Local2030 Coalition Special Event "Advancing SDG 11 and the New Urban Agenda: Local Action for Global Acceleration"(HLPF Side Event)

Thank you. Good afternoon. Buenas tardes. Thank you very much. We can all get seated. Thank you very much. One more year with a full room, and more than the number of people is the energy in the room that is so beautiful, and it's also the energy that is bringing this movement of localization from member states to local and regional governments, to civil society organizations, to private sector entities, to youth organizations, to academia. We see in the room all these familiar faces that are contributing to the movement that localization is becoming the backbone of the remaining of the SDGs and of also the incipient effort to bring all these forces towards Beyond 2030. So thank you very much for being all here, and without further ado, I will turn to Ms. Ana-Claudia Rosbach, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlement Programme, UN-Habitat, for opening remarks. Thank you.

Thank you, Sebastian. Good afternoon.

everyone.

Ms. Isabel Rodríguez García, Minister of Housing and Urban Agenda from Spain. My colleague, partner, Tatiana Mosian, Under-Secretary-General of the UN and the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. Excellencies, mayors, local authorities, stakeholders, colleagues, It is really my honour to be with you today. I was just sharing here with my neighbours that this is an unusual event, I believe, when we look at the landscape of the High-Level Political Forum and the UN, because the levels of energy that I always find— last year was the same— when I come here to this group is really, really different, and it makes us work in a different vibration, in a different level. I see here friends and partners, and we have been through many, many things together, and it creates a unique connection among us. But this year, for UN-Habitat, this discussion is extremely relevant. We just came from a review of the SDG 11 last week. We launched our report. We could identify that we had progress in some areas. We do have more people accessing public transportation. We do have more people accessing waste services. We do have more countries that have national urban policies. However, we still have half of the glass empty. We still have many, many people that are not accessing public transportation, that are not accessing access to waste services, to water. This is a year of a UN Water Conference. We are reviewing SDG 6, and it's unacceptable that we still have almost 2 billion people without access to adequate water. Air quality, public spaces— these are all areas where we are lagging behind, but I think the major area of concern is actually housing, informal settlements. It's very clear that the global housing crisis is hitting really hard and affecting affordability across the globe. When we talk about access to safe housing, well-located housing, when we talk about addressing the issues and the challenges at the informal settlements, making sure that households are connected to the basic, to the minimum in terms of service— water, sanitation, waste— we are not only talking about housing, we are talking about much more than housing. We are talking about health, we are talking about employment, we are talking about dignity, we are talking about safety for women and girls. So there is much beyond housing itself. Of course, climate action, depending on how and where we build the houses and the footprint that we leave behind. So it's concerning that we see SDG 11 off track, but at the same time, it's encouraging to see this community coming together. Tomorrow and the day after, we are going to review the New Urban Agenda at its midpoint, at the high-level meeting by the President of the General Assembly, Member States have been assessing the progress of the New Urban Agenda through their reports, through several other engagements. We just came from a very successful World Urban Forum in Baku, in Azerbaijan, where we had 58,000 people participating, 176 countries present, 11 heads of state, a record-breaking presence of United Nations in the World Urban Forum, strong presence of local stakeholders, governments, universities, community-based organizations, universities, private sector. For the first time, we had an innovations hub engaging startups, but also the well-established private sector, a Woof Academy, a practices space. So we could see that we do have a strong global community that's mobilized around the issues of the New Urban Agenda. This is encouraging when we look at the next years of SDG 11 until 2030 and SDG 6, but also when we look at the next 10 years of the New Urban Agenda. But today we are here to talk about a coalition, a coalition that also speaks to everything that's happening to the UN, to the reform of the UN. I have been saying, and I heard yesterday that I should repeat that more and more, that this coalition is unique in the sense that it brings 15 UN agencies together, and it's a direct line with local stakeholders, about localization, about territorialization. We are permanent chairs, but we are co-chairing now with the UN Economic Commission for Europe, and we have then plus 13 other UN organizations that are, as we speak, improving their understanding of the complexities that exist on the ground, at the local level, at the territorial level, and helping us as a system to think through how can we have more impact, how can we work better together, how can we collaborate, how we can mobilize the finances that are needed at the local level, sub-nationally, through national, looking at the international resources that we have available, the partnerships, the coalitions that we can build to support action. I believe this coalition Combined with the Platform for Localizing the SDGs, with these spaces, with these mechanisms, we can play a strong role as the UN in bridging this gap, which became the last mile in terms of delivery, but should have been the first one. We should have been engaged locally from the beginning. Right now, we understand We have a last mile and a gap that I believe more and more we agree that this last mile is local, and without the local action, we will not be there. I think this coalition has generated already very concrete outputs and mechanisms, so there's a real platform for action. that was launched in Seville. I think it's a very important mechanism, bringing the civil society, the private sector, the academia, to really make sure that we think through, we have the critical mass, but we also design and develop the financial mechanisms to get there. Through the Bilbao Bootcamp and the Joint SDG Fund, With strong support from the government of Spain— thank you— the Basque government, we have been able to really identify projects, mobilize finance using some seed fund. From €800 million, we generated over €235 million in terms of investment. This is concrete action on the ground. I will conclude now my speech with Yes, thank you. Basically, a couple of messages. Let's look at SDG 11, especially SDG 11.1, Housing and Informal Settlements, as a critical entry point for us to achieve all SDGs. It's just not possible for us to achieve the other goals if people don't have a roof over their heads and the security that is required. The second aspect is really to make sure that we keep working on the finances. Everywhere we go, we hear that finances are the bottlenecks, but I believe through this coalition, through our work together, we have already identified some pathways and the, of course, overall global commitment from Sevilla, and let's keep going. Make sure that the social needs, the climate imperative, the New Urban Agenda connects with the resources that we have available and that we can make available to make the localization of the SDGs agenda happen. Finally, let us carry the Baku Call to Action, the learnings from the WUF13, the midterm review of the New Urban Agenda, towards the 2027 SDG Summit. We will not be able to solve all the crises in a couple of years, but I do believe we can bring the stakeholders, the coalitions that we need, and connect the know-how that is already there. Thank you.

Thank you very much, and I will now give the floor to Ms. Tatiana Molseyan, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of UNICEF and Co-Chair of the Local 2030 Coalition.

