4th Session - Forum of Mayors 2026

Good afternoon, colleagues. Can you please take your seats as we are about to begin the final session of the sixth meeting of the United Nations Forum of Mayors. I hope you had a nice lunch break with productive talks with the representatives of international organizations during the side event held over the break. I am pleased to co-moderate the first thematic topic of this afternoon, namely sustainable, adequate, and affordable housing, together with Ms. Jalehah Binti Jamaluddin, Mayor of Hulu Selangor, Malaysia. We have an important program ahead of us this afternoon, beginning with one of the most pressing challenges facing cities around the world. ensuring access to sustainable, adequate and affordable housing. Housing is at the heart of sustainable urban development. It is closely linked to affordability, social inclusion, access to services and infrastructure, resilience, and the overall quality of life of our citizens. Mayor Jamaluddin, would you like to say some words?

Thank you very much, Councillor Tony. It is my great pleasure to be here and to co-moderate this important discussion with the Vice Chair of the UN Forum of Mayors, Councillor Tony. This discussion will focus specifically on SDG 11.1, which calls for ensuring access for all to adequate safe and affordable housing, basic services, and upgrading slums. For us as local leaders, this is a particularly important issue, as housing is closely linked to the well-being and quality of life of our communities. I am now pleased to welcome Mr. Ralph Toots, Director of the Global Solutions Division at UN-Habitat, who will introduce the topic and provide us with a global perspective. Mr. Toots, you have the floor.

Thank you very much, co-moderators, for inviting UN-Habitat to this important panel. I'm very happy to be here with you the last two days to see this vibrant forum of mayors taking shape. And, you know, cities are indeed at the forefront of the global housing challenge, the global housing crisis, and that's where the pressures on affordability, on growth, on displacement, on informality and the demographic change and climate risk are experienced most directly, but it's also the places where the solutions, many of the solutions, are developed and implemented. Next. So let me take you through some of the numbers. And we have, earlier this year, at the World Urban Forum 13 in Baku, we launched the World Cities Report, which had the topic of the global housing crisis, pathways to action. And it was fully dedicated to bringing evidence and lessons about housing policy and practice. And one of the basic facts of this report is that up to 3.4 billion people lack access to adequate housing, according to the United Nations definitions of different deprivations of housing. And at the same time, the shortage of housing has grown from about 201 million units in 2010 to 268 million units in 2023. So it's a crisis that is becoming more acute as we speak. Next. So this report is also showing some promising practices by cities. They are part of the solution, together with other levels of government. And they have, the report is ensuring that the local knowledge by the cities is matched by policy, regulatory, and financial tools that they need to shape housing outcomes. And particularly three cases I would like to highlight here. One is on Johannesburg, use of inclusionary housing requirements. Then Puerto Rico, Canio Martin Pena Community Land Trust. And third, the municipal housing bonds in Chicago, which is on financing affordable rental housing, home repairs, and responses to homelessness. So these are some of the examples, and there are many, many more examples, as you know, that can be celebrated as a response to the global housing crisis. Next. tool that we have, apart from the World Urban Forum and this Global Report, is direct support, and particularly, we see work in this particular region, in Bishkek, in Kyrgyzstan, Chisinau in Moldova, and Samarkand in Uzbekistan, on housing profiles, building the evidence translating the evidence into stronger policies and action, also including institutional capabilities for addressing some of the systemic issues that are in the housing systems at the city level. And they look beyond the production of housing. They go into affordability, demographic change, Look at land, infrastructure, regulations, finance, and look at which challenges the municipalities can address themselves and which need national action. Next. So to close this implementation gap, the big message of this report, but also of the session today, is that cities have a role to play, but they cannot definitely not solve the housing crisis alone in their city. And it identifies, this report that I've mentioned, identifies that local authorities are expected to manage this growth, deliver services, reduce risks, often without sufficient fiscal space, technical capacity, or control over the investments that are happening. So we need, apart from the different measures that we could do, we need stronger multi-level governance, more predictable finance, and sustained technical support. And one of the elements is also data. Part of this equation, the Global Urban Data Coalition, which UN-Habitat is leading with many UN entities and other partners, is working on strengthening the evidence that cities and governments need to understand their housing needs, identify the gaps, and make better decisions. Next. So let me now say a few words on how this links with the bigger picture on local and regional government, since we're here in the Forum of Mayors. And this message about mayors and housing was reinforced in July. at the high-level political forum in the ministerial declaration that recognizes the strengthening of local and regional governments in SDG implementation. And also, it explicitly recognizes the role of the Local 2030 Coalition, which is a UN initiative that I explain a little bit later in this context. And this is something that gives us hope for the future. It also connects very much to the Pact for the Future, where Action 55E is calling for stronger engagement with local and regional authorities. And maybe the time is not right right now to transform this into major institutional changes in the United Nations, but at least the foundation is there, the promise is there that this needs to be addressed, and I think this Forum of Mayors is a very, very good stepping stone to this. Next. So a few more words about this Local 2030 Coalition. And this matters because the global commitments need to be need to respond to local aspirations and realities, because these global commitments will continue to be implemented at the level of territories, cities, and communities. And the Local 2030 Coalition, which is currently co-chaired by UN-Habitat and UNECE, we have had UNDP, FAO as previous co-chairs, and we are channeling the UN system capacities, strengthening UN system capacities to use localization as an accelerator for the sustainable development goals. Next slide. This coalition works through advocacy, action, capacity development, and monitoring. It has its secretariat in the beautiful and dynamic city of Bilbao in Spain, and in fact, the support to this coalition is a very good example of multi-level governments with the government of Spain, the Basque country, and the city of Bilbao, and some bank institutions of the city coming together to support this coalition. So it's an example of, I think, how the future should look like. And we are looking forward that this local 2030 coalition and the philosophy of localization and underpinning sustainable development could be, well, one of the foundations for the future principles of beyond 2030, because we see that without localization, the implementation of whatever sustainable development framework will be very difficult. Next slide, and this is the last substantive slide. I just want to make sure that you are aware that we have currently, an open-ended working group on housing. This is an expert group where member states of the United Nations nominate experts on housing. And this group, so we have currently, I think, 100 and, sorry, 97 countries that have nominated experts, and they meet once a year in Nairobi. They discuss topics like security of tenure, homelessness this year, integrated housing policies, and the sustainability dimension and resilience dimension of housing. It's a very important, it's the first ever intergovernmental body that is working on the topic of housing, and we have a mandate until 2029 when we need to, the open-ended working group, we need to project recommendations to our assembly, and these are global recommendations about how to alleviate and come out of this housing crisis, but of course, we don't wait until 2029, and this session and many other initiatives are already trying to put some of these recommendations into practice. So I'm really looking forward, next slide, to hearing from you. What are your experiences? What is working well in your cities? What are the barriers related to housing? and what needs to be changed at the national level to give you and so both local and regional governments the tools to act. Thank you very much, I'm looking forward to a productive session.

Thank you, Mr. Toose. That was very informative and very comprehensive. We are going to move straight to the floor to open up for questions. I just want to reiterate, this is a very important subject, and we're expecting a lot of people to want to speak. So we also have less time than we've had in previous sessions. So can you please keep to the two minutes? I do have a hammer, and I'm not afraid to use it. OK, first of all, I am going to read out the guiding questions to facilitate interpretation. So, first, what policies, programs, or investments has your city implemented to improve housing affordability, address homelessness, expand access to adequate housing, and upgrade informal settlements? What measurable results have they achieved? Number two. What are the main challenges your city faces in planning, financing, and implementing affordable housing and informal settlement upgrading? And what innovative financing mechanisms, land management approaches, partnerships, or other solutions have helped address them? Three. How is your city ensuring that housing policies are inclusive and responsive to the needs of women, youth, older persons, persons with disabilities, migrants, low-income households, and other vulnerable groups? How are housing policies integrated with land management, transport, climate resilience, energy efficiency and sustainable urban development? And then number four, how does your city use urban data, geospatial information, digital technologies, and community participation to identify housing needs, monitor progress, and strengthen evidence-based and inclusive housing policies? And finally, what successful policies, tools and partnership models from your city could be replicated elsewhere? And where would your city benefit from peer-to-peer cooperation, technical exchange and partnerships with other cities and stakeholders? And first of all, we'll go to the city of Cork.

Thank you very much, Chair. Damien Boylan, Lord Mayor of Cork. Cork City Council pioneered the use of the competitive dialogue procurement process to deliver its housing programme. The council has used this process to deliver affordable social and right-sizing homes. In terms of the new affordable sales scheme, Cork City Council have led the way and were the first local authority to implement the scheme, working both with the developer and with schemes on Cork City Council-owned land to provide affordable homes for those throughout Cork City where demand is closely monitored. Cork City Council Housing Delivery Section will deliver 450 sales of affordable homes by quarter four of 2026. will surpass the target set of 378 by the Department as part of the 2022-2026 Affordable Housing Programme. Cork City Council has ensured a geographical spread of units both north and south of the city. The affordable units offered are high-quality A-rated properties, mainly two and three bed units, working in conjunction with developers in developing schemes on City Council-owned land. A number of further affordable schemes are currently being developed as part of our future pipeline as we look to continue to provide affordable homes to meet our targets for the new housing plan up to 2030. Affordable units have been shown to be very popular among those working in health service jobs, education and others on moderate incomes, allowing them to enter the property market. Our two-bedroom units have proven very popular with single applicants, addressing a change in the societal demographic. Also, the homes are very popular with young families who begin their property ladder. As part of the affordable landscape in Cork City, affordable rental properties known as cost rentals are being delivered at scale by both the Land Development Agency and a number of approved housing bodies in conjunction with Cork City Council. There is a very large future pipeline helping to make rental properties more affordable for those not yet wishing in a position to purchase and to rent high quality properties, including houses and apartments, in both suburban and city centre locations. There are well over 1,000 cost rental units in the pipeline under construction, which will contribute enormously to addressing the shortage of more affordable rental units in Cork City. The construction costs are subsidised by the State to allow the units to be rented at a more affordable rent for those within specific income thresholds. Dork City Council, working in conjunction with the approved housing body sector and with the Land Development Agency, ensure these units are delivered where they are needed in the city and its outskirts. The message is: local authorities can deliver once we get the funding.

Thank you, Mayor. May I now invite Edinburgh to speak?

