cities, including in rural areas. Member States are also increasingly benefiting from the insights brought by VLRs to identify ideas and approaches that can be scaled up at national level to support SDG implementation.
Voluntary Local Reviews have proven useful to drive localization and accelerate SDG implementation. They can also serve as a remarkable collection of concrete examples of lessons learned and successful experiences.
The value of VLRs has been increasingly recognized at international level, for example in the Ministerial declaration of the 2021 HLPF, and by the Secretary-General in his report entitled “Our Common Agenda”.
For the past few years, UN DESA has been actively supporting local and regional governments to develop their VLRs. In 2020, we made available the Global Guiding Elements for VLRs, a guidance document for conducting VLRs. We have also organized a series of online capacity-building workshops for cities and regions conducting VLRs, bringing together colleagues from all over the world. Since last year, we have also been working with national and local governments, as well as UN system colleagues, to support the preparation of Voluntary Local Reviews in interested countries including the Gambia, Paraguay and Zimbabwe.
I invite you to review the online platform set up by UN DESA to compile and showcase those VLRs.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Local and regional authorities can be formidable engines of environmental, economic and social transformation.
Solutions to the many complex challenges our world is facing must be holistic and involve all of us.
I am sure we will be very inspired by the discussions today.
Thank you!