Thank you so much, Sébastien, and let me start by saying that I share Executive Director Ana-Claudia's feeling that it's a very vibrant meeting, and I have been attending these days quite a few, HLPF meetings. And this is— I don't know if you're not fans of football or you're just so committed to the discussion. So I'm still— but I've heard someone is watching the match there. Just tell us the score at one point. So, Excellencies, ministers, ladies and gentlemen, it's really a pleasure and an honor to join in as co-chairs of the Local 2030 Coalition on UNICEF's behalf. These discussions. And from the outset, Ana Cláudia, I would like to thank you for setting these discussions, for how you— your remarks on housing, human settlements, the New Urban Agenda. I think it's very important that they are finally at the center of our discussions. And I would like just to add and maybe emphasize a few points from how we see it, from the experience, from our engagements. And one essential dimension, this focus, institutional connection that enable local action to become sustained national progress, and ultimately not only national but global impact. For UNICEF, localization is how the 2030 Agenda becomes operational at the territorial level— water, energy, sustainable cities, and partnership. This is where it all comes together. Decisions on land, housing, transport, public services, and resilience are all very well closed and connected to each other. Yet somehow our governance, planning, and financing systems too often treat this in isolation. I mean, at national but also at the global level. So in a way, in order to translate all of these global commitments into results for people and countries, we need the first shift, and that is we need to move from consultation kind of process, if it's a real consultation sometimes, just listening and taking note without real consultation, but moving even from that further to a real multi-level governance. So governance, not just consultation. Local and regional governments, not— I mean, they don't have to be consulted only when the national plans and programs are already prepared. They have to contribute to their design, implementation, financing, and also to the review process. This is also very important. Another very important message that we kept also reinforcing, and you mentioned this as well, local perspective must also be incorporated into the United Nations processes. Yes, and not only when the SDG 11 is under review like this year, it has to be every year because I agree, it's all SDGs depend also if it's a mainstreaming exercise And this has to be one very important takeaway for all of us. And we have some of the vehicles, some of the examples how to achieve this. You might know that— I mean, UNICEF and the United Nations Forum of Mayors that we have been organizing provides one of these examples, that as a body of the United Nations, we give this perspective and possibility to the cities, mayors, to engage effectively, directly with member states. And with the whole process, not only through intermediary offered by the governance discussion, multilateral discussions. And we want to elevate this to make it really a genuine individual capacity participation for regions, for cities of different sizes. That's a very important question, you know, different sizes, different capacity, regions' capacities. And we really need to think very well about this, partnerships and engagement if we want to achieve something meaningful for sustainable development. One second shift that I think is very important, and again engaging and seeing so many discussions, we have a very fragmented reporting. I mean, from this fragmented reporting, we have to move to something more continuous chain of evidence and accountability. The voluntary local reviews, Yes, they help assess progress and identify priorities, but their full potential is not realized yet, and they— it will be realized only when we'll have a true engagement with local data, which should not be at the margin somewhere of national reporting. This— the local, the data, the engagement— it must help shape national policy. And this is where it requires stronger links between local monitoring system, national statistical frameworks, but also for global frameworks. And the third shift that I think that we all need, we have to— I mean, individual projects, yes, but we need to elevate this to systems really that are capable to scale up all of these efforts and financing mechanisms as well. Cities and territories are quite innovative already, but it's very important that we ensure that this not stays isolated. This is our problem that we see, and I agree with you that the recent Bilbao boot camp provided a very, very good example. And I mean, with the Local 2030 Coalition, the Joint SDG Fund, the government, the Basque government, it is really helping, you know, territories move from local priority towards a more structured type of dialogue and with scalable solutions. So we need more of this kind of activities, and this is a truly collaborative United Nations effort. This is how we should work, and this is where we should learn how to scale up the solutions that can be adapted, replicated, and scaled. It's not bad to copy good things, just to adapt them. So this is what we should do. The regional dimension is essential. This is why, as a regional economic commission, together with our colleagues from all the regional commissions, we can bridge and help in this effort, and we are ready to do so. So not only UNECE, but really all of us, to have these global commitments, country-level implementation. We can also provide support with the convening national and local governments adapt global frameworks to regional realities, but also to facilitate cooperation among countries and cities. We will, as co-chairs, but not only, even without having this hat, you know that we are always ready to work with UN-Habitat and the Joint SDG Fund and with the entire UN system, I would say, when it comes to achieving the objectives of the coalition. And as we look forward to the 2027 SDG Summit, one important message, and the final one from my side, is that I think, in this context, we have to understand that success should not be measured only by the commitments we announce or the pilots we launched. It should be measured by whether local priorities are reflected in national plans and budget. So, let's agree that this will be an indicator that we measure. And I stop here. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much, Tatjana. Thank you very much. I will now pass the floor to Her Excellency Isabel Rodríguez García, Minister of Housing and Urban Agenda of Spain, thanking you for the leadership and the championing of Spain, not only on the Local 2030 Coalition, but in general on localization at global level.

Thank you very much, Sebastian. Good afternoon, Madam Executive Director of UN-Habitat, Ms. Ana Claudia. Executive Secretary of UNECE, Director of the Agenda 2030 for Spain and Director of the Spanish Urban Agenda, and other members of the Spanish government that are joining us, authorities, representatives of national, regional, and local governments, dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, it is for me an honor to participate in this special event of the Local Coalition 2030 to localize the SDGs in order to accelerate integrated solutions. I would like to underline with my presence Spain's support to this coalition. The Secretariat will be hosted in Bilbao, of course, with the support of the Basque government. It is proof of my country's commitment to the SDGs, something which has been recognized today by the SG of the UN, Antonio Guterres, who has—

Thank you.

Recognized Pedro Sánchez, the president of our government, as a co-president of the champions of these SDGs. The SDGs— we are convinced of this— are capable of transforming the daily lives of people, cities, communities, and territories. And the international community that has recognized this also plays a key role in urban development. Since 2016, When we approved the New Urban Agenda in Quito, we recalled that urbanization is not just a demographic and physical phenomenon, but rather it is also an opportunity to transform our societies. And that New Urban Agenda and its review convenes us here for these next 2 days in the United Nations. Spain endorsed it in 2019, our national urban policy, the Spanish Urban Agenda. It is a strategic framework that is aligned with Agenda 2030. And our goal is to offer a methodology, a common methodology for all our local administrations to translate these major global commitments into specific action plans that are adapted to our reality. The Spanish Urban Agenda does not seek people who work with it out of obligation, but rather partners, partners for planning, participation, indicators, evaluation and multi-level governance. And today we can say that the implementation of the Spanish Urban Agenda and with that the localization of the SDGs urban goals is not just reality but an achievement. And the Spanish experience in applying these SDGs is— there are different processes of course, but for us they are deeply, deeply complementary. The Local Coalition 2030 is championing the localization of Agenda 2030 with all of its goals and we have developed it in the Spanish Urban Agenda. And this link is especially relevant in this high-level political forum in 2026 where these goals that are intrinsically linked have been reviewed: SDG number 6, water and sanitation; 7, affordable and sustainable energy; 11 on cities and sustainable communities; and 17 on partnerships. Our cities and communities. These goals go together: access to water, decent housing, sustainable mobility, regenerating communities, climate resiliency. All of this is part of a single transformative agenda for our territories. In Spain, we believe that localizing SDGs depends on 4 critical elements: multilevel effective governance, that includes all levels of government and society. Second, improving local capacities, especially in towns with fewer technical resources. And third, sufficient financing and well-guided financing that can support priorities defined by localities. And fourth, and of course this is very important, an approach that is linked within our competencies to local planning in the framework of the New Urban Agenda. Spain would like to contribute to this effort by sharing our experiences with other countries in fora such as this one that are in such great demand as we can see. And we believe that our methodology is an open one. It is flexible. It can be adapted. And we also seek to incorporate good practices from other countries. And I would be remiss if I did not mention how important decent and affordable housing is for us. The housing crisis that we are experiencing today is one of the biggest urban and social challenges in many regions in the world. In my country, this is true as well. Therefore, we want to push forward SDG 11, and we want to put housing at the very center, and we want to localize the SDGs in this manner. Spain has worked very hard on this in recent years. I would like to just briefly share with you that we have a law on the right to housing, a law on quality architecture, And we have created new infrastructure to build public housing in our country, and we have provided funding. These policies, as we heard, are impossible without financing. We have assigned reconstruction funds after COVID to housing policies and a specific budget from Spain that is being assigned to roll out this major public housing project. We have about €7 billion that we will provide to different localities in order to build that public housing that we need. We are also pushing to restore existing housing units and therefore improve sustainability and accessibility and also ensure that we have higher quality housing. And yes, we've done a lot, but we know that it is not enough and we do feel there is a need to specifically address the needs of the most vulnerable in order to effectively implement the Universal Human Rights Declaration as well as other international commitments. And this is where localizing the goals is critical. We can have all the tools and instruments available from the government of Spain, but if there is no implementation at the level of municipalities or autonomous communities at a district level, then we will not be showing up for vulnerable people that do need those resources. Therefore, here, implementation, local implementation of all of our actions is absolutely critical so we can reach people that need it the most. And I think that this final stretch for the SDGs should be an accelerator. And it is difficult to accelerate things when there are new challenges. And without a doubt, in recent years, We have seen new challenges, the dramatic impacts of climate change, wars that are destroying what we have already built, a housing crisis that I just mentioned. All of this affects our actions, but the experience and impulse of recent years makes us sure of the fact that Agenda 2030 and its goals are a guarantee of a better future for all. We need less fragmentation and more cooperation, fewer isolated diagnoses and more implementation, less distance between the agendas that here we are debating, and it requires addressing the daily lives of our citizens. Spain, my country, will continue to be committed to the United Nations UN-Habitat as well as the Local 2030 Coalition and all partners that are present here in order to accelerate that localization of the SDGs, to reinforce the new urban agenda, and to move towards cities and communities that are more inclusive, safer, resilient, and more sustainable for a better life for all people. I thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam Minister.

This gives an end to the opening session, the high-level opening, and we will now enter the ministerial segment. Countries' Perspectives on SDG Localization and the Road to the SDG Summit 2027. Here again, we see the increasing commitment, engagement of so many member states around localization. I will start with the intervention of His Excellency Kitila A. Mkumbo, Minister of State, President's Office, Planning and Investment of Tanzania. I will ask you a question, Mr. Minister. What role do national planning and public investment systems play in enabling SDG localization? Based on Tanzania experience, what helps scale successful local solutions nationwide? How can initiatives such as the SEVI Platform for Action on Localizing Finance help unlock greater financing for local action?