Thank you very much. The more I hear from people attending this event, the more I discover that we have in common, and housing is one of the many things, the many challenges that we have, that we face in common. Just to give you an idea of the scope of the problem in Edinburgh, we need approximately between 36,000 and 52,000 additional homes between 2021 and 2040. There's a shortage, a significant shortage of social housing, that together with house prices and private rents going up astronomically. Our response to this was to declare a housing emergency in 2023 and establishing a housing emergency action plan focused on increasing supply, which is the fundamental root of the problem, preventing homelessness, which is a consequence of the problem, and reliance on expensive temporary accommodation. So we are delivering a new local housing strategy for 2025-2030. covering social housing, private renting, homelessness, housing quality, affordability, etc., etc., including climate-related priorities. We're increasing the affordable housing supply, and our strategic housing investment plan identifies an aspirational pipeline of 8,040 affordable homes for approval over the next five years. But compared to the scale of what we actually need. This is a drop in the ocean. We've used planning powers to secure affordable homes by including our city plan includes an identification of land for approximately 53,000 homes with a policy expectation that new developments provide at least 35% affordable housing. I could talk forever about this issue, and I'm looking at the time constraints, so I won't, but another key priority for us is to work in partnership with, in this case, housing associations, and also to some extent with the, in our case, Scottish Government, because only by working together can we resolve the problems. Thank you.

Thank you, Edinburgh. And we now move to Luxembourg, and I give the floor to S. Sirzad Zed.

Dear Chair, dear colleagues, you might think that as mayor of Luxembourg's second largest city, I enjoy a privileged position thanks to resources and the manageable size of our city. But believe me, when it comes to housing, many of us face the same challenges. Having a place to call home and living with dignity should not be a privilege. Yet, in Luxembourg, as elsewhere, housing has become one of the major social challenges of our time. Over the past 15 years, the price of building land has more than doubled. Nearly 15% of our population is at risk of poverty. Among tenants, this figure raises up to 24%. And among the poorest 20% of our population, one in four people faces excessive housing costs. Behind these figures are families who struggle every month to make ends meet. As mayors, we feel this social pressure directly in our communities. Faced with this situation, our cities must act. In Nash, we have made three concrete commitments. First, to double our municipal housing stock within six years, ensuring more affordable housing in the long term. Second, to work with private developers to purchase up to 30% of the homes in new housing projects, if prices are reasonable, of course. And third, to make more municipal land available for the construction of affordable housing. And let us not forget that housing crisis is also about jobs. In our city, where a significant number of people work in the construction sector, It is also the city's duty to back this one. Dear colleagues, I am convinced that in cities we have the courage, the pragmatism and the political will needed to take action. Let us put these qualities at the service of our citizens. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. May I now invite Quinta Normal, Santiago?

Much appreciated. Thank you once again for this opportunity, and just remind you, i am the mayor of Quinta Normal, a town in the province of Santiago de Chile, in Chile. This is a very important issue for us, but in Chile, i would say that both in the Congress and in the National Congress, the programs have been managed, programs to address housing emergency, especially with regards to people looking for houses or homes nationwide. We joined, I became there five years ago and we had to deal with a serious housing problem. And we have housing areas, well, areas that have problems with housing are called encampamento, and we did have none when I started. Now, we worked for a year on matters and everything that was done, working with the family, relocating families, relocating their pets, and also supporting the families, all of this was done to address the housing crisis. And the fact is, what is important, does it yield results? It does. What we did in our town was replicated elsewhere. At least 10 mayor's offices replicated what we did in Quinta Normal. We have been driving forward an important project called Ciudad Mapocho. We had a very large company that existed in our town, and it relocated abroad and sold the land where it was located. That's around four hectares, together with two other hectares that belong to the state. So the total of six hectares are going to be, well, all of them bought by the state and now going to be reorganised within a town-led project, not only for homes, but also for private services. It's a national pilot project, and our hope is that it will be successful and will add value today to a land, land which is totally abandoned. And so we really hope to take advantage of it. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Quintao Normao. And we now move to Colombo.

Thank you. Dear Excellencies, a home is more than a building. It is a basic need, a source of dignity, and a foundation for better life. In Colombo, Many low-income families need safe and affordable housing, but providing homes is not easy. One major challenge is that local governments have limited financial resources and limited ways to build homes and allow families to pay for them in affordable monthly installments. This also creates barriers to mixed development projects. where public land can be used for housing, modern markets, parking, and public facilities together. We believe that public land should create public value. It should help people find better homes while improving the city. To achieve this, We need stronger partnerships between the national government, local authorities, private investors, and international development partners. We need suitable financing, fair agreements, and housing programs that allow low-income families to pay over time without unfair financial burden. Most importantly, families must have a voice in decisions that affect their homes and their future. Our goal is not simply to build more houses. It is to create communities where people can live with dignity, security, and opportunity. Let us work together to turn public land into lasting public benefits and make affordable housing a real reality for everyone. Thank you.

Thank you, Colombo. May I now invite Kosice, Slovakia? My apology for mispronunciation. May I have the floor?

Thank you. City of Kosice is fourth least affordable market in Europe, according to Deloitte Property Index 2025. It requires residents to spend 14.2 years of annual salary to purchase a standard 70 square meter apartment. On top of that, almost 25% of citizens of our region are at risk of poverty situation. How is our municipality answering to this challenge? Approximately 3% of all flats and houses in the city is owned by municipality. They are dedicated to senior housing, emergency housing, social housing, and housing first principle. In previous years, we started to implement several approaches to gain more units into our portfolio. We are smart asset management solutions. For sustainable urban development project and tools, we are searching for objects that are already owned by the city to convert them from previous functions into housing. We select several city-owned plots around the city to bring them into the common limited company with Vienna VBG organization, which is responsible for affordable housing projects in Vienna for more than 120 years. With their expertise and resources, we are planning to build and add 5,400 units into our portfolio over coming years. We are actively leading market dialogue with investors and developers to bring more affordable housing units into private housing market. We utilize the tools of new zoning master plan, permits, and grid access. We are seeking for tools for motivation to create this ecosystem of partnership more effective towards real implementation. What is common denomination for these approaches is selecting areas and objects that are already well abandoned in our environment, close to services as schools, hospitals, public transportation, groceries, and et cetera. And with that main aim to accommodate needs of vulnerable groups in our cities, senior citizens, single parent households, Roma community, people from Ukraine, but also critical infrastructure employees, such as teachers, doctors, drivers of public transportation, workers in waste management and maintenance of public spaces and infrastructure. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Kasia. And now we move to Lithuania, and Sven Cionis.

Hello, dear colleagues.

I'm the mayor of Šiauliai District Municipality, located in the eastern part of Lithuania. As a rural municipality, we face population decline and aging population, and a shortage of qualified professionals. Until now, our main focus has been on expanding social houses and improving houses' accessibility for vulnerable groups. Today, we are entering a new phase of our housing policy. We are exploring the development of municipality houses to make affordable housing accessible not only for low-income households, but also to middle and higher-income residents. We particularly aim to attract essential professionals, such as teachers, doctors, and other public services workers to our municipality. However, one of the biggest challenges in attracting private investors to develop housing in regional areas, where returns on investment and profitability are often lower than in capital or larger cities. Therefore, we are exploring new financing models, public-private partnerships, and ways in which municipality can help reduce investment risk. We are particularly interested in learning from our European cities about sustainable municipality housing models, and we believe that housing should be more than a social support measure. It should be a strategical investment. in the future of our regions, helping to attract professionals, retain young people, and strengthen local economies.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. May I now invite Mayor of Heidelberg? The floor is yours, sir.

Yeah, thank you. Yeah, we have the same situation like many other colleagues. Very attractive cities, most expensive, 10,000 euro per square meter is now normal in our city, so it's unbelievable. So we have a clear strategy. First of all, we are the biggest building company and keeping houses in the city, 80%. We wanted to reach 20%, like Vienna has about 23%. Second point is We buy all the land which we develop. Nobody can develop an area where we are not the owner. So we become first the land owner, and we have developed last 15 years about nearly 210 hectares. It was the biggest building complexes in the southern part of Germany. And we sell the land, of course, but under the clear permit of climate neutral. 35% of affordable, in some areas 70% affordable. And the next step is now, because we as a city are much bigger than our traditional barriers. So we have to define a regional building affordable housing concept with the suburbs, which are not Heidelberg, the country. but which are all influenced by the city, and this is about an area of 600,000 people. So not just looking on your own area, just trying to make new coalitions with your neighbor cities and neighbor partners. Thank you.

Thank you very much for that intervention. I'm now going to open it out to cities with white labels. First of all, I am going to go to Mafra in Portugal.

Distinguished members of the panel, mayors and local government representatives, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Carolina Ferreira, and next to me is Filipe Batista. We are from Mafra, Portugal, a municipality near Lisbon with almost 19,000 residents across 300 square kilometers. To turn sustainable development goals into concrete investment, we create our municipality SDG project pipeline. Technically, it's structured dynamic portfolio of investment projects. It organize priorities, identify each project's maturity, financing needs, and partnership opportunities. It shows which projects are ready to proceed and which need further technical development or resources. This tool connects planning with implementation, align municipality policy, national programs, and European funding. In housing, the portfolio includes projects worth around 29 million euro, covering the reversion of municipality housing and the construction of new homes. Projects are at different stage, with distinguished planned investment, construction progress, and the allocation of homes to families. Construction costs and funding deadlines make this coordination essential. Social assessments help identify needs and guidelines support for vulnerability households. By bringing housing, mobility, energy, and environment, and social inclusion into one portfolio, the pipeline supports coordinated investment decisions. The model involves the municipality, business, academia, and civil society, whose role in monitoring progress we aim to strengthen. This commitment also extends UILMU, the Lusophone Initiatives of Municipalities for the SDGs. It promotes cooperation among Portuguese-speaking municipalities to implement the Sustainable Development Goals at the local level. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mafra, for these important points. May I now invite Paris? Yeah, the floor is yours.

Dear Chair, dear Mayors, Excellencies, my name is Adrien Lemercier from the City of Paris administration. In Paris, we placed the right to adequate housing at the heart of our public policy. Our approach combined the creation of affordable housing, the prevention of housing exclusion, the fight against homelessness, and the protection of residents by regulating housing market. We are aware of the dramatic effects of real estate speculation. With the housing strategy to 2035, we have set a target of 40% public housing, including 30% low-income housing and 10% affordable housing, in order to ensure social diversity. Public and social housing should be recognized as a public good and a key driver of social cohesion. We also want to focus on rent control, regulating short-term tourist rentals, combating vacancy, as well as implementing measures for energy-efficient renovation. I will conclude with two recommendations. We need to improve global cooperation, and it is essential to fully recognize the role of local authorities in securing the right to housing. At the European level, Paris is part of the Alliance of European Mayors for Housing. We have also a partnership with UN-Habitat, Nairobi County, and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, because we are implementing a social housing hub hosted by Paris and Nairobi. And last recommendation, we need to secure, of course, we need to secure more financial resources for local governments with a strong advocacy strategy. Thank you.

