4. Progress on goals and targets: bolstering local action to accelerate implementation

4. Progress on goals and targets: bolstering local action to accelerate

Implementation

The examples of LRG actions included in Section 4 were collected by the different members of the GTF and particularly by: ARE, C40, CLGF, ICLEI, Regions4 and UCLG. The GTF would also like to acknowledge UN-Habitat and UNDP for sharing their data sources and selected case studies.

In his report to the HLPF in 2020, the UN Secretary-General again underlined, in reference to the SDGs, that “the world is not on track to deliver by 2030”.1 He also added that the magnitude of the impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic even threatens the progress made so far. “All of this underscores the need for international solidarity and cooperation more than ever before”, stated the UN Secretary-General.

As shown in the previous Section, and in many reports, LRGs and their organizations are strongly committed to accelerating the delivery of the SDGs and their related agendas (the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the Sendai Framework for Action for Disaster Risk Reduction, and the New Urban Agenda) through increasing their involvement efforts to promote localization.2

Urbanization is increasingly acknowledged as one of the megatrends shaping the future of our societies. Urban areas are the places where opportunities to foster economic prosperity, social inclusion, and low-carbon and more resilient societies are most concentrated. As a result, in the majority of recent UN reports, and particularly in the UN Global Sustainable Development Report 2019, the role of cities and of urban development has been identified as one of the six key “entry points” via which to accelerate the transformative development pathways. They have also highlighted the unique and crucial role that LRGs have played in this process.3 Indeed, their contributions have also been decisive in facilitating the progress made in all the other five entry points as well as in activating many of the “levers”, particularly relating to governance, financing and collective action. The COVID-19 crisis has also brought local authorities to the forefront in order to help their communities. Indeed, their responses will help to reshape our future.

In order to accelerate the implementation of the SDGs, alternative approaches are currently being implemented—by national governments, international institutions, and LRGs themselves— to measure the progress that has been made in cities and at the subnational level in general. The available analyses show a sharp contrast between cities and LRGs in the global North and in the global South.4 In the former (Europe and the United States), sources indicate that cities are making progress, even though greater efforts will be needed to achieve many of the SDGs. This will particularly apply to the environmental SDGs (12 and 13) and to SDG 10, given the inequalities in US cities and other cities.5 By contrast, in the global South, with relatively few exceptions, progress has generally been modest and some setbacks have been observed.6 In the Asian region, for example, UNESCAP considers that no subregion has made adequate progress along the urban and periurban development transformative area to meet the SDGs and has underlined some of the setbacks experienced in South and South West Asia.7 In Africa, UNECA also qualify the progress made as “varied and at best modest”.8 In Latin America and the Caribbean, UNECLAC considers that, despite improvements, cities are suffering and that there has been insufficient progress to overcome the main challenges.9

Following the approach adopted for the HLPF assessment in 2020, this Section will summarize and highlight initiatives promoted by LRGs that have contributed to the different entry points under assessment. This Section is introduced by Subsection 4.1, which will provide an overview of the responses developed by LRGs to deal with the exceptional circumstances created by the COVID-19 crisis, which have radically transformed the global situation. It is followed by Subsection 4.2, which will introduce a brief selection of initiatives undertaken by LRGs for “Urban and periurban development”. It will also examine these initiatives within a much broader context. The rest of this Section will focus on LRG initiatives that have contributed to: “Advancing human wellbeing and ending hunger” (Subsection 4.3); “Protecting the planet and building resilience; and ensuring access to sustainable energy” (Subsection 4.4); and “Sharing economic benefits” (Subsection 4.5). The examples presented underline the role of the LRG networks, and particularly the forces assembled at the GTF, which are crucial for propelling city-to-city and region-to-region exchanges. They also play a key role in supporting the localization of the Global Agendas and establishing partnerships between national and subnational levels of government, international institutions and other stakeholders.10