Thank you very much, Mr. Moderator, for giving us the opportunity to comment on this very important topic, and also thank you very much for asking me very difficult questions, and I will try to respond to them. Firstly, I must say that this is a very important discussion on the SDG localization because It is at the local level that things are supposed to be happening and that is where the action is supposed to be happening. At the national level, we are very good at planning, but really, in terms of execution, this should be happening at the local level. Now, for us, what we are saying is that we have what we call the National Planning Commission. This is the national planning body whose role is to, among other things, to provide guidelines, for planning across various government institutions, including local government authorities. And the local government— I mean, the National Planning Commission approves all the national and local government plans. So one of the roles is to ensure that we approve their plans, and in approving those plans, we ensure that they have aligned the plans at that level with the international, regional, and national development agenda, including the SDG 2030, but also, of course, for us in Africa, is also critical Agenda 2063, and also aligning with our own national development plans. We have a gateway through the national planning which approves all the plans, and that includes ensuring that the SDGs have been aligned properly.

appropriately.

In terms of the lessons that we are able to learn, you know, what we learn here is that in our country, our governance system is at 2 levels. We have the national level, which is really responsible for setting up the high-level policy and legal frameworks, and then we have the local government authorities, which are responsible in executing the national plans at the local level. So when we have creative local solutions, we ensure that these are institutionalized at the local level. Of course, first of all, identify, recognize, and integrate them into our systems. And now we have come up with a system whereby we have the national— we are going to be having the national annual events where we convene the national meeting, bringing together all the key stakeholders, including local government authorities, to share lessons and experiences across a wide range of sectors. Lastly, for us, the local government authorities are not just the beneficiaries, they're actually active participants, and therefore every sector is supposed to include in their reporting One of the KPIs is to indicate to what extent the local participation has been ensured in the implementation of the plans that we have. That has become a very important indicator for that matter. Of course, lastly, in terms of the private sector participation, we have identified, and it's now an important part of our plans, that we have to unlock the private capital and recognition that governments alone cannot be able to achieve the dreams that we have, including the SDGs. I think that the platforms such as the SEVILA can be very helpful in terms of providing experience in terms of innovative financing at the local level, including, for example, the green financing mechanism, which in Africa and in my country remains hugely untapped, and of course also experiences within the framework of the public-private sector partnership. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Excellency. Thank you for reminding us the importance of aligning local, national, regional, and global plans, policies, and investments to advance the SDGs. Not only at public level, but also fostering private sector engagement. Thank you also for being a prominent member of the Sevilla Platform for Action on Localizing Finance since day one, when it was launched by UN-Habitat, the OECD, and Spain, Tanzania being an important champion within the platform. The platform is growing with new countries coming in, so this is also a good dynamic that we are seeing. Thank you very much. I will now turn to His Excellency Anar Guliyev, Chairman of the State Committee on Urban Planning Architecture, SCUPA, of the Republic of Azerbaijan and President of the National— National Coordinator, sorry, of the WUF-13. Thank you very much.

Dear Ms. Ana Cláudia Rosbach, dear Ms. Tatiana Malchan, Excellencies, And territorial contexts. Today, cities and communities are on the frontline of climate change, housing pressures, inequality, and post-crisis recovery. At the same time, they are where global commitments are translated into tangible improvements in people's daily lives. SDG localization is the bridge between national ambition and local delivery. This is particularly relevant as SDG 11 is under review at this year's High-Level Political Forum. At the same time, the 10-year review of the New Urban Agenda provides an important opportunity to reinforce the alignment between sustainable urbanization and the SDGs. These processes remind us that local action is not simply a dimension of global acceleration; it is one of its most important drivers. Azerbaijan's experience proves that effective localization begins with a strong institutional foundation. In 2016, by a degree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the National Coordination Council on Sustainable Development was established as the national mechanism for coordinating the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. This institutional framework has enabled Azerbaijan to nationalize the SDGs through an inclusive consultation process involving public institutions, civil society, the business community, youth, and international organizations. The SDGs are firmly reflected in our national priorities for social-economic development, Azerbaijan 2030, which focus on sustainable economic growth, social inclusion, a clean environment, and effective governance. As the State Committee on Urban Planning and Architecture, spatial planning is one of our main instruments for putting the localization principle into practice. So far, master plans have been renewed for 68 out of 79 cities of the country. These are not simply technical planning documents, and their contribution extends well beyond SDG 11. By integrating land use, housing, sustainable mobility, public services, green spaces, energy, and resilient infrastructure, master planning also supports progress on SDG 1 on poverty reduction, SDG 5 on gender equality, SDG 7 on clean energy, SDG 9 on resilient infrastructure and innovation, and SDG 17 on partnerships and all others. To ensure efficient implementation of SDGs, which influence all aspects of life in cities, Azerbaijan strategically centralized master planning to the national level. By this, national planning framework allows us to ensure quality of planning and supports local implementation. This requires even closer collaboration with regional and local authorities. Such cooperation helps us to strengthen the capacities of local actors, improve coordination across levels of government. In this sense, master planning serves as a practical instrument of SDG localization and implementation of New Urban Agenda, connecting national development priorities with local needs, building local capacity, and translating the SDGs into tangible spatial and investment decisions. Our national approach has also responded responded to Azerbaijan's specific development realities. In 2023, Azerbaijan has developed at the national level SDG 18 on mine action. This is highly relevant to localization. In territories affected by landmines, sustainable local development begins with the ability of communities to return safely, rebuild their lives, and regain access to land, services, and economic opportunities. Azerbaijan's large-scale reconstruction of the liberated territories provides another important example of localization in a post-conflict context. Under the Great Return State Program and guided by the principle of building back better, we are creating resilient, inclusive, and sustainable cities and communities. To manage the scale and complexity of reconstruction in the liberated areas of Karabakh and Nizhny Ngizli regions, Azerbaijan has established an institutional governance and coordination system. It connects central government institutions, local authorities and implementing bodies with an integrated framework— within an integrated framework for planning and delivery. As of today, master plans have been developed for all 12 cities and more than 100 towns and villages of this region, which covers 20% of the country's territory. Housing is being developed alongside education, healthcare, infrastructure and public services. First neighbourhoods are already settled and inhabited back in 47 settlements, including 10 cities, 3 towns, and 34 villages. Our broader experience also shows that SDG implementation requires cooperation across society. Since 2022, Azerbaijan has institutionalized multi-stakeholder engagements through the SDG Dialogue Series jointly with UN Office in Azerbaijan. Over the period 2022-26, 8 SDG dialogues have brought together government, the UN, private sector, civil society, international financial institutions, and development partners. They addressed green transformation, social inclusion, education, climate action, and financing. Besides, the Baku Forum on Sustainable Development, convened in 2018 and 2023, has also created a broader international platform for dialogue on sustainable investment, digitalization, climate resilience, and institutional development. This same approach on localization and participation was strongly reflected at WUF XIII, hosted in Baku in May this year, under the theme Housing the World: Safe and Resilient Cities and Communities. WUF XIII brought together 58,000 participants from 176 countries. As a key global platform for advancing the New Urban Agenda, WUF XIII placed strong emphasis on moving from global commitments to local implementation. The Forum welcomed 130 mayors alongside ministers and other senior officials, demonstrating the strong engagement of local leadership in shaping the global urban agenda. Civil society had a particularly visible role. For the first time at WUF, an NGO Forum was convened, creating a dedicated platform for civil society organizations to bring locally rooted perspectives and solutions into the global urban dialogue. The localization agenda also extended well beyond the forum venue. During Baku Urban Week, around 60 events highlighted urban development perspectives and brought discussions on sustainable cities and the implementation of the SDGs at the local level. The Baku Call to Action carried this message forward. It calls for strengthening people-led and localized interventions to advance resilient infrastructure, renewable energy, basic services, livelihoods, and social networks. This reflects a principle central to today's discussion: local actors and communities must not simply be beneficiaries of sustainable development. In this way, the outcomes of WUF-13 provide an important contribution to the 10-year review of the New Urban Agenda, reinforce its alignment with SDG 11 and the wider 2030 Agenda. As we move forward— as we move towards the SDG Summit 2027, our message is clear: The final path to 2030 must be a local one, but also a shared one. Azerbaijan stands ready to contribute its experience and work closely with the Member States and partners to achieve the agenda.

I thank you.

Thank you very much, Excellency. Congratulations again on a great WUF. I think the biggest ever with 58,000 participants, and thank you for making the link between the World Urban Forum, the New Urban Agenda, SDG 11, and for presenting the whole architecture of multi-level governance that it takes to advance the SDGs in Azerbaijan. I will now turn to His Excellency Claudio Barbaro, Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Environment and Energy Security of Italy. The question will be the following: Italy has played a leading role in advancing national SDG localization frameworks. through the Partnership Platform on Localizing the SDGs. Based on this experience, how can this framework strengthen multilevel governance and help connect national commitments and local priorities to deliver territorial transformation?