Thank you, Paris. First of all, I'd just like to congratulate all of the speakers for being so good on your timings. As a result, we are also going to open up the floor to representatives of city administrations, member states, international organizations, academia, and NGOs. But first of all, we'll go to the Netherlands and The Hague.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Hague believes affordable and adequate housing is a basic human right, not a privilege. Yet cities around the world are facing growing housing shortages, rising costs, and increasing pressure on vulnerable groups. In The Hague, we consider housing to be more than merely a roof over one's head. It is a key determinant of quality of life and inclusive urban development. A good home provides dignity, stability, and trust in society. As the third largest and densely populated city in the Netherlands, The Hague faces major housing challenges. To meet growing demand, we aim to build around 4,000 homes each year. But housing policy is about more than building houses. It is also about creating good quality homes and strong communities. That is why our Housing Vision 2030 is built around four priorities. First, affordable housing across the entire city, and our goal is that 70% of new homes are affordable. Second, suitable housing for people who struggle to find an appropriate home, including people with care or support needs. Third, sustainable and future-proof housing. Housing plays an important role in our approach to the energy transition. Fourth, livable and vibrant neighborhoods. Because a home is not only a place to live, but also a place from which people participate in their communities. Another key priority is responding to demographic change. Our population is aging. Research shows that The Hague will need around 20,000 additional homes for all the residents and several more for specific target groups. To address this challenge, we have developed an integrated housing and care strategy. This strategy helps us better understand the needs of different groups and translate them into clear ambitions and concrete actions. An example is the senior living community, De Doornhoek. Residents have their own apartments and share communal spaces. This encourages people to support one another and stay socially connected. It helps older residents live independently for longer, reduces pressure on healthcare services, and frees up larger family homes for younger generations. The Hague believes that the housing challenge requires an integrated approach and close cooperation between governments, housing associations, market parties, and citizens. Housing is a challenge in itself, but it is also connected to other major issues, such as the energy transition, social inclusion, and accessible healthcare. This shows that cities are at the forefront of finding practical solutions for global challenges, but no city can do it alone. That is why The Hague emphasizes strong cooperation between all levels of government and between cities. Together, we can achieve more. Thank you.

Thank you, The Hague. Now, I give the floor to UCLG.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I was aiming at gravity, but now we have more time, so I can. No, joking. But I'm representing United Cities and Local Governments, just to offer a few thoughts on the topic. First of all, mayors from our constituency are increasingly placing housing justice at the center of their policies and also at their conversation with national authorities. And we are seeing it here in this forum, as we saw in many other platforms, as a World Urban Forum, the Urban 20 as well, that the conversation goes well beyond just supply and affordability. And that is a discussion we also want to open with the Housing Justice Academy. which UCLG launched at the Congress in Tangier in June, because we felt the need for a right-based and comprehensive conversation on housing. And perhaps for ideas that might be worth reflecting on together around housing justice. First, we start from housing as a right and a public good. So if homes are treated mainly as assets, the outcome is already largely decided. And also the World Cities Report shows it, numbers show it, that 2.8 billion people have inadequate housing and household spending close to a third of their income on housing costs. And also a home is a hand of door to everything else, so water, energy, transport, health, culture. And without these, a roof alone does not make housing adequate. And this is why we cannot discuss housing as a standalone sector. And then there is the question of who the system works for. So women, migrants, and displaced, older persons, persons with disabilities, residents in informal settlements. If we design from their experiences, we tend to get better housing policy for everyone. And finally, the instruments. So public land, cooperative and social housing, community land trusts. Often, many cities are experimenting with this, but what limits them is the mandate, the fiscal space, and the access to finance. So the Forum's outcome document points in this direction, and we are sure it will find its way into implementation. And we are also glad to continue the discussion with leaders through the Housing Justice Academy. Thank you.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you to all for these valuable contributions. The challenges are significant, but so are the opportunities for cities to develop innovative and locally appropriate approaches to housing. To conclude this session, I am pleased to give the floor to Mr. Kurt Garrigan, Chief of Sustainable Urban Development Section for the Environment and Development Division at UN ESCAP, United Nations Economic and Social Commissions for Asia and the Pacific, for closing remarks. Mr. Kurt.

Thank you very much, Mayor, and to all colleagues for joining today. First, let me extend my appreciation to UNECE for making this forum truly global. And also express my gratitude to the Global Cities Hub for the facilitating engagement of the regional commissions and for their support to mayors. Thanks to Raf for providing a comprehensive overview of the challenge of housing globally, and so I won't seek to repeat what has already been presented. If there is one urban issue that is common across all regions, it is the growing crisis of the lack of sustainable, adequate, and affordable housing. I think the discussion today touched on what I would consider four interconnected elements that all stakeholders need to consider, availability, accessibility, adequacy, and affordability. First, availability is more than just the number of units in a market. Shifting demographics require a diversity of housing types across all communities, those for youth and singles, for families, for growing senior population, and increasingly for intergenerational housing. And we have obstacles that include outdated regulations, zoning limits, slow permitting, land scarcity, financing, and of course, construction costs, among others. Second, accessibility is multifaceted. Of course, there is accessible housing, meaning those that are free of physical barriers to be inclusive. But it can also mean removing social and legal barriers and discriminatory housing practices. And it can mean geographic accessibility, ensuring that housing is linked to transport, to employment centers, services, education, and health care. For decades, housing, and social housing in particular, has been located on the least expensive land, disconnecting residents from key services, contributing to sprawl and ultimately increasing the cost of infrastructure and the delivery of basic urban services. Third, adequacy. And Raf, I think, mentioned this quite well and described it very well, what UN-Habitat is working on. The quality and habitability of housing includes structural integrity, sanitation, ventilation, avoiding overcrowding at both the unit and the compound levels, and those are just some of the factors. But substandard housing, we need to recognize, can contribute to poor health and additional social costs that are seen elsewhere. And adequacy could also extend to neighborhoods, as we've heard, in which the housing exists. And the security of tenure remains a key challenge in many parts of the world. Finally, affordability is not only the purchase of rental or the rental price, but associated monthly expenses such as utilities, transport to and from houses to services and employment. And the drivers of affordability include rising land and construction costs, fluctuation in interest rates, the instability of global supply chains, but perhaps most importantly, treating housing as a commodity, which drives investor demand for profitability rather than the provision of adequate housing and shelter. What can fundamentally better link these four dimensions is a whole of government and whole of society approach. And as Raf highlighted, multi-level governance is essential. But also to overcome fragmentation and the siloing of housing solutions, integrated urban planning must be foundational to ensure that housing is considered along with transport systems, energy, and natural resources, recreation and open space, schools, healthcare facilities, employment centers, and commercial areas, as well as with broader climate and sustainable development strategies. Local housing plans and strategies, as we've heard, should really be the starting point for all communities, where local needs become the basis for all actions. But housing cannot be only the remit of local communities or the sole responsibilities of housing ministries, and it should not be viewed singularly. Given the scale of housing needs, in which some countries must build millions of units, why not our ministries of energy engaged to support low-carbon and energy-efficient housing solutions, offsetting the cost of future grid capacities? Or the ministries of transport to enhance urban mobility, plan transportation routes, and investments accordingly, and leverage land value capture from transit-oriented development. These kind of creative financing often requires diverse stakeholders to come together to develop new approaches, including to sector-specific areas. Can ministries of industry be engaged to incentivize, where appropriate? fabricated housing solutions at scale, or to foster domestic solar panel production, lowering energy costs for residents and enhancing resilience. Many countries, especially in Asia, have backlogs of millions of housing units and no domestic solar industry. But they could find such synergies at lower cost to residents, create jobs, and lower emissions. Each community's housing solution can be aggregated to contribute to a much broader approach and opportunities to create a much more sustainable national housing stock. To continue, ministries of planning and of interior may have roles to ensure adequate infrastructure, connectivity, and also strengthen with the resilience and public safety. And with aging populations and a growing care economy, ministries of health are increasingly important stakeholders in housing decisions and should be key partners in the creation of healthy cities and caring cities. While much of the current discussion revolves around the filling of the gap of housing, a parallel need exists in many places to regenerate the existing housing stock, either bringing up to current standards or transitioning to better meet the different types of housing needed to respond to changing demographics. It is thus important, obviously, to note that housing is not only a government initiative. Cooperative housing initiatives and private sector developments that might include public incentives for affordable units are all part of broad and comprehensive housing solutions tailored to community needs, whether housing is a local or a national responsibilities. Mayors have an essential role to ensure that solutions contribute first and foremost to the well-being and livability of their local residents, and to an inclusive, resilient, and sustainable community. It has been mentioned throughout this forum, the importance of engaging citizens. No other topic is as close to citizens as their home, and mayors know better than anyone the need as well as the means to engage and co-design solutions with their local citizens. Thank you very much for sharing your experiences and for the great discussion this afternoon.

Thank you, Mr. Garrigan, for those well-timed and well-presented words. Housing and lack of housing or quality of housing is why I got involved in politics in the first place. And I would like to thank all the contributions to this important subject, which I know we'll be discussing not just finishing today, but it will go on and we will continue until we are able to provide what our residents need across the board. Ladies, I would now just like to announce that this now concludes our discussion on sustainable, adequate, and affordable housing, and we'll now move directly to the next topic. And I will hand over the moderation of this next segment to my colleagues, Mr. Eckhart Wirsner, Chair of the UN Forum of Mayors and the Mayor of Eiderberg, and Ms. Claria Musio, Deputy Mayor of Buenos Aires, Argentina, to co-moderate. Thank you, everyone, for your contributions. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Giuliana. Thank you.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Thank you so much.

So, heading to the next session in the field of inclusive planning and urban resilience, we wanted to stick now to the point of cultural and natural heritage protection under the SDG 11.4. As you know, culture And natural heritage is an essential part of the identity and character of our cities and communities. I know this. More than 10 million people just want to see a castle in my town. Protection has also contributed, in my opinion, and we all share this, to resilient, sustainable tourism, environmental protection, and social cohesion, and the long-term sustainability of urban development. I'm very pleased that we share this session together with Claudia, and I will give the floor now to Laya Gash, Director of the World Cities Culture Forum. Thank you. Laya, please. Yes, yes, please.

