Localizing the 2030 Agenda: People Connecting Development and Peace​​

West Africa is at an important crossroads. The region has tremendous potential to advance in peace and sustainable development. It has demonstrated unique capacities for prevention and response, including in The Gambia where the country averted potential instability following the elections in 2017, and Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, countries that successfully overcame the Ebola crisis. It is a region where current peace and development gains need to be protected and the people creating positive change need to be supported.​​

At the center of this initiative, an Exchange Forum entitled: “Localizing the 2030 Agenda: Building on What Works” took place on 27-29 October 2019 in Banjul, The Gambia, the Forum—the first of its kind in the sub-region—aimed to stimulate an exchange of ideas on accelerating the SDGs at the local level amongst a diverse group of leaders from national governments and municipal authorities, to the UN system, bilateral and regional entities, entrepreneurs and local champions from Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Senegal, and Sierra Leone.​​

The key objectives of the programme are to: (i) gain awareness of existing transformative initiatives by local champions across sub-region that are addressing key obstacles to sustainable development at the local level; (ii) generate potential partnerships among national, regional, bilateral and multilateral partners and local champions to scale up successful initiatives; and (iii) enable policymakers and UN officials at the global level to gain a practical understanding on how to operationalize the SDGs at the local level through the application of human security.

KEY MATERIALS
Programme Summary​
IPI Policy Report: Localizing the 2030 Agenda in West Africa: Building on What Works ​[English]​[French]