Dear moderator, distinguished colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for this opportunity to speak and for a question that goes to the very heart of implementing the 2030 Agenda. With only a few years remaining until 2030 and the SDGs, it is becoming increasingly clear that our success will depend on our ability to translate national and global commitments into concrete change on the ground. It is at the local level that public policies meet citizens, that investments generate tangible impacts, and that the major sustainability challenges of our time on a real and everyday dimension. For this reason, SDG localization is not only an additional component— it's not an additional component of the 2030 Agenda, it is one of the essential conditions for its success. Italy's experience confirms this conviction. Over the past years, we have invested in building a model based on multilevel governance, stakeholder engagement, and policy coherence for sustainable development.

Thank you.

We have worked to ensure that sustainable development is not treated as a sectoral policy, but rather as a guiding principle capable of shaping public action across all levels of government. This process has led to the development of the territorial sustainable development strategies and agendas across all Italian regions and autonomous provinces, as well as to the growing involvement of metropolitan cities and local authorities in planning, monitoring, and reporting processes. Italy's voluntary national review presented this year also includes 14 voluntary local reviews developed with the participation of 15 territorial administrations. It is precisely from this experience that the work carried out together with UN-Habitat under the Partnership Platform on Localizing the SDGs emerged. Along this journey, we learned that SDG localization requires more than isolated initiatives or individual local projects. It requires a framework capable of bringing together institutions, strategies, resources, and stakeholders around a shared vision of sustainable development. This understanding led to the development of the National SDG Localization Frameworks These frameworks are built upon a solid methodology that has developed over time through Italy's experience, UN-Habitat's work, and continuous dialogue with partners— partner countries. This methodology will soon be consolidated in dedicated guidelines with the objective of providing countries with practical information and knowledge to initiate and strengthen their own localization journeys. However, the value of the national frameworks goes far beyond methodology alone. This real strength— their real strength lies in their ability to combine strategic vision with practical implementation. They help governments strengthen multilevel governance by creating stable mechanisms for cooperation among national, regional, and local authorities. They promote policy coherence for sustainable development, enabling governments to better understand how policies, programs, and investments contribute to the SDGs. They also help connect planning, monitoring, and financing instruments, directing resources toward initiatives with high social, economic, and environmental impact. In other words, the national frameworks help bridge what too often remains disconnected: national strategic priorities and local needs, long-term objectives and concrete action, community aspirations, and financing opportunities. And it is precisely this ability to connect different dimensions of governance and development that makes them instruments of transformative change. For us, localization must certainly improve dialogue among levels of government and enhance the quality of public policies. But above all, it must enable us to be more effective in delivering concrete results. In practical terms, it must help us identify shared priorities, mobilize investments, strengthen institutional capacities, support innovative territorial initiatives, and generate tangible benefits for citizens and communities. Today, the Local 2030 Coalition provides an essential global framework to advance this vision. Through the National SDG Localization Framework and the work of the Partnership Platform, we seek to translate this vision into practical and replicable pathways that help countries connect governance, policies, financing, and results. Ultimately, localization is not measured solely by the number of strategies adopted It is measured by our ability to transform the commitments of the 2030 Agenda into real change in people's lives and in the territories where they live.

Thank you.

Grazie mille, Sottosegretario Barbaro. Thank you for reminding us how SDGs can become a guiding principle for public policy across sectors and levels, and to illustrate with the national SDG frameworks in Italy, but also in other countries such as Senegal, Tunisia, and also in exchanging with other countries embedded in the Local 2030 Coalition, how it is an instrument to advance SDGs across levels and with multiple stakeholders. Thank you very much, Undersecretary Barbaro. I will now turn to our last speaker of this ministerial segment, His Excellency Leonardo Adipurnama Sambodo, Deputy Minister for Food Affairs, Natural Resources and Environment of the National Development Planning Agency of the Republic of Indonesia. My question will be the following: how can investments in resilient and inclusive infrastructure accelerate SDG localization, and what lessons from Indonesia's experience could help scale territorial approaches that deliver lasting impact for communities? Minister.

Excellencies, distinguished delegates, I thank the Local 2030 Coalition for convening this special event. The 2030 Agenda demands pragmatic, scalable, and locally owned action. For Indonesia, localization is not a delegation of burden from national to local government. It is a purposeful alignment of national direction, local knowledge, and municipal finance. In Indonesia, the SDGs are mainstreamed into long- and medium-term development plans, mandatory regional plans, and voluntary local reviews. We are pairing these planning tools with targeted financing and capital capacity building so provinces and cities can deliver integrated services where people live. We encourage universities across 27 provinces to establish 80 SDG centers as long-term partners for local development and also for SDGs implementation. Now, I would like to take the opportunity to give you an example on how the localization of SDG 11, for example, and link it with the New Urban Agenda and how we can also see the localization, how we operationalize these 2 nexus. The first one is related to integrated housing and basic services. Under President Prabowo Subianto, our national target of building 3 million homes connects housing with SDG 6, water and sanitation, and SDG 7, clean energy. This scales up our successful City Without Slum program, which embedded slum upgrading mandates directly into municipal budgets. Thank you. To retrofit infrastructures across 11,000 urban wards, safeguarding tenure and basic services without triggering mass economic displacement. The second is sustainable integrated transport, which is a new paragraph 114. In Jakarta, the Jaklinko system— this is a transportation digital system— integrates 5 district transit modes into a single network. This integration has successfully expanded transit access, reduced emissions, and enabled transit-oriented development while also attracting private sector investment. Multi-level governance and ecosystem. We have institutionalized voluntary local reviews across cities like the city of Jakarta and Surabaya, creating an active feedback loop between municipal data and national planning agencies. To support this, Indonesia has established over 80 university-hosted SDG centers, as I mentioned. The 4th one is participatory and smart cities. Through the Jakki application in Jakarta, we leverage real-time citizen-sourced geospatial data. Citizens report localized flooding and waste issues directly to municipal dashboard, transforming passive residents into active urban co-managers and the right response from the local government using their own budget to tackle these challenges. Indonesia has also one of the world's most mature community-driven development and regional planning systems. Our journey in advancing territorial and jurisdictional approaches offers 3 core blueprints for global practice, which are, first, formally aligned budgets with regional action plans. Indonesia integrates local SDG targets directly into provincial medium-term development plans, ensuring municipal projects are structurally tied to concrete public funding streams. Second one is mobilize non-state and subnational capital. Through the ASSIST joint program supported by the 4 UN agencies, UNDP, UNEP, UNICEF, and UNIDO, Indonesia helps subnational governments to design and issue thematic bonds. Similarly, Jakarta Large-Scale Social Collaboration Platforms acts as a broker to channel private impact investment directly into neighborhood-level circular economy projects. Third, empower community-led flexible frameworks because territory vary in institutional readiness, rigid top-down structures, and also this become one of the challenges that we are still facing. This is implemented in rapidly sinking coastal hubs such as the city of Semarang and Surabaya in Java, where municipal grants empower local neighborhood forums to design, execute, and maintain nature-based solutions, such as planting urban mangrove belts to build climate resilience. This is related also to SDGs 13 and 14. As we look forward to— as we look towards the 27th SDG Summit, Indonesia proposes 3 priorities to accelerate localization globally, which are, first, align national priorities with unified local delivery systems. Second, strengthen local government capacity to design bankable projects. And third, utilize the Local 2030 Coalition to connect local initiatives with global expertise and financing. For that, we also would like to invite further collaboration with all of you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Excellency. Thank you for reminding us of the importance of SDG 11, but also of all other SDGs that are important for localization, and localization very important to deliver on them. Also for sharing the experience of Indonesia in building this unified local delivery system, and of the importance also of voluntary local reviews to track impact and foster dialogue on this impact, and finally on financing instruments such as bonds, where Indonesia is really a pioneer. So thank you again for these words. With this, we are closing this ministerial segment. Thank you very much. We have had a perspective from different regions, different member states, not only taking stock of what is happening and sharing examples from your countries, from different regions, but also forward-looking analysis of what's coming, the SDG 2027 Summit, and what's coming afterwards, because whatever we build now will serve as a step for the future and for the next milestones. Thank you very much for this ministerial segment, for your participation, Excellencies, Ministers, and I will now hand the floor to a friend, Sarah Hendricks, Director of the Policy, Programme and Intergovernmental Division of UN Women, an outstanding member of the Local 2030 Coalition securing gender-responsive localization, because this is indeed critical. So the floor to you to moderate this new session.