Thank you. Hello, bonjour, bon dia, marhaba. Thank you so much for inviting me to this important event. We're here today to answer the question: how can cities deliver a sustainable future? And in this session in particular, we're looking at how culture and heritage can contribute to this. But to answer this question, we have to start with the big picture. As you know, the world is a complicated place, and it's changing very rapidly. Our climate is suffering with devastating consequences. There are many conflicts in the world. The tectonic plates of geopolitics are changing. There's a housing crisis. We're in the middle of a technological revolution. AI is the great unknown. And although the world is more connected and smarter than ever, social media is causing anxiety and people are feeling lonely. And these things are transforming the way we see the world. Experts have a word for it. They call it the perma-crisis. This means a world in a constant state of crisis. Well, no wonder we feel anxious. So as we face these deep questions, a legitimate question for us is: where does culture fit into this? Well, the fact is that culture does not exist in a bubble. It's all around us. It's in our lives, in our cities, in our communities, and it can play a much bigger role in our society. More and more cities are understanding this, the power of culture. We heard it yesterday from many of you. Culture is a key ingredient to your cities. In fact, in order to be a successful city in the 21st century, You cannot do it without culture. And today I want to share some trends and some insights that we see from cities around the world. First, I want to introduce a radical concept: culture as infrastructure. In the same way that cities plan for housing and transport and hospitals and schools, We must plan for culture. Culture is the infrastructure in our cities, both physical and that is civic buildings, but also it gives us the connection, the human connection, and that's social infrastructure. And this is the belief amongst all of our cities at World Cities Culture Forum. Today I want to share four examples. of how culture supports sustainability. But let me first give you a quick overview of who we are. So, we are a network of 50 global cities spanning six continents. The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is our patron. We work very closely with UNESCO. Together, we represent about 270 million people. This is us at our annual summit last year in Amsterdam, and we're civic leaders on a mission. Our mission is to build a world where culture is at the heart of sustainable cities. This is our footprint. We do benchmarking data. There was a lot of mention earlier on about the importance of data and evidence, so we do a big report every three years. I've got the Reader's Digest here, but there's a big report. And we are a safe space where cities can share solutions and challenges, and actually share the best ideas and scale them up. Over the past 10 years, we've come up with this principle, the notion that culture is a golden thread in urban policy. What do we mean by this? Well, we mean that culture can address a number of city priorities. We mean that culture is not a nice to have, but a must have, because culture delivers in many, many ways. This is the old paradigm, culture at the bottom, easy to cut when the budgets are tight. This is the new paradigm. Culture delivering against our core priorities, delivering jobs, regenerating neighborhoods, building communities, as the mayor of Colombo said, with just another said, not just building housing, we're building communities, and culture has a role to play. Attracting tourism, making us healthier and happier, and importantly, giving a city its identity. For mayors and policy makers, as well as this, as all these things, at a time of polarization, with nations retrieving, where trust in politics is at a low web, where anxieties are high, culture also creates belonging, it creates trust between communities and different points of view. And culture creates hope. It helps us imagine and create a better future for ourselves. It's like we have the tool for the solutions, but we cannot see it. It's like we have the medicine on the shelf, but we're not using it. Now is the time to unleash the power of culture. And I want to quickly give you four examples. that how culture and heritage can support sustainable cities. As you know, climate change is testing our city's resilience, from heat waves to flooding, from fires to droughts. So I start with an example from my own hometown, home city, Barcelona. In Barcelona, during the heat waves, citizens get an alert on their phone, directing them to a nearest climate refuge. And where is this? That's a network of public libraries and museums, well equipped to welcome vulnerable people and community groups. In Barcelona, during a heatwave, the museums are free. It's a win-win situation. This is how culture infrastructure is activated as part of a city's resilience plans. And this is a trend that we see amongst Many cities. We saw it in Los Angeles with the fires, and we've seen it in other cities. My second example is culture at risk. Our data shows that whilst the attendance at cultural events is on the rise since the pandemic, the infrastructure is not. We are losing grassroots and community venues in most cities. I was so happy to hear yesterday the presentation by Alexander Koons from WIPO about the importance of grassroots creative spaces in our cities. We are losing civic infrastructure. And this is due to multiple factors: rapid urbanization, rise of land and property prices, rise of cost of living. So what are cities doing about it? Well, cities are mapping culture infrastructure, as Alexander showed us yesterday, because if we cannot count it, we cannot protect it. And cities like London and New York have opened a Culture at Risk office. What is it? It's an office that gives support to heritage and culture, with advice on planning, licensing, tax, tenancy agreements. We call it the bat phone for culture, because we need superheroes in city halls to protect heritage and culture. You are the superheroes to protecting culture in your cities. So, next example is about affordability, is a new model of ownership and stewardship for heritage and culture. It's called the creative land trust. Why? Because affordability in cities matter. I don't need to tell you this. We've just heard it earlier on with a housing affordability crisis. But this crisis is also on workspace and community space. So this model is based on the Community Land Trust and protects ownership and affordability on culture, community, and heritage space. And why is it sustainable? Well, because culture is great at keeping buildings and reusing buildings, which is lighter on the environment than building new. This is already a global movement. Across cities on our network, there's already 38 cities setting up this model. You can find more information on our website, and there's a free toolkit on how to set one up. And finally, a quick example of how to involve communities. It's about city murals, also a massive trend in a lot of cities. We recently funded an exchange between Milan and Jakarta. They shared policies to celebrate the diverse communities in their cities using murals, and building a sense of pride and belonging to the city. So, to summarize, here are my takeaways: culture is infrastructure, culture is human connection, culture is trust and hope. I look forward to hearing from your experiences, but I want to leave you with a quote from Kenyan writer, Wathiong'o: "Because culture is very well known for celebrating and preserving the past, but actually, is overlooked for its potential as a catalyst for the future. And what Jungo tells us, culture is to society what a flower is to a tree. The importance of the flower is not just that it's beautiful and fragrant, it calls to our senses. We could say it's nice to have. He says, no, the importance of the flower is that it contains this seed for the future of the species. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Really inspiring, our last phrase. Let us now turn to our mayors and city representatives to hear about their experiences and approaches. You are invited to consider any of the following guiding questions when making your interventions. So I will read them aloud. The first question is, how can cities balance the protection and sustainable use of cultural and natural heritage with growing demands for housing, infrastructure, and investment while preserving the identity, character, and distinctiveness of places? The second What are the main pressures on cultural and natural heritage in your city, including urban development, climate change, environmental degradation, tourists, and limited resources, and what approaches have proven effective in addressing them? Third, how can cultural and natural heritage be better integrated into urban planning, regeneration, climate action, and resilience strategies to strengthen social cohesion, inclusive public spaces, local economic opportunities, and quality of life? Four, how can cities engage local communities including indigenous people and others relevant stakeholders in their protection, management, and sustainable use of cultural and natural heritage while ensuring the benefits are shared equitably? Five, how can cities harness digital technologies, research, innovation, and local knowledge to document, protect, and promote cultural and natural heritage And what lessons from local experience could inform cooperation and peer learning among cities in advancing SDG 11.4? So now we are going to invite the mayors, first the mayors and deputy mayors with yellow nameplates. I want to remember that your intervention is going to a maximum for two minutes and focusing on the topic under discussion. Ashmi and Sim, the floor is yours.

Excellencies, dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen. It is great honor for me to participate in this year's Forum of Mayors in Geneva, and to have the opportunity to represent H. Miazin, a city with a history spanning thousands of years. Those identity continues to be shaped. by its rich cultural heritage. Etchmiadzin Cathedral, the ancient archaeological site of Zvart’nots’, and the three historical monasteries are inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. For us, this heritage is not only a legacy of the past, but also an opportunity for the future. Our vision to build a modern, open, and internationally connected H. M. H. while preserving unique history, character of our city. An important part of this vision of developing safe, accessible, and pedestrian and cycling routes. We are ready to learn from cities that have already implemented successfully solutions in this area and to exchange knowledge, technical expertise, and practical approaches. At the same time, Hmatsine has already implemented important programs in preschool development. infrastructure improvement and modernization of drainage systems. We have also established advisory bodies focused on women and youth, as well as matters related to the business environment. An important question before us today is how can we connect our heritage with the world and make Hmezn a hub of international culture and pilgrimage routes. We want to make a city more accessible, attractive, and internationally recognized destination by developing modern infrastructure and creating new opportunities for international cooperation. Hmatsin history has been written over thousands of years. Today, it is our responsibility to write its next chapter together. connecting our heritage with the future of our city and with the wider world. May our heritage connect us not only to the past, but also to one another in the future. Thank you for your attention.

Okay, we come to the next, sorry, we come to Nkump.

Good afternoon, I'm the mayor of Encamp. We'd like to present a project that allowed us to make accessible a heritage that was very much invisible for a while at 2000 meters. Encamp is directly related to certain heritage elements recognized by UNESCO, and we'd like to share some experience with you. that has enabled us to protect the transmission of heritage, in particular related to transhumance and the art of dry stone construction. Nkamp is a mountainous area of more than 2500 meters in altitude. We had what are called orris, ancient constructions related to shepherds that demonstrated a way of life that was disappearing. Archaeological research and the use of new technologies enabled us to discover, make discoveries and broaden our project. We restored some of these ancient constructions and modernized heritage, allowing us to go back millennia and looking at the relationship between humans and the mountains. and we made discoveries dating back to around 2000 AD. We learned something key, that we cannot protect what we do not know exists. So we chose to take a measured and selective intervention. We identified certain remains, but only two were fully reconstructed for educational purposes. The others were restored or documented or preserved in their original state. while respecting the authenticity of the landscape. Our second goal was to transform this heritage into a driver for the discovery of territory and tourist development that is of a high quality and sustainable. The Oris trail is situated in the Grandvalira ski resort, which enables us to draw on existing infrastructure such as cable cars, parking, and so on. And I'd also like to note Certain areas are particularly sensitive, such as the future Cirque de Pessans Natural Park. We are continuing to study and make our heritage known so that our community can take ownership of it, to learn about this history and to share it with visitors. Thank you.

May I now invite to speak Valetta?

Excellencies, fellow mayors, let me take you to my city. Valletta covers just 0.61 square kilometers. Founded in 1566, it celebrates its 460th anniversary this year. It is a UNESCO World Heritage City with 320 monuments pegged into just 55 hectares. And Malta expects around 4.5 million tourists this year. Valletta may be small on the map, but when millions of visitors arrive, you quickly learn that urban planning is the art of making room for one more. Walk through our streets and you'll see colorful wooden balconies, beautiful limestone buildings, and the magnificent Grand Harbor. Inside St. John's Cathedral hangs Caravaggio's masterpiece, the only painting he actually signed. Everywhere you look, there's a story to discover. But our greatest heritage is not just what visitors come to see, it's the people who call Valletta home. Our intergenerational housing project, our very own co-living concept, operated by Friends of Don Bosco, gives an underused historic building a new purpose, bringing younger and older generations together. In the Grand Harbour, the Government’s Shore-to-Ship project that allows equipped cruise ships to connect to shoreside electricity, a project helping reduce air pollution and noise. We must also protect our coastline and marine environment. prepare for climate risks, and use digital mapping and heritage inventories to safeguard vulnerable buildings. Of course, Valletta has taught me one thing: cities may change, technology may advance, but a mayor’s to-do list never seems to get any shorter. Fellow mayors, heritage is not simply what we preserve. It is what we pass on, our buildings, our landscapes, our communities, and our sense of belonging. Let us share what works and give cities the tools to deliver. If we want cities to deliver, then we must empower cities to deliver. Thank you.

Many thanks to Valletta, and also for the commercial block, I would say. It's also very good to see if a mayor or lady mayor is really telling a wonderful story about this city. We come to Bristol.

Thank you, Chair. Bristol, as revealed previously in this conference, is famous for its street art, its music, but it is also a city that is 1000 years old, and many of our buildings have been built on foundations that date back to those earliest times, and they come with their problems. And sometimes, the two, the era of Banksy and the medieval city, come together. We have a building in the centre of our city in which we have been trying to get investment to help bring it back up to a standard that would be suitable. We are now marketing it on the basis of rather than it being a building, it's got a Banksy on the side of it. So we're getting investment interest because we're marketing as a Banksy mural with a 17th century building attached to it. And we've seen this approach of trying to find innovative ways of promoting our buildings to get interest. And the biggest challenge we have is a 15th century mansion that we have on the edge of the city in an estate of 850 acres. This was left to the city by the family that owned the building. Getting 850 acres of well-kept grounds was lovely. Getting a 15th century mansion full of leaks and damage was not so. So we are now working with a trust where we hope to be able to sign very shortly a 125-year agreement for them to work, not only to bring the building back to the standards that we would expect for a monument of that type, but also allow us to use it to promote the city of Bristol and also to provide a nice place for people to get married as well. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Edinburgh, the floor is yours.

Thank you very much, and I'm longing now to go to Valetta, it sounds stunning. So every year Edinburgh hosts the world's largest culture and arts festival, and it is quite clearly a vital part of Edinburgh's very successful and growing economy. Just one or two, I suppose, cautionary notes. One is the importance of retaining the support of local residents, because if we have a separation between the culture and the people who live locally, then that threatens the vibrancy and life of the city. So that happens through ticketing policies, for example, that give beneficial terms to local people. So the fringe The festival Fringe, for example, has half of its ticket sales going to local people. But we also want to grow local artistic talent, partly through schools coming to work alongside internationally renowned orchestras, but also through financial support to community groups who are developing particularly dramatic talent. The other aspect that I think is incredibly important is the soft power that culture can bring in terms of bringing people together, in our case, from across the world. We're keen as well, in terms of sustainability, to extend tourism, cultural tourism, beyond the city centre, for example, to our second World Heritage Site, sorry Valetta, we've got two, also to areas of disadvantage where we have, in one instance, a fantastic medieval castle that nobody goes to visit. And finally, I think that it's extremely important to move from seeing culture that is something that needs grants and financial support from, in this case, councils and cities, to a culture that can help to grow the financial and other prosperity of cities. Thank you.

Thank you very much. We come to Colombo.

Thank you. Dear Excellencies, Kollam is a small city, covering just 37 square kilometers, but it is rich in culture, history, and diversity. People from different nationalities, regions, and cultural backgrounds live together in our city. Each community brings its own traditions, values, and beautiful stories. Our responsibility is to protect this heritage and help all our people live together in peace, respect, and happiness. We must protect our historic places, our natural environment, and cultural values that connect our communities. But I believe there is something even more important. We must care for the people who live in our city. We are not going to live for 300 years. Our time on this earth is limited, so why not use our time to help one another? another, respect one another, and make life better for everyone. A successful city is not measured only by its buildings, roads, or economic growth. It is also measured by the happiness of its people and the kindness they show one another. Let us protect our heritage, respect our differences, and build a Colombo where every person feels valued, included, and happy. Because our greatest legacy is not what we build, but how we make people feel and how we live together. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Hulusi Selangor, you have the floor.

Thank you, Madam Moderator. In Hulu Selangor, we also see cultural and natural heritage as an important part of how we deliver a sustainable future. And Malaysia is well known for its multicultural society, and this is strongly reflected in our district. We have Malay, Chinese, Indian communities, as well as indigenous communities. each contributing their own tradition, culture, and identity. Our town of Kuala Kubu Baru is especially significant because it is recognized as Malaysia's first planned town, and it will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2030. It has served as an important town center since before Malaysia's independence, and many of its buildings, streets, and urban character reflect this history. To protect this heritage while allowing the town to grow, we introduced the Kuala Kebu Baru Special Area Plan. Through this plan, new development is carefully managed so that it respects the character, scale and identity of the town. At the same time, preservation should not be keeping a place frozen in time, we want heritage to remain alive and meaningful to the community. We have improved back lanes, focusing on cleanliness, beautification, and safety. And we also created city murals under an outdoor museum concept. These murals in our city have become a tourist attraction, but more importantly, a place where people can reflect on our history, culture, and shared identity. For our natural heritage, we also involve our indigenous community directly. Some of them serve as local tourist guides, sharing their knowledge of the forest. landscape and tradition with visitors. In this way, natural protection also support local livelihoods and helps preserve traditional knowledge. We also believe protecting heritage is not only about preserving the past, it is about strengthening identity, building pride and belonging, supporting tourism and local economic activity, and creating a more sustainable future. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you very much. We come to Nashik.

Namaste, the chair, all the mayors, excellencies, and colleagues. I am from Nashik, India. The Kumbh Mela stands as one of the world's most profound symbols of collective human consciousness, rightfully inscribed as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The story: When the gods and the demons fought over the elixir of life churning the ocean, four drops of nectar fell in different locations in India, one of them which is Nashik. Astrologically, when Jupiter enters Leo every 12 years, the biggest human confluence happens at the banks of River Godavari in Ramteeth. Nashik is to take a holy dip in water and wash away our sins. This cultural practice has been happening since time immemorial and continues to happen with millions of devotees coming in without any invitation for the spiritual exchange of ideas, conversations, and the biggest documented confluence of diverse experiences. Next year, we expect more than 120 million pilgrims over four months to visit our city, and I am here to extend this invite for Kumbh Mela to you and get the spiritual experience which is timeless. Not only this, Nashik has been in the history of Ramayana, where the most important part of this literary discourse happened in Nashik. Coming to the medieval era, we have the Dasbodh written along with the confluence of Godavari and Nandini. We have Kusumagraj, the father of Marathi language from Nashik, and his IP is with us. We have Veer Damodar Savarkar, Vinayak Savarkar, who started his freedom fighting movement from Nashik through mobilizing youth and writing various literature and songs for mobilization. We also have the public libraries and lit fest happening in the city for more than 100 years. And not only this, the father of Indian cinema, Dadasaheb Phalke, hails from Nashik. We have Rahad in Nashik, which is a unique celebration of change in agricultural pattern due to change in climate, celebrating culture, and paving its way for the fifth nature doctrine. With all this great history and culture, we are now preserving it as never before. With the construction of Ram Kalpat, we have restored the cultural ethos of Ramayana along with the banks of Godavari. We are building the Ramayan theme park for the next generation to connect with the culture. We are organizing Global South Film Festival to celebrate filmmaking, and through all this, we are applying for the UNESCO Creative City tag to strongly propose Nashik candidature as a literature tag. Why Kumbh is an intangible heritage? Intellectuals and researchers visiting the festival can orient their research papers and field studies around several core dimensions. democratic intellectualism. Historically, the Kumbh was the ultimate shastrartha, philosophical debate ground where scholars, sages, and common citizens brainstorm to celebrate, to separate societal poison from the ambrosia. Applying this to climate change creates a powerful platform for climate justice and sustainable living definitions. Eco-spirituality and water conservation. Ancient texts dictate that the rivers are living mothers, Nadi Devta. The festival serves as a massive case study on how spiritual reverence can be leveraged for modern river rejuvenation and environmental preservation. The Kumbh Order. Social self-regulation. Kumbh operates without formal invitations, standard ticketing, or central enforcement, yet manages tens of millions of people peacefully. Researchers can study this as a model for decentralized, community-driven crisis management and resource distribution. With climate change pressure of urbanization and pressing global challenges, Nashik is taking the route of public participation for retaining and modernizing its cultural and natural heritage. We are evolving with building the creative economy and would like to invite the global community to be a collaborator in this journey of documenting and giving back to the next generation our valuable intangible cultural heritage, which goes across all religions, faiths, and practices, and sees the world as one family. Vasudhaiva kutumbakam, with humanity as the one belief only. Thank you. Jai Shri Ram.

Thank you. Now we'll invite other mayors or deputy mayors with white nameplates. Strasbourg, you have the voice.

Zimmermann is my name. I represent Strasbourg, a European capital located on the border of France and Germany, hosting the European Parliament. But of course, the European Court of the Council of Europe, Strasbourg is also recognized for because of two world heritage sites of UNESCO. We have started to work on the SDGs in, in fact, we've begun in 2017, and naturally, we embodied culture in our work plan as a specific stand on objective. This objective had not been recognized in 2015 because it wasn't "goalable" as a speaker in English, we couldn't make it a goal. Culture in itself is not a problem to resolve. Since then, the mindset has evolved. The Pact for the Future acknowledges that culture is a catalyst for sustainable development. The summit's CGLU have shown that it could become a technical objective with practical and usable objectives, usable by towns. The UNESCO summit said that it advocated in favour of culture becoming either the subject of a post-2030 development framework. We today are seeing how culture is, We're seeing how culture is a sustainable development catalyst. We were the world capital for the book in 2024. We used that opportunity to capitalise on what was being done in terms of culture and literature. We had 563 events organised. 90% of these 563 events were directly turned towards one aim, namely to have an impact on 16 SDGs. Out of these 563 events, 44% were carried not by the town, but by the citizens themselves, thanks to which we were able to prove that when you trigger and set in motion these actors, they have a strong impact on almost all of the SDGs. Just to finish, it's all the more necessary today to make culture a standalone objective or goal in the post-2030 development framework by recalling a quote from a German-Greek specialist who in 1933 published a book called "Beydeja" saying, "Culture is an education in humanity, and today, and even more so tomorrow, we will need more humanity to meet our goals." Thank you.

Thank you very much. We come to Shusha.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all of you for meaningful discussions that we have had over the past two days. Taking this opportunity, I would like to briefly introduce measures taken to protect and preserve the cultural and historical heritage of the city of Shusha. the cultural capital of the Republic of Azerbaijan. For almost three decades, Shusha was under occupation, and that period many buildings either completely destroyed or badly damaged. After liberation of the city from occupation in 2020, the entire territory of the state was declared state reserve and placed under special state protection. Since then, Around 35 cultural, historical, and religious sites were restored and reconstructed. All these post-conflict projects, including reconstruction and development of infrastructure, the establishment of social service centers, and construction of residential housing for resettlement of the former IDPs, are being implemented in accordance with in advanced, prepared, developed master plan of the city. In a final word, integrating conservation projects into urban planning helps us to preserve identity of the city while implementing modern measures as well. Thank you for your attention.

Thank you very much. Nansfield, you have the floor.