Thank you so much, Sébastien, for both the friendship and the partnership in this important work. It is a pleasure to be here and to moderate this first roundtable on driving SDG 11 through multilevel action, from global frameworks to local delivery. We have an incredibly impressive lineup of speakers for this roundtable, and so we encourage all of you to stay, to listen, and to engage, as we'll aim for interactivity. We have just heard from a range of different ministers. ministers who shared from their perspectives what it takes to move from national vision to national investment. And this hour, we're going to go one level deeper. We're going to deepen the analysis in this to the cities, the regions, the universities, the businesses, and also the young people who are anchoring this work and turning it into reality. Not least for women and girls who so often navigate the gap between global commitments and local realities. You know, they— we often talk about anniversaries, and there is an anniversary that is coming up that is one that perhaps is less well known. And this month we mark 15 years of UN Women's Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces initiatives. It's now running strong in 75 cities across 36 countries. And its exemplar of localization is an important one. It's also a simple one, and that is that there is no single blueprint for a livable city, but there is a consistent method. And that method really starts with talking with people who live there, including women and girls, asking them What are your needs? What are your concerns? And what are some of your ideas for overcoming the challenges that you experience? In Quito, Ecuador, where I had the privilege of seeing this city work in action, a scoping study on harassment in the public transport system actually turned safety from a side issue on the periphery into an organizing principle. principle for the entire transit program. It also holds when political will connects teams that actually run a city. In Madrid, in Madrid, Spain, planning, transport, policing, and equality offices now sit in the same working group on industrial and public spaces. Because women's safety in cities was never going to be solved from just one office alone. It takes the work of many. And it shows up also, unfortunately, I may say, also in infrastructure, in daily infrastructure, where we see dedicated bus services and timetables, whether that's in Papua New Guinea or in other spaces around safer markets, with lighting and sanitation needing to come to bear to prevent violence on safe transportation. I think it is also, I think, the argument for SDG 11 in and of itself, and that is that when there are sustainable, inclusive cities that are built by multi-level governance, by evidence, by design, and by the people who live in them, that exactly is what grounds localization in action. And that's what this panel is going to talk about today. So to kick things off, and with a very special keynote from Her Excellency Dr. Agnes Mary Chimbiri Mulande, the Permanent Representative of Malawi. Her Excellency is not only Malawi's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, before that, she spent over a decade with UNDP really building the governance systems from conflict early warning to SDG tracking, That then led national commitments to reach actual communities. Excellency Takulandirani, we're so thrilled that you are here. A warm welcome. Excellency, as we mark 10 years since the New Urban Agenda, what partnerships do you see as most needed to accelerate SDG localization and its implementation? Could you tell us a little bit about Malawi and Malawi's experience really shown in turning global commitments into local action? Dear Excellency, the floor is yours. We look forward to your reflections. Zikomo kwambiri.

Zikomo kwambiri. Thank you so much and good afternoon, all moderator, Excellencies, distinguished panelists, and the delegates. Allow me to begin by thanking the Local 2030 Coalition for convening this timely discussion. It takes place at an important moment as the international community reviews sustainable development goal 11 and marks 10 years since the adoption of the New Urban Agenda. The objective of this session is to explore how partnerships. And multilateral governance can translate global commitments into tangible improvements in people's lives through localized implementation. For Malawi, this discussion is particularly significant. Over the past few months, Malawi had the privilege of serving together with Poland as co-facilitator of the intergovernmental negotiations sessions on the midterm review of the New Urban Agenda. Through this process, member states reached consensus on a political declaration that reaffirms our collective commitment to sustainable urbanization and recognizes that implementation must increasingly be driven at the local level through stronger partnerships, capable institutions, and inclusive governance. The negotiations reinforced an important lesson, that is that global agreements only become meaningful when they are translated into action in cities, towns, and communities. Localization is therefore not an option, it is the pathway to delivering the Sustainable Development Goals. As one of the fastest urbanizing countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Malawi understands both the opportunities and the challenges that accompany rapid urban growth. Urbanization has the potential to drive economic transformation, innovation, and job creation. Yet it also places significant pressure on housing, infrastructure, land management, water supply, sanitation, and public services. Our national response is anchored in Malawi 2063, our long-term development vision, which recognizes sustainable urbanization as an important catalyst for inclusive wealth creation and national transformation. Allow me to share a few practices that have helped advance localization in Malawi. First, we are strengthening integrated urban planning. Rather than treating housing, land administration, infrastructure, and service delivery as separate sectors, we are promoting integrated planning. That enables local authorities to respond to rapidly growing urban populations in a coordinated manner. Second, we are placing local governments at the center of implementation. Effective localization requires empowered local authorities with adequate institutional capacity, predictable financing, and ability to make decisions that respond to local priorities. National policies are only as effective as the institutions that implement them on the ground. Third, we recognize that communities themselves are indispensable partners. Planning is most successful when residents, women, young people, civil society, traditional leaders, and the private sector including civil society, non-governmental, or even community-based organizations, participate in shaping solutions. This strengthens ownership, accountability, and sustainability. Fourth, evidence-based decision-making is becoming increasingly important. We continue strengthening local planning systems through better data collection, improved spatial planning, and stronger monitoring frameworks that help local authorities identify needs and allocate resources more effectively. These experiences reflect an important principle, that is, localization succeeds when national governments create an enabling environment while trusting local actors to lead implementation. However, no country can achieve SDG 11 alone. Partnerships remain the defining ingredient for success. We need stronger collaboration between national and local governments, closer cooperation across the United Nations system, greater engagement from development partners, academia, civil society, and private sector, and innovative financing mechanisms that enable local governments to implement ambitious urban programs. For developing countries, including Malawi, access to adequate, predictable, and affordable financing remains one of the greatest constraints to local implementation. Strengthening subnational financing and expanding investment Investment in resilient infrastructure, affordable housing, and basic services must therefore remain global priorities. These financing challenges and multilevel partnerships are central themes for the Local 2030 Coalition's work leading toward the 2027 SDG Summit. Excellencies, Moderator, The 10th anniversary of the New Urban Agenda should not simply be an occasion for reflection. It should be a call to accelerate implementation. As we move toward the 2027 SDG Summit and ultimately 2030, let us invest more deliberately in localization because this is where sustainable development becomes visible in people's everyday lives. Malawi remains committed to working with all you partners to build inclusive, resilient, and sustainable cities and human settlements, leaving no one and no place behind. I thank you very much for listening.

Dear Excellency, thank you for this special and important keynote address, and in particular, for highlighting, and I wrote it down, that localization is not an option, but it is the pathway to delivering the SDGs. Thank you for your and for Malawi's leadership on the New Urban Agenda, for pointing to the concrete examples in Malawi's 2063 Development Strategy, and for emphasizing what partnership actually requires on the ground to make all of this happen. Thank you, Your Excellency. We are so grateful. And now, dear colleagues, we're going to turn to the panel following this excellent keynote address. And first up is a mayor, Mayor Danielle Niña Bernoz. Mayor Danielle Bernoz, you lead the municipality of La Paz Abra. One of the youngest mayors in the Philippines and now the Secretary-General of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines. We are so grateful you are here today, Your Excellency. The mayor is going to speak on behalf of the Global Task Force of Local and Regional Governments. My question to you, dear mayor, is as follows. From the task force perspective, what is needed to strengthen multi-level governance and to really drive that empowerment of local governments to actually scale SDG localization? And could you also share how have the Local 2030 Road to processes helped local and regional governments actually shape global agendas? Could you answer that in 5 minutes?

For sure.

Okay, Mary, you have the floor.

Thank you very much, and thank you for the opportunity to speak today on behalf of the Global Task Force of Local and Regional Governments. So I'm here today to amplify one simple truth, that the future is local, and all the global agendas remain abstract concepts until they are translated into the daily realities of our communities. Therefore, SDG 11 cannot be achieved without empowering the local authorities who manage our cities and our municipalities every single day. And so what is needed to strengthen multilevel governance and truly scale SDG localization? From our perspective as local governments, we see this as resting on 4 critical pillars. First is institutionalized co-ownership. Local and regional governments must be recognized as political actors and spheres of government, not merely as implementing partners, moving past consultation and transitioning to genuine co-creation, perhaps with permanent seats at national and global planning tables. Multilevel governance must be a two-way street as well, a permanent way of working built on co-design and shared accountability, not just an ad hoc exercise after the major decisions have already been made. Second, responsibilities must be matched with power and capacity. Local mandates are meaningless without legal competencies, institutional capacity, and and human resources to deliver them. Scaling localization means equipping local civil servants with the data, the skills, and the tools to implement integrated solutions to achieve SDG 11. Third is fiscal decentralization and direct financing. As our previous speakers have emphasized, finance must reach our territories directly and predictably. This means stronger local fiscal capacity, greater access to national and international financing and investment mechanisms aligned with the priorities that we, the local governments, define ourselves. Fourth is a stronger UN partnership, and we ask the UN to deepen its engagement with local and regional governments through institutionalized coordination at country level and systematic participation in the implementation and follow-up of global agendas. The Secretary-General's report under Action 55E of the Pact for the Future gives us a clear pathway, one that moves local and regional governments from consultation to genuine action-oriented decision-making. This brings me to your second question of how have the Local 2030 Road to processes helped us shape global agendas. So the Road to processes have been a game changer, to say the least. Historically, global frameworks were designed top-down, with the local authorities merely expected to follow and execute them. Local 2030 has flipped this paradigm in 3 ways. Local 2030 bridges the gap and acts as essential conveyor belt carrying concrete evidence-based data from our municipalities straight to international development partners through our voluntary local and subnational reviews that bring implementation gaps and policy demands into global debates. The Local 2030 has also unified our voice and allowed us— allowed our networks within the Global Task Force to pool our collective knowledge through VLRs and VSRs so that on major milestones, we speak speak with one amplified voice, reinforcing localization as a shared responsibility across every level of governance. Finally, they point the way forward. In line with the SG's recommendations, Local 2030 can foster structured engagement at country level so that local and regional governments are systematically involved in national coordination, implementation and follow-up, and obviously in direct dialogue also with UN country teams and member states. Excellencies, distinguished delegates and colleagues, as local government leaders, we stand ready to scale these proven approaches, but we need the international community and national governments to match our readiness with trust, political will, and financial commitment. Thank you very, very much.