Yes, distinguished chair, distinguished mayors, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Andreas Kochen and I am the mayor of Mansfield, a small historic town in eastern Germany with around 8,000 inhabitants. Mansfield is a rural town with a rich cultural history. Martin Luther, one of the most influential figures of the Reformation, spent his childhood and went to school in our town. Monscheid is also part of a region shaped by centuries of copper mining. This heritage is an important part of our local identity. It connects generations and helps us understand our history. One positive example is the Luther Museum in Mansfeld, located at Martin Luther's former family home. It is part of a public foundation that also manages museums in three towns. This cooperation helps us preserve our heritage and makes it accessible through education and cultural tourism. I am also personally involved as a member of the foundation's board of trustees. However, protecting cultural heritage requires investment and long-term commitment. This is particularly challenging for small towns with limited financial resources. I believe cultural heritage must be an important part sustainable local development. Small towns and rural communities also have valuable cultural treasures that deserve attention and support. Our history is not only something we inherit, it is something we have a responsibility to pass on to future generations. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. We come to the last speaker from Toulouse, and then we come to the conclusion.

Good afternoon, one and all. Thank you for giving me the floor, dear friends, excellencies. To speak of Toulouse means to speak of a town which was elected last year the first town to visit in the world, which was elected by a magazine called Lonely Planet. Australian publication, we were also given the label a music town by UNESCO. So beyond the heritage we have and the attractive town that Toulouse is with its aeronautical flagship industry, and I'm using a strong southwest accent in saying so in French, it means to, we have another 35 different nationalities, we're very proud of that. We have a very strong history, 145,000 students, 20,000 of whom are foreign, which means that we're extremely proud of our diversity, outstanding diversity. As we said earlier on, a culture is the therapy of the people, it's therapy for the people, and this therapy is what gives us this energy to be able to live together, to respect each other, to share matters together. If today we had to decide what it meant to live together in the hardest, well, We spent 30 million euros to create something called the City of Dance in a very disadvantaged neighborhood of Toulouse. Through this project, we developed this concept of dancing to understand each other. In culture and the concept of living together, we also have this history of how to speak to each other. In Toulouse, we've done two things together. I'll be brief. First of all, we have the first language forum. We created it 35 years ago, bringing together 140 languages for two days. These 140 languages voice their identity, their culture, and their energy. And also, order to work together on matters pertaining to space, we've created a diversity council bringing together over 20 men and women of different nationalities, of foreigners, who come to work together within this council. They use all means available, made available by the town, to build the best world possible. And in that respect, we've created the Festival of the Worlds or the Festivals of the World. And during the week of Europe, We have the Month of the World, which showcases the diversity of the town, which we are very proud of, and we focused on a culture which I have to mention today and not omit: it's the culture of sport. We were the best. We obtained 19 medals at the Olympic Games, which means that Toulouse was the highest.

I.

Think it was a very fruitful discussion. I think it's wonderful to hear that culture is in all our minds. I think this is very important, and we have to fix in the future debate how we can also integrate it much stronger also into our agenda. I think this is wonderful, but always think about, i have a city of 160,000 with 10 million tourists. The biggest point was for me, the Airbnb ban, because otherwise you just have the opposite of what you wanted to reach for your citizens. Not maybe for the income. So be careful, and we love culture and the integration of culture, and we wanted to summarize now, and I would give the floor to Fiona Littlejohn. Please, the floor is yours.

Many thanks, and distinguished mayors, colleagues, partners, buenas tardes, good afternoon. Thank you to the moderators, speakers, and all the city representatives for sharing this very broad array of experiences and perspectives. The interventions from the delegations today have highlighted the many ways in which cultural and natural heritage contribute to the identity, attractiveness, and sustainability of our cities. So I'd like to use these closing remarks to focus on three closely related issues: the economic potential of heritage management, the need for sustainable financing, and the importance of integrating heritage into broader urban development strategies. Firstly, heritage should be understood not only as something that we have a responsibility to protect, but also as an asset that can contribute to local economic development. The management of cultural and natural heritage supports a range of economic activities, including conservation, restoration, cultural and creative industries, tourism, and local commerce. It can generate employment, sustain specialized skills, and create opportunities for small and medium enterprises. Historic areas and cultural landscapes and heritage sites can also strengthen a city's distinctiveness and attractiveness, supporting economic activity while reinforcing identity. Urban parks, wetlands, forests, rivers, and other natural areas provide environmental benefits that are essential to the functioning of cities. They can reduce exposure to heat and flooding, support biodiversity, improve public health, and support spaces for recreation and social interaction. When properly managed, these areas can also support local livelihoods and nature-based economic activities. Benefits don't arise automatically. They depend on effective management, sustained investments, and policies that balance economic opportunities with the protection of heritage values. Tourism, for example, as we all know, can generate income and employment, but unmanaged tourism can also place pressure on historic sites, ecosystems, and local communities. The objective must therefore be to ensure that economic activity supports the long-term conservation of heritage rather than undermining it. Secondly, we need to address the question of how heritage protection and management can be financed in the long term. Municipalities face competing demands on very limited resources. The topic of financing has come up multiple times throughout these few days. And heritage management requires ongoing expenditure for maintenance, conservation, restoration, environmental management, and the monitoring of risks. But benefits often extend well beyond the individual site or property being protected. That raises an important question for public policy. When heritage conservation and regeneration increases the attractiveness of an area and contribute to rising property values and economic activity, how can cities ensure that part of these benefits support the continued management of this heritage? Land-based financing instruments, including land value capture, transfer of development rights, and property taxation, may offer opportunities to mobilize resources, depending, of course, on the legal and institutional context. Partnership with private actors, community organizations, and other institutions can also help diversify funding sources. However, public authorities must retain capacity to establish clear priorities safeguarding public interest and ensuring that heritage assets are managed for the benefit of present and future generations. For natural heritage, financing approaches must also recognize the value of ecosystem services and the role that natural areas play in reducing climate-related risks. Protecting wetlands, urban forests, and river systems, for instance, can help avoid future losses and reduce the costs associated with flooding and extreme heat, as we saw in some cases this morning. Investing in their management is therefore not only an environmental priority, but it's also an investment in urban resilience. The final point, it's clear that these efforts require stronger integration of heritage into urban governance and planning. Cultural and natural heritage cannot be managed effectively in isolation from housing, land use, transport, climate adaptation, economic development, and other broader development policies. In Latin America and the Caribbean region, the region in which I work, there are two distinctive characteristics: a high level of mature urbanization alongside a notable historical heritage. But public policy agendas tend to treat them as separate spheres, and this is probably the case in much of the world. Heritage initiatives depend on isolated efforts, international cooperation, or external funding without forming an integral part of the national urban development strategies. This disconnect limits the potential to harness heritage as a strategic resource for tackling key urban challenges: housing deficits, socio-spatial inequality, challenges in the local economic base, adaptation to climate change, and social cohesion. And that's where you all come in. Local governments are particularly well placed to bring these dimensions together. They coordinate, you can coordinate across institutions, engage communities, and connect heritage management with the everyday needs of residents. This is also where regional and international cooperation can make a difference. Spaces like these facilitating the exchange of practical experiences and helping cities strengthen their technical and institutional capacities. It's essential these benefits of heritage management are shared equitably. Local communities must be recognized as partners in their management, with a meaningful role in decisions that affect their neighborhoods, livelihoods, and environment. Ultimately, urban heritage should not be viewed solely as an object of cultural conservation or as a tourism resource. Its true potential lies in being integrated into urban policy as a structural component of sustainable and inclusive development. Achieving this requires us to firstly recognize heritage as a long-term public asset. It involves renewing public policy frameworks, expanding funding mechanisms, and giving local governments a bigger say in heritage management. Only in this way will it be possible to transform heritage protection into a lever for building more equitable and productive cities. And coming back to the idea planted by our opening speaker, let's bring the achievements of the past to eliminate a greater well-being for present and future generations. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Fiona. This concludes our discussion on cultural and natural heritage protection. Thank you again, all the mayors, city representatives, partners, and colleagues for your active participation throughout this afternoon thematic discussions and all the plenary sessions of the Forum of Mayors. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much. We directly go to the final negotiation and the outcome documents of our forum. I'm very pleased that we have such a fruitful discussion over those two days, those outcome documents, which we can't discuss in detail for a long time, but I want to promise you that we have A very good proposal. I want to thank the office, which makes a tremendous job in this field. So many thanks to all of you who have prepared these documents and also to the prep meetings with a group of mayors and city leaders. who already worked out these papers just for you to inform you that it's not just a paper, it's really an ongoing process, and this ongoing process means that we have now a good documentation, a good result of this cities leader document of our forum. I also wanted to point out that the forum of us, of the city leaders, is absolutely tremendously important, also for our political message. And I think everybody's believing in this. And I'm impressively proud, I think you all, to be part of this process. And over the past decade, we have made significant progress in strengthening the voice of us, of the cities, and the recognition in national and supranational organizations also, like the UN. And therefore, we have to shaping a safe or more inclusive and more prosperous future where we are an integrated part, as we all wanted to be in the past and also in the future. The Forum is a unique platform and a virtual bridge between the local, regional, and global levels in enabling cities to share experience, what we have done really in a tremendous way. build partnerships and contribute to meaningful international policy discussions. I think this is, for me, also one of the main points that our voice has to be seen much more on the supranational, international level. We are not just a puzzle piece, we are the driving unit in all the processes which are done at the UN level, and therefore we also have to be therefore a fair and clear partner in this process. This is something we should always value, protect, and continue as a strength. As we now turn to our discussion on the draft outcome documents of the fifth meeting of the Forum of Mayors, I encourage you to keep this broader purpose in mind. Let us use this opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that cities have a strong voice in shaping the policy that affect their future. The official document This is something which you all have noticed, was already printed and prepared on our webpage in English, French, and Russia, and you'll also find it online with the symbols ECE/HBP/2026/4. The draft document has been elaborated by the Bureau, as I mentioned, and was really a work-out paper. Well, lots of representatives have already worked together, and therefore I'm very pleased that I hope that you accept this paper as a very good paper. So please don't hesitate to make comments now when we go to the document, but you can believe it's really a very deep discussed paper already in the past. I just wanted to go now through the document. I would like to ask the secretary to drop the documentation on the screen so that we can all see what's the detailed purpose. And then we start with the preamble of the document. And we just go now through the preamble and the section A to F. I just wanted to bring it on screen so that everybody can see where we are at the moment in the discussion. I also invite those cities or partners who put forward this proposal to take the floor and ask also the secretary if there are any comments which you have to hop into the discussion so that we have a fruitful discussion. And then I would ask you to agree to the text and the preamble, and we hope that we can stay in time. Otherwise, you just give me the paper and I read it through. Otherwise, you give me, give me, give the text. Okay. So we can't read through all the pages. This is not better. I just want to read through the summary. At that time, we can start our technical solution. This draft document contains key principles, commitments, and recommendations of to be agreed by the United Nations Forum of Mayors at its sixth meeting. Cities Delivering for a Sustainable Future, Geneva, 12 to 13 of October. It has been prepared by the Bureau of the Forum of Mayors in consultation with participation mayors and the Bureau of the Committee on Urban Development, Housing, and Land Management. The document and any changes to it to be made by the United Nations Forum of Mayors will be presented then to the committee at this session. We have discussed this, and the committee is expected to take note of the document as agreed by United Nations of Mayors. It also invited to agree to reflect its contents when implementation activities under the committee program of work as appropriated. So we go Okay, we start now.

Could you maybe please inform us, will this take long time to get the document? There seems to be a technical issue. Just the Secretariat wants to point out that all those mayors who have received the bag, in the back you have a paper copy of the document. So actually, you should have it in front of you. And perhaps we could go through it until we then solve the problem, because you can read it.

OK. So everybody has the paper, please put it out of your bag, and I just go quickly through the documentation, not in detail, but in general. Before we come to point 8, I just come to the preamble. It's a recalling that the United Nations forms on mayor as a subsidiary body. This is very important of the Committee of Urban Development, Housing, and Land Management. enables to the jury participation of local regional governments in the work of the United Nations, including by contribution. Oh, okay. Good, very well done. Big applause. Very good, very good. Okay, we had the summary, we had already made the summary, so go please to the next slide. Next slide, number two. OK. So now, stop, stop, stop, stop. You just go very slowly and try to follow my speech, OK? I can't read everything now because it's a very long Yeah, I just go now through this slide. We started with recalling that United Nations, you can read it. Then we come recall the outcomes, the central role of local governments, the need for whole of government approaches, the recognition that cities are at the forefront, the acknowledgement that many cities continue to face several fiscal constraints, and the point one. reaffirm that United Nations Forum of Mayors is an effective body. Secretary General highlighted United Nations Forum of Mayors as an effective and scalable mechanism. That's very important. Reiterate the recommendation adopted at the last meeting of the forum and welcome the decision of the committee at its 2025 meeting. This was the first slide. Are there any comments from your side? Sorry? Yes, please. You have a comment. This is.

Chair, on behalf of Stelita Mark in the Russian Federation, we'd like to express our gratitude to the Bureau and the Secretariat, as well as all participants of the Forum for drawing up this draft outcome document. It sets out our shared vision and further areas of work in order to improve the quality of lives of citizens, safety, and resilience of cities in the face of the challenges we face. At the same time, I'd like to make some comments and changes to the text with respect to some of the terminology. We should use accepted terminology, so paragraphs, we should change "marginalized groups" and "marginalized communities" to "those who are marginalized". And so here we're focusing on humans and people themselves who are in an disadvantaged positions rather than abstract groups. Also, where the word minorities is used, we should use national or ethnic, religious, and linguistic. This would be in line with the UN Declaration on those with certain minorities. from the 1990s. We'd also like to remove further on "and human security" because the concept of human security in the context of an international document is not a wording that is generally accepted. Thank you.

Okay, we have now the comments from you. If we can point it out a little bit different, but it's through the whole text. It's not just about the preamble, it's about the whole text. So just leave it there. I will go through the text because there is a lot of appointments which may then come. Please, the floor is yours.

Just for the sake of clarification, since the interpreter could not catch everything that the mayor has just said, that concerns paragraphs A5 and F5 specifically. where the Mayor would like to replace the terms "marginalised groups" and "marginalised communities" to "those who are marginalised", that's the formulation, and that concerns paragraph.

D4 with regard to including the words in "national or ethnic, religious and linguistic" in front of the word "minorities".

And that concerns paragraph D9 with regard to the deletion of the term "human security." So, the changes are with regard to four.

Paragraphs: A5, F5, D4, and D9.

Just for the sake of clarity, we give our full comprehensive points on this.

This is exactly what I just mentioned. It's about everything. Yeah, thanks for the clarification. We'll just work it out. We'll just come back to this, please. It's just a moment. Other comments? To now coming back to this first pages, which I have written through. No? OK. Then we come to the next slide. I come to you back. Slide 2.

Excuse me. Just

Yeah.

Just to

Yes, please.

Thank you for the work that has been carried out on this text. I am the mayor of Quintana Roo, and I should like to speak about the changes proposed on the screen. It's important to involve the perspectives of mayors. who are speaking or have spoken here, and the SDG Summit is also important because the voices of mayors must be heard during that, which is already planned. And with respect to the role of local governments for the SDGs, given the responsibilities that we need to take on, the resources that we need to allocate, it's important to recall that a global program of this type must be local and we need to mention that.

I think, sorry that I didn't mention it. The page which was underlined is integrated into the document. It is now the original document. That's important. That was a question, are there any comments against it? No, there are not any comments against it, so we will put it into the document. Yeah? Okay, so we come to the next page, number two, go through. Okay, now we come to four. Now we're coming to Recalling also to the United Nations forms, the National Pact of the Future is adopted, recalling the outcomes, emphasize, acknowledgment. This was call up states and international organizations to strengthen legal constitution, institutional policy, which is very important. Commit to advancing inclusive, resilient, safe, and sustainable urban development. It's important reaffirm and request the present outcome documents transmitted to the approval. Then we come to point eight. Eight. Yes, please. Secretary.

No, I just had a hard time following. So we are still in the preamble and now we are at the operative paragraphs of the number. Okay, very clear. Yes.

So no other comments to the preamble? So we can adopt it. Good. Point A, sustainable mobility and road safety. We have the comment to A5, marginalized groups. Are there any other? comments. Are there any other comments from your side? No, so and your comment was not marginalized. It's those who are just marginalized. OK, we can do some. Not groups. OK, so we changed into marginalized. Then anybody else has any questions to point A? With this small contribution, we can adopt it. Nobody abstain, nobody against. B, green cities and environmental quality, from B1 to B7. There are no comments from anybody till today. Are there any comments from your side? No, I don't see any comments. Then we can approve it. Is there anybody against it or... Okay, abstain. No. And we come to inclusive planning and urban resilience. C1 to C8. There were no changes in the paper. Now comments, which are office gaps. Other comments from your side? No. Who's against it? Abstain, then it's also approved. Then we come to point D, sustainable, adequate, and affordable housing. There is a change on point D4, minorities. This was your change. It means cultural. We can do so. Hold on.

Let the secretariat write down.

That was under D4, the comment from your colleague. OK, you have it. OK. Anybody against it? Abstain, and this is also approved. Point D, then to E, cultural and natural heritage protection, E1 to E6, anybody? Has any comment? John.

Sorry, I think there was a change to D9.

D9, yeah.

OK, sorry, sorry. Security. D9, security.

Human safety, I believe, right? Is it safety?

Urban, D9.

D9.

Could you repeat, also, instead of human security, human safety?

Is that correct?

Yeah, human safety is also OK. OK, we change it from security into safety. Thanks. Yeah. Then we have no comments anymore. Then this is approved. Then we come to E, culture and natural heritage, E1 to E6. I have no comments here. Anybody against? Abstain. And it's also approved. Then we come to point F. We have the change in F5, marginalized communities. Point 5, F5, marginalized communities. Those who are marginalized. Those who are marginalized. Those who are marginalized and communities out. It's OK. Anybody else has any comments? No? Anybody against it? Abstain, and it's also approved. So many thanks for your great support. So I put the whole paper under discussion. Who is against our outcome paper? Nobody. Who is abstaining? Nobody. Then everybody. is saying, wonderful paper, good work, and we have a strong commitment also to all the partners. Many thanks. Big applause to all those who worked out the paper. Wonderful. And it's a hard work, really, believe me. If you're working out these papers, this is not easy. Now, what is the tradition? We also wanted to elect chairpersons and vice chairs. And as you know, we wanted to do this now. I will give over the floor to Dario. And because it's an election and everybody can be elect, I will give over the floor to Dario. Please, the floor is yours.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Chair. As usual, at every session of the Forum of Mayors, we have the election of the new bureau, who is composed by a chair and two vice chairs. There is a vice chair from Geneva ex officio that is not up for reelection, but the two vice chairs, and their mandate is for one year. till the next session of the forum. We're gonna put up a slide now with the names of the candidates. Here they are. So it is proposed, break with past experience, and I'll come to a minute to a rationale behind it, to propose Mr. Reka Vujicna, current chair, as chair for another year, Mr. Tony Dyer, Vice chair of the current FOMA session for another year, and then to support them, Mrs. Emirjana Sako, mayor of Durres from Albania, as vice chair for one year. And it's a break with past practices where we change every year. I think the FOMA Mayors is becoming, well, not only a permanent platform, because it is, it'll be the sixth session. as we speak, and therefore, continuity over the work of the Forum of Mayors is important. The role of the chairs and the vice chairs you have seen in these two days is very relevant. You only see the outcome of one year of work from the chairs and vice chairs and their teams. I want to acknowledge as well the teams behind the chair and the vice chairs, which work with us at the Secretariat, and given the challenges that cities face some continuity around working with the people and bringing forward the work that the former mayor has been doing over the last six years into a seventh year, particularly this challenging time as we look, as we embark on new discussions around the post 2030 agenda, we thought Collectively, that is a good idea. I don't need to introduce them. You have heard them a lot. And therefore, I would like to invite mayors to express their support for the proposed candidates for the chair position. the two vice chairs position, as well as the representative of Geneva, unless there are objections, of course, who is ex officio, the deputy mayor of Geneva, excuse me, Christina Kitsos, as deputy, as vice chair of ex officio. So with that, I would like to ask for your support and those who, should we have a raise of hands for the support? I know, I know, I know. Of course, the Secretariat is correcting because it's that our objection should raise their hands. But I think it's nicer when you see people who are actually in favor. So everybody who is in favor of this current slate of candidates, raise their hands, please. Very good. Who is against? Oh, let me ask, who's against? None. So I would say that congratulations to the chair, the vice chair, the vice chairs. Congratulations. Thank you very much. Thank you for all of your support from you, from the mayors. I'm sure that, I don't think that we need a speech from the chair and the vice chair, because I think, you know, they heard you a lot these two days, so I don't think we need a specific speech. I thank you. Instead, we will communicate. Unfortunately, the vice chair could not be here with us today, the second vice chair, but she's with us in spirit. And I think with that, then we'll give it back to the chair. Please, join us here on the podium and congratulations.