Dear Mayor Bernos, you have really challenged us and concretely driven forward a clear outline of what multilevel governance means concretely. Thank you for highlighting that the future is local, and thank you for also highlighting the way in which the Road to processes has flipped the script, has flipped the paradigm, really enabling local governance to be amplified effectively and to be leading the way. We're so appreciative of your leadership, dear Mayor. And now, colleagues, we're going to get on a proverbial plane and go all the way from Abra in the Philippines to the Council of Europe, where we will hear from Gunn— do I pronounce it right? Gunn-Marit Helgesson, who was elected President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe earlier this year, after more than a decade where you were championing SDG localization from your seat on the Congress and as head of Norway's own Association of Local and Regional Authorities. I have a question for you. The question is, from the Congress's perspective, how does SDG localization accelerate progress on SDG 11, and especially when that intersects with water, with energy, with partnerships. Over to you.

Thank you so much. Colleagues, it is a pleasure to participate in these discussions. The Sustainable Development Goals will not be achieved in conference rooms. They will be achieved in our neighborhoods, our towns, our cities, and our regions. Every SDG ultimately has a local address. And this is why, for the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, sustainable development begins where people live. It begins with the local and regional authorities who provide housing, public transport, water and sanitation, public spaces, energy-efficient buildings, and the many essential services that determine where the people enjoy a good quality of life. But sustainable development requires more than effective public services. It requires trust. It requires democratic institutions that are accountable, transparent, and close to citizens. In short, there can be no sustainable development without strong local democracy. This understanding lies at the heart of both SDG 11 and the new New Urban Agenda. And this same vision inspired the European Urban Charter III, adopted by the Congress in 2023. And the Charter translates these global ambitions into a European framework for democratic, inclusive, resilient and sustainable urban development, placing human rights, citizens' participation, environmental sustainability and quality of life at the heart of local governance. This has long been the central message of the Congress. Local and regional authorities are not simply implementers of global commitments. They are indispensable partners in designing public policy, delivering services, and evaluating progress. Their democratic legitimacy, their proximity to citizens, and their practical knowledge make them essential actors in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Housing offers a good illustration. Affordable, decent, and environmentally sustainable housing is fundamental to inclusive communities. And yet municipalities cannot solve today's housing crisis in isolation. They need coherent national strategies, appropriate legislation, sustainable financing, and partnerships that encourage investment and safeguard the public interest. We need innovative innovative housing policies built on cooperation between all levels of governance. And the same lesson applies to water governance, where climate resilience, public health, and sustainable territorial development depend on coordinated action across municipalities, regions, and national authorities. It also applies to the circular economy, where local innovation can only reach its full potential when supported by enabling national policies, and effective partnerships. Different policy areas, one common lesson: local action succeeds when supported by coherent multilevel governance. Different policy areas, one common lesson— no, I just said that. And this partnership cannot be created through legislation alone. It depends on mutual trust, dialogue, and shared responsibility. Local and regional authorities need adequate competences, predictable financial resources, and meaningful participation in national decision-making. National governments, in turn, benefit from policies informed by those who understand local realities the best. These principles are enshrined in the European Charter on Local Self-Government and remain at the heart of the Congress's mission. The integrated nature of the SDG 11 also reminds us that progress at local level leads to progress everywhere. Equally important is our ability to measure their progress. Voluntary local reviews have become a powerful instrument for translating global objectives into local realities. They enable cities and regions to monitor implementation, identify challenges, exchange good practices, and strengthen accountability towards their citizens while enriching national and global reviews. Allow me to conclude with with 3 messages. First, empower local and regional authorities with the competences, financial resources, and trust they need to act. Second, strengthen multi-level governance so that global ambitions become coherent national policies and effective local delivery. And third, never lose sight of the human dimension of sustainable development. Sustainable cities are not simply about infrastructure. Buildings or transport systems. They are about dignity, opportunity, inclusion and democratic participation. They are about creating communities where every person can contribute, belong and look to the future with confidence and hope. If we want to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, we must strengthen the democratic institutions closest to citizens. Because when local democracy is strong, And then our cities and regions succeed, the world moves closer to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much, Congress President, indeed, for highlighting the catalytic impact of strong local democracies, as well as the cross-sectoral lens that you've brought to bear in this conversation. And that's actually an excellent bridge to your neighbor right to the right of you. But speaking all the way and reflecting from South Africa, from the Council of Europe to South Africa, we have Professor Puleng Lenkabula. The professor is President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of South Africa, UNISA's first woman Vice-Chancellor in a 147-year history. No small achievement.

Thank you.

And also a scholar in your own right, working at the intersection of ethics, social justice, gender, and development. Dear Professor, we're so grateful that you are here, and my question for you is, how can universities help generate the evidence, that research and evidence on SDG localization and what it needs? And how do we do this while also building the capacity of UN country teams and local actors to much more in an evidence-based way design, implement, and evaluate their own strategies? We're looking forward to hearing your insights.

Thank you for inviting me, Excellency. Colleagues, good afternoon. I'm very appreciative for the opportunity to share some insights. Cities and universities are rooted in interconnected origins. The city acts as the physical civic space for human life, while the universities are institutions and epistemic communities that provide education, knowledge, research, innovation in advance of governance, citizenship, and development that sustain society. Sustainable cities, therefore, I suggest, require informed, educated citizens and engaged institutions to thrive. The concept of engaged city or engaged polis represents a shift from a city as a community of shared geographic locations to the city as communities of shared purpose and shared practice, whilst engaged university is a concept that denotes strategic structuring to produce shared spaces for collaborative reflection, learning, research, modeling, innovation, and testing of integrated urban development solutions. When data, information, knowledge, wisdom, and engaged police converge with data, knowledge, wisdom of engaged university, These disrupt traditional town-and-gown silos and create highly intentional data fusions that harmonize structures of government, industry, civil society, urban settlements, and universities to work collectively for integrated SDG education, training, and localization. I suggest that this approach deepens capacity of UN country teams and local actors through the hardwiring of collaboration for an engaged approach to localization and SDGs, leading to collaborative urban development practices, which is a highly potent and strategic accelerator for SDG 11 and cognate Sustainable Development Goals. Against this backdrop, we see clearly that universities possess unique agency to accelerate SDG localization. Universities are unparalleled capacity-building and evidence-generating dynamos connecting SDG targets with local, national, and regional realities, but also with the public sector and private sector institutions. At UNISA, we carefully consider science of SDG evidence. We have pioneered and engaged for Better World app, an intelligence platform which promotes knowledge to development impact evidence ecosystem, which also supports UNISA's catalytic niche areas, South Africa's National Development Plan, Africa Agenda 2063, and the UN SDGs. Given that the 17 SDGs, 169 sub-targets measured by 232 distinct indicators universities and their host countries can develop a robust collaborative evidence architecture to collect, analyze, and synthesize SDG 11 evidence. Since data is the currency used to shift sustainable development from mere rhetoric to empirical reality, at our university, we actively cross higher education walls to create rich networks across human settlements, government, businesses, civil societies, researchers, policymakers, students, and alumni, enabling us to deploy an engaged approach to SDG data sourcing, analysis, verification, and mobilization. Since development data is generally scattered in many countries, including ours, scattered across sectoral silos, Of great significance is our ability to break the data silos and produce mechanisms for data convergence, which is simply indispensable in monitoring and measuring our SDG localization efforts. Our academics, students, city networks aid in identifying the unexplored, uncodified, unquantified spaces for sustainability data, including on informal settlements. Through immersive observational and participatory methods, we're able to augment quantitative data with qualitative data, enabling universities as well as government to understand the nuances, complexities, and the human stories behind the data. We're able to draw from our own wealth, to reflect on indigenous knowledge systems, sustainability knowledge heritages that aid cities to becoming thriving communities and populace. For this reason, as universities, we have designed and leveraged our strategic intelligence platforms to create tailored sustainable development capacity-building programs reaching the higher education sector, policymakers, policy implementation agencies, funding entities, and affected communities. We're able to produce engaged sustainability teaching, learning, research, innovation, and translating these outputs into measurable sustainable development outcomes. Finally, we have a growing portfolio of 200 engaged sustainable projects. All projects are engaged across disciplines, sectors, human settlement context. Our projects include both town and gown thinking aimed at hardwiring collaborative sustainability practices. We've developed and maintained a comprehensive database of 700 sustainability capacity-building experts and knowledge mobilizers connected across sectors. This is how universities contribute to localization of Sustainable Development Goals through transformative knowledge-led innovation, engaged evidence science that drives inclusive and sustainable development across Africa and beyond.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Professor Lenkabula, for the grounded experience of UNISA in generating the evidence needed around SDG localization. And for also pointing to the importance of breaking data silos in countries in order to advance that evidence on SDG localization. I think the points that you made about capacity and not just data is one that I hope we return to in the discussion as well. And to the right of you is Ms. Rachel Hadjaden.