Yeah, many thanks again, also in the name of Tony and the whole team. I think it's great that you support us. I think it's also very important that we have, yeah, also as a political persons here. beside the office, a continuity. This helps a lot to run the sometimes not so easy discussion with all the important persons which you meet and greet and where you try to achieve a trustees cooperation. So wonderful. Many thanks also in the name of everybody who was elected. We will have the next meeting. in Heidelberg, just for the officers and for the smaller group to discuss the next steps. I think this is very important, and we believe that this structure is really outstanding. It's absolutely important to get this, that it's outstanding, and that we are happy to be in such a position. We come now to the closing remarks. Now, before we wanted to have from your side also a voice, a momentum. Are we going in the right direction with our structure? What shall we change? What are you missing? Please feel free just to give us a few suggestions and comments back. what we can optimize or where you're very happy, where you say, wow, this was very good, the topics are good. And I also wanted to mention that we will, that's our vision, wanted to concentrate on SDG 4, 10, 12, 15, and 17 next year when we met maybe in the same room. I think this is a wonderful room. Vaipol is great hosting us, and it's also a good venue place. If you have any ideas, comments, please raise your hand that we try to become better. Any comments? No comments. Are you happy? Okay. Please. Yeah. Press, press.

Yes.

Thank you.

Congratulations again for the spirit and for making it all possible. I believe, and we have been talking about it for some time, financing is an issue. And I believe it should be addressed more thoroughly and eventually with case studies and examples on how we can top up and develop blended finance solutions. Aligned with this, I think the impact measurement with financing and investment, likewise, the organizations behind it.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. We had already a huge debate about it. Yes, we will do so. I think that's very important also to think about not the subsidy programs from World Bank, so this can be also one point, but also the local and regional potentials which we have to create our own revenues on the local level. So yes, we will take care about it. Very good intervention. We have another intervention over there, please.

Yes.

Thank you very much. So first, thank you for the invitation and for having organized the event. I think it has been very necessary, but also it has been very fruitful. Also, I know this takes a lot of work to prepare, so I'd like to thank everybody who did. So, A recommendation, perhaps, it might be good, so I'll support what was said about financing and decentralization. There are many different examples thereof and different ways town halls operate. We are ready to learn in Chile from other approaches to centralization and resource management. That would be good to see other examples, but also Inequalities of economic development and employment are other important issues. We have a huge problem with employment, especially young women. Around 23% is their unemployment rate. So of the 1 million unemployed, around 10%. This has been going on for a long time. We haven't recovered after the pandemic. So, we need to see what responses can be provided and what our neighbors are doing to do that. So, once again, thank you for the organization and the invitation.

Okay, yes, absolutely. Unemployment, especially for the young generation, an absolutely heavy point. Yeah. The Global Cities Hub has a comment.

Thank you very much, Chair. And first, allow me to congratulate the next Bureau. And thank also the outgoing Bureau. It's been fantastic to work with you, and thank you for driving the Forum of Mayors forward. Just a suggestion with regard to the next Forum of Mayors. We've discussed it, but I think we get closer to the 2030 deadline. And therefore, it would be also important to leave some space in order for mayors, deputy mayors, cities to brainstorm about what should be the next sustainable development agenda. Of course, states will decide on the format and what should be in, but I think it would be important for cities to also have their say about what they want to see after 2030. And if you allow me, since I have the floor, I also would like to congratulate all mayors, deputy mayors for the very good outcome document. And I really would like to emphasize two political messages that are contained in that outcome document. First, that indeed the forum is an effective body for cities worldwide to exchange knowledge, share good practices, local solution. But more than that, the Forum is really a body that enables mayors to engage with the United Nations and link their reality to international frameworks. So that's a very important point. And the second point is that the outcome document also underlines the need to strengthen, to expand the Forum's role within the UN system. And that's very important if you really want to enhance the participation of local and regional governments in the UN. We need, you know, states not only to renew the mandate of the Forum of Mayors, and hopefully they will do it tomorrow for two, three years, but also to think about ways to bring it up into the UN system, because, you know, we want the voices and experiences of cities to deserve a stronger place in multilateral decision-making. And I think states really have an opportunity to do so by thinking about where to position the form of mayors and to make it a little bit more important within the UN system. Thank you.

Many thanks. Wonderful. Any other comments, Colombo? Yes.

Sorry. Thank you. This program is a greater success. Our warm congratulations to everyone involved. It gives us hope, confidence, and courage to believe that we can achieve great things when we work together as one team. Together, we can turn our shared goals into real success. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Any other comments, ideas from your side? This is not the case, so many thanks for. Yes, please. Oh, yeah, sorry.

Good afternoon to you all. Just to also thank the UN for this invitation. Huge thanks from the sovereign people of Ecuador. These are in a strengthened democracy and our Congratulations to colleagues, mayors. I believe that unity is the way forward to provide real solutions to our peoples in these fora. We need to continue to develop networks, learn from success stories of all the mayors present here. leave here with the best of impressions and intending to replicate in my country what we have learned here. So we need to stay united and let us not forget that we are here to change our citizens' lives for good. That is our purpose.

Yeah, wonderful. Nearly closing remarks already. Wonderful. So if there are no other comments, we try to work in this direction, also with the office. If you have any ideas, please don't hesitate to contact us. We are your office. I think this is very important. And I wanted to finalize then and come to the conclusion that I think, I feel, everybody who is here in the room as political leader and also those who are supporting us, in my opinion, has given me a very positive reaction. We are fruitful, we are thankful that we're here. The experience exchange was good. We're going also in details. We had a huge debate after the meetings also. I think this was wonderful. This was very good organized, and therefore, first of all, I want to thank Dario, the whole team, to you, my friends, to also the persons who are behind the scene, who are working here, also those who are working here in close cooperation with us. So UNECE is great. Our CUP is great here. Your support is also wonderful. Also the interpreters who supported us, so give them all a big hug and a big applause, please. Wonderful work, wonderful. And believe me, it's hard if you do so, and we all have to recognize that only if we are effective, we have the legal frame to get some money to run such programs. And therefore, it's very important also that the UN noticed that there are really mayors, lady mayors from all over the world who are discussing, who are talking to each other, who are not fighting each other, not throwing bombs to each other, just thinking that we can create a better world if we're working on a global scale closer together. And I think what we are trying to achieve every day, and everybody is living in our cities equal where they're coming from, which color their skin had, or which religion they are believing. They are welcome, they are citizens, and we try to behave like a huge family. And this is, I think, something which is a treasure. Therefore, those meetings are so important that we notice that our colleagues from Colombo, from Rochester Hill, from Dakar, anywhere from the world are meeting here and having nearly the same mind. Maybe not the same situation, absolutely, this is different, but the same mindset that we have to play a role, and a political leader has not only to play a role on the local level. If we can change something, we have to do so, and then we have to creates such structures, not we, with friends, and we are happy that UNECE is seeing this in such a clear message, and that we are now a UN body is really not just a thing, it's really a big change. And we have to work in this direction also in the future. So many thanks for attending. It's wonderful to have you all, to work together with you. And I will hand over now to the master of the universe, sorry, to Dario, who is really the person who is supporting us with his team in an absolutely great way. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, chair. Thank you very much. I won't try to synthesize. Two days of very rich discussions and exchanges. I was very glad as well to have a number of bilateral meetings. We got a lot of ideas and inspirations. We are going through, and I think this sixth session of the forum has shown that we are trying transforming the Forum of Mayors to be more impactful, to be more responsive to the challenges that the mayors have, to be more inclusive. It is happening in the difficult moment. I don't need for the UN, we don't need to talk about the difficulties outside, but inside the UN house, there are difficulties, as you know. But we have the support of our member states in continuing this work. We will be bringing the results of these discussions the next three days at the committee in the Palais, just across the road. We will bring them the political discussions, the technical exchanges, the views, some of the comments and some of the suggestions that came from you, and it will be discussed that with the member states. There is a big decision around the revision of the terms of reference, how this formal mayors works. There will be discussions with member states around those. Of course, after five or six years, anything needs, and we learn throughout these five or six years how to do better. And so there are proposals to change some of the mechanics around the fund of mayors. There is the question that our partners from the Global Cities Hub have addressed so eloquently, which is, where, what should be the role and what should be the governance position of the Forum of Mayors within the larger UN system. That is a discussion, an ongoing discussion with member states, and that we will continue that discussion with the member states. You know, we're going through revision of how the UN should be fit for the 21st century. This is part of it. This is part of a much larger conversation that takes place in New York, takes place at the Palais just behind our shoulders, takes place in this room as well. And so we will be working on that. We will be working on making sure, as I said, that the forum responds to your expectations. We will continue working on making it more inclusive. And in this, I want to thank the regional commissions, my colleagues from the regional commissions. and the Global Cities Hub, who support the participation of mayors from outside the UNICE region and coming here and bringing their perspectives. I wish to thank the team, Thea, Monica, Olga, Vlad, Tamara, Olga D, Mike, Javier, Guillermo, for having worked so hard in making this possible. It takes months to prepare this meeting, and I want to thank as well the WIPO team here for hosting us, for having such a beautiful room and the logistics. I wish to thank, and let's not forget, a super important role, the interpreters. Please join me in saying thank you to the interpreters. They make possible us speak to each other, communicate, exchange. Without them, we wouldn't be able to exchange as we did over these two years. So thank you for your work, and thank you. I know it's hard to be an interpreter, so thank you very much for your work. And I wish the best of luck. No, we are in it together, so I cannot wish the best luck to the new chair and new vice chair. And I know the secretariat here is asking for the floor, so please, Thea.

Thank you, thank you, Dario. I didn't want to interrupt your closing remarks. I just wanted to inform you that after this plenary session, there will be still an event, which you should not miss. And I just wanted to remind you about it. There will be an event entitled Voluntary Local Reviews. as a process and implementation path. So this event will take place at the Global Cities Hub's headquarters at Villa Rigaux, starting from 6:15, and it will be followed by a reception. So everybody's warmly welcome to attend this event. And also then tomorrow, Thus, Wednesday, tomorrow's Wednesday, there will be the 87th session of the UNEC Committee on Urban Development, Housing, and Land Management. That will be a three-day session. Some of you have registered, because you have to register separately if you want to attend that meeting, which is in the Palais des Nations this time. at the Council Chamber. And at that meeting tomorrow morning, member states and also local governments will be presenting good practice on housing affordability and sustainability. In the afternoon, your chair, Mayor Würzner, will be presenting the outcomes of this meeting to the Intergovernmental Committee. And the committee will also be discussing the terms of reference of the committee and of the Forum of Mayors. So there are many topical issues for your interest. Also, the committee will be discussing urban resilience, artificial intelligence in urban planning, local and national voluntary review, so many interesting topics. Then, on the 14th of October, also tomorrow morning, to individually invited mayors, you have a program at the World Economic Forum. And finally, starting from 8:30 to 10, there is a capacity building event that you have received information on, organized by UNITAC and UNHABIT, and that will also take place at the Villa Rigo tomorrow morning. So the program is not fully over, but there's many interesting things still to follow. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you very much. And unless there are any Final comments.

The session is closed. Welcome back next year.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.