Yes.

Close enough. I will call you Ms. Rachel. Ms. Rachel, I will call you President and CEO Rachel because that is what you are of the International Wellbeing Institute, where you lead a global movement to advance people-first places for everyone everywhere. It sounds so exciting. Dear Ms. Rachel, we would like to have your views on the private sector, And how can the private sector help scale healthier, more inclusive, more resilient built environments, and what the innovations are most needed to bring these solutions to cities and to territories? The floor is yours.

Delegates, dear colleagues, it is an honor to join so many leaders here that are committed to advancing SDG 11 and shaping the future of sustainable development. As we reflect upon 10 years of the New Urban Agenda, we have every reason to celebrate our progress. The green building movement has changed how we think about our built environment and our relationship to it. Cities around the world are greener, more resilient, and better connected. Unfortunately, despite all of this progress, a rapidly changing climate is forcing us to make the shift from climate mitigation to climate adaptation. Fortunately, over the last several decades, we have also acquired the knowledge and capabilities needed to move from efficiency to regeneration. The next chapter of sustainable development asks us to expand upon our definition of success and the strategies that support it. In doing so, we can aspire to do more than simply sustain. We can aspire to thrive. At the International Well Building Institute, we're working to bring these aspirations to life. We spend about 90% of our lives indoors. Our schools, our homes, our workplaces, our gathering spaces shape our physical and mental health, our productivity, and our sense of belonging. According to the social determinants of health, our physical and social environments have a greater impact on our state of health than our access to healthcare, our lifestyle and behaviors, and our genetics combined. And that means that our built environment may just represent the single greatest opportunity that we have to shift health outcomes at scale, where every building becomes a part of a city's public health infrastructure. A building isn't just 4 walls and a roof. It's an ecosystem that can either support or undermine our well-being. The built environment is one of the most powerful platforms that we have for translating public health, climate resilience, and equity ambitions into outcomes that measurably benefit both people and planet. So the question is, how do we scale these outcomes? One lesson we've learned at IWBI is that cities don't need another set of aspirations. They need practical implementation tools. Global goals only create impact when they become local action, and local action requires evidence-based, proven strategies that governments, businesses, investors, and communities can readily deploy. Science-based, third-party verified frameworks like WELL help translate research to practice with actionable interventions to advance health and equity while staying flexible enough to reflect local priorities. We see this in projects all around the world. At Shanghai Expo Urban Best Practice Area, a WELL Gold community, health was integrated into the redevelopment the entire district, from spaces for mental health restoration and connecting with nature to accommodations for nursing mothers and their babies to onsite programming to relieve stress, anxiety, and depression. In Washington, D.C., the Public Well and LEED Platinum John Lewis Elementary School recognized that educational infrastructure can be a mechanism for delivering public health benefits, prioritizing daylight, air quality, and acoustics to support both learning and well-being. What their principal didn't expect is that these same investments would have a profound impact on recruitment and retention of teachers and staff alike. In Singapore, Temasek Shophouse, a WELL Platinum restoration of a 4-century-old heritage building, shows that healthy communities depend not just on physical infrastructure but on social infrastructure. Convening changemakers, nonprofits, and local businesses in this social impact hub to create solutions for the common good. The Shop House stewards community bonds through thoughtful placemaking, including a communal living room, an edible garden, coworking facilities, and a café that provides meaningful employment for people with disabilities. These examples remind us global frameworks create value if and only if they empower local innovation. And there's another transition underway. Over the past decade, sustainable finance has transformed how capital rewards environmental performance. The next frontier is applying that same rigor to human outcomes. How do we value healthier schools, flourishing workplaces, and a more just transition? These outcomes are just as fundamental to long-term prosperity as environmental performance, and yet considered historically soft and difficult to measure. But that's beginning to change. At our recent Social Sustainability Summit, leaders from the Monetary Authority of Singapore emphasized that the energy transition must also be a just transition, one that invests in workforce development and inclusive capital allocation in addition to decarbonization. Sustainable finance has long asked us to consider what we build. Today, it's also asking who benefits. I was reminded of this during a recent visit to Japan, where I was inspired to see the country preparing for a pivot from SDGs to SWGs— Sustainable Well-Being Goals— a vision that moves beyond sustaining development toward creating lasting well-being for people, communities, and the planet. Sustainability is not the finish line. Human flourishing is. SDG 11 calls on us to build sustainable cities and communities. SDG 17 reminds us that we can only get there through partnership. If we bring together governments, businesses, investors, and communities around a shared commitment to measurable human outcomes, we have the opportunity to move from doing less harm to doing more good. We have the opportunity to create conditions for healthier lives and a more resilient future. and the opportunity to shift our collective focus from what we give up to all that we have to gain. Because ultimately, success won't be measured by the cities that we build. It will be measured by the lives that we improve through places that people are proud to call home. Thank you.

Thank you so much to you, Rachel, for drawing our attention to the built environment. And for expanding our imagination of cities as ecosystems of built public health and equity-based infrastructure. I think you've challenged our thinking and also widened our eyes to these possibilities. And now let's hear from the generation that will inherit both those institutions as well as the buildings that exist in them. We're so excited that Lindsay is here. Lindsay Huahuamuyo Papa is a Peruvian student, founder of the youth-led organization Impacta Ya, and a steering committee member of the Local 2030 Coalition representing the UN Youth Office. Dear Lindsay, could you tell us what support is needed to fundamentally scale youth-led action And how can youth consultations through the Road to processes and also fora like the World Urban Forum really help to achieve that? We look forward to all your reflections, Lindsay.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for this important question. My name is Lindsay. I'm a Peruvian youth advocate and the founder of Impacta Ya, a youth-led organization that is focused on promoting social entrepreneurship across Latin America. And through this work, I have seen something very powerful. Young people are not waiting for opportunities to create change. They are already creating solutions every day. Across the world, young people are leading projects related to education, entrepreneurship, climate action, community development, and the list goes on. However, while young people have the ideas, the passion, and the commitment, to make a difference, we need stronger systems of support to help these efforts grow and create long-term impact. When we talk about scaling youth-led action, the first thing we need is a change in how we see young people's roles in society. We need to move beyond seeing youth as people who simply receive support and recognize them as leaders, partners, and creators of solutions. Young people bring valuable perspectives because we understand the realities we are facing. We experience many of these challenges daily, but we also have the creativity to imagine new solutions. However, meaningful youth participation means more than just inviting a young person to share their opinions. It is also creating spaces where young people can directly influence decisions and be part of the process from the beginning until the evaluation stage. The second support needed is investment in youth-led actions. Many young people have incredible ideas, but they often face barriers such as limited funding, lack of mentorship, limited access to networks and opportunities. If we want youth-led solutions to grow, we need to invest in young leaders and through financial support, training, mentorship, and connections with organizations that can help them expand their work. The third support is stronger partnerships. Young people cannot create change alone. We need collaboration between youth organizations, international organizations, universities, civil society, and the private sector. These partnerships allow local ideas to connect with more resources and reach more communities. But these relationships should be based on trust and respect, and the realization that young people can also bring knowledge to the table. This is why youth consultations and global spaces such as the World Urban Forum are so important. These spaces create a connection between the experiences of young people in different communities and global decision-making. They allow youth from different regions, from different backgrounds, to come together, share ideas, identify common challenges, and develop solutions together. However, your engagement should not end when a consultation or forum finishes. The ideas and recommendations created in these spaces need to lead to real action. Young people need clear pathways to continue participating, working with decision-makers, and helping implement the solutions they have proposed. In other words, scaling youth-led action requires us to change the question we ask. Instead of asking, how can we involve young people? We should ask, how can we create environments where young people are empowered to lead? What we need are the conditions that allow this leadership to grow, such as trust, resources, partnerships, and meaningful opportunities to participate. The future of our cities and communities will not only be shaped by young people, it must be shaped with young people. And through the processes such as the World Urban Forum, we have an opportunity to move from simply recognizing youth potential to truly supporting youth leadership. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you so much to you, Lindsay, and for your leadership, and also challenging us to shift the paradigms from youth participation to really supporting youth leadership in the way that you've described today. Dear colleagues, we have come to the close of this panel, and we do unusually have a few minutes for one or two questions. And so the floor is open, probably just one or two. I see one hand over here from this lady and one hand on the other side, and so you will be our 2 questioners. We ask you to keep it to a question, not a statement, and to use no more than 30 seconds. Thank you, you have the floor.

Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Gail Davis and I'm an ECOSOC NGO representative representing different stakeholders. My question is for Her Excellency, Dr. Agnes Chimbiri Malande. Dr. Malande, Her Excellency, my question is, how do you think that, you know, all that Malawi is doing is doing very well, and they seem like they're on their way from going from a least developed country to a middle-income country. What is your vision for that? And the direction that Malawi is going in is very well right now. How do you see it reaching that point in your vision?

Thank you so much to Gail Davis for that really important and grounded question from Malawi. We'll take the second question and then turn to the respondents. Sir, you have the floor for your question, not a statement, in 30 seconds.

There's no such thing, but yes, thank you. And I'm John Coonrod. I'm the founder of the Movement for Community-Led Development. And it was at the room next door, hosted by the Philippine government, that we launched that movement under the banner of localizing SDGs in 2015. I guess my question is really a question about the second half of SDG 11. One of the things a lot of us fought for in the run-up to SDGs was the word and communities, because 80% of extreme poverty are in rural communities, and those are communities most marginalized. And I just— in this review, in fact last Wednesday, it was pointed out that if you really want to stop the pressure of urbanization you have to improve the quality of life for rural people because that's the pressure that is leading to giant informal settlements. And so my question is, and I know that Eunice is doing some brilliant work in this area, I had a very inspiring conversation with Genevieve James, but it's an important linkage that hasn't been mentioned. And I'm just wondering how the people working kind of directly on the urban issues of SDG are really taking seriously the second half of the goal.

Great. Thank you so much, Mr. Coenraads. And so we'll turn to Her Excellency, the Ambassador of Malawi to the United Nations, for the first question. You have the floor.

Thank you very much. But interestingly, the two are connected in the sense that, you know, Malawi, Over 80%, you can't believe, up to now, they are living in rural areas, very remote, unconnected to various parts of the country because of no good roads, no bridges, poor roads, not tarmacked. Therefore, the answer to the vision that we have for us to really graduate From LDCs, we really need to connect this huge population to the urban areas. Otherwise, the rural-urban migration will never stop. As we have told you, one of the fastest in our country. People are running away from the poor livelihoods in the rural areas. We really need to improve the livelihoods in the rural areas. How can we do that? Connect these by really building the rural roads infrastructure, make sure that they are very connected. With that, then we go to the other infrastructures, energy connectivity for digital connectivity, and then schools, everything else will be connected, including markets. They need to access the markets. Regional, national, regional, and global markets. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much, Your Excellency Zikomo Kwambiri, for bringing the realities of Malawi to bear. I've had the privilege of living in the country for many years, and I think seeing the changes there over time, even with the existing opportunities for the investment into the infrastructure that Her Excellency has just described, in rural areas is so important to achieving that vision of 2063 for Malawi overall. Thank you, Your Excellency. And I don't have a specific person from the panel to respond, but I'd invite one or two of you. So, Professor, please, you have the floor to reflect on that second half of SDG 11.

Thank you very much. I appreciate the Thank you very much for the question. I think for us as the University of South Africa, in partnership with the local and regional players, we have demonstrated that it is possible to converge the city as you would the rural environments. In this way, we are responsible for 423,000 students spread across the regions, the country, the continent, but also 130 countries. What we have done is to use conversion technologies to reach out, and where there's no digital resources available, we make them available through the partnerships, networks with government, private sector, civil society sectors. I think this is, in a way, part of the idea that Sustainable Development Goals including on 11 and 4, which is our business education, can converge when there's a multidisciplinary, multimodal, and multi-pronged approach utilized to pivot Sustainable Development Goals. I think this is just an example of how the city, the rural area, but also the cognate SDGs could find expression in addressing the rural question. Thank you.

Thank you so much for that very practical and at-scale example, and for bringing into the room the importance of that language and communities. And I think and communities has very much been exemplified in today's conversation, from our keynote to this very dynamic panel, where the panelists have grounded the conversation in your own realities. From Malawi to La Paz, from Strasbourg to Pretoria, from the built environment to youth leadership, we have heard an expansive but very grounded set of realities on advancing SDG 11 and the New Urban Agenda: Local Action for Global Acceleration. It now gives me pleasure to hand back to Sébastien ahead of our next roundtable, which will be on financing. But before I do, please join me in a round of applause to express our appreciation to this panel. Thank you so much. Merci beaucoup.

Thank you very much, Sarah. Thank you to all the speakers. We have heard from national governments, from local and regional governments, from intergovernmental organizations, from civil society, academia, private sector, youth, all the constituencies of the Local 2030 Coalition, how you built, you are building these ecosystems for territorial transformation. And we will now hear how this ecosystem can be put in motion or needs finance to be put in motion, and at the same time are needed for finance to flow towards local level. And I will hand over the floor to Ms. Lisa Corbiel, our key partner from the Joint SDG Fund, to moderate session on financing. Thank you, Leida. Thank you very much, Sarah.

Thank you so much, dear Sebastian, and good afternoon, colleagues. Delighted to join this critical conversation. To me, one of the most challenging and interesting parts of so much of what you've outlined is how do we finance it? There are so many great examples, so many great opportunities, but will they reach those who we are at risk of leaving behind? As Sebastian mentioned, I'm privileged to manage the Secretariat of what's called the Joint SDG Fund. It is meant to be a catalytic vehicle for the development system, to be fuel in the engine of the agency's funds and programs that are meant to support governments to really strive to accelerate the SDGs through partnerships of the UN and, of course, with all the civil society and other key stakeholders. As you probably know, capital— if it were so easy, If it was only about the money, if it was only about the capital, we would be delivering those SDGs, but it's much more complex than that. Finance follows very critical enabling conditions: trusted partnerships, institutional and market accountability, the coherent architecture, essentially, that connects the national ambition to the local delivery. That's what we're going to try to unpack with the esteemed panel that I see to my left I'd like to acknowledge the Government of Spain, the leadership that they've brought on the localization of the SDGs, not only to the Joint SDG Fund, but in many, many fora, as well as the work of the Bilbao Bootcamp. Some of you may have heard about this unique opportunity provided by the Basque Government that's actually enabled the Joint SDG Fund to move and accelerate the programming of our localization programming around the world. We were actually, thanks to the Boot Camp, we were able to shrink the timeline of getting our projects launched from 9 months to 3. And I think it's because what we did was we crowded in expertise around each of those country teams. We really rallied, and then we accompanied them along the way. I think we may have become a little bit too disconnected since our years of COVID and this idea that everything could be done virtually, It's amazing what happens when you get like-minded people surrounded by support and expertise and really move the needle. It was an experiment that started last year that was 8 countries. We went up to 12 countries this year, so we already have 20 in the pipeline that are really trying to move from pilots to scale, and we'd love to share examples with them. They're on our website, and we can certainly share more information. But the real stars of the room are here to my left. And it's an exceptional panel. They're really going to showcase everything from global champions to national and subnational government partners, regional development banks, UN entities, and all in between, including the most important civil society, where really the last mile is always addressed and met. It's really a great honor and a pleasure to introduce our key keynote speaker. This is Dr. Mahmoud Moheddin, who is the UN Special Envoy on Financing Sustainable Development. Mahmoud, as many of you know, has been an inspiration throughout so much of the work of the Joint SDG Fund, certainly through the Bilbao process. He's been a guiding voice on everything from climate finance to NDC 3s and beyond. He's very, very humble and modest, but he's a prolific writer. He's publishing, he's advocating, he's in many closed-door meetings that I really do know and believe are moving the needle. So, we're really thrilled and very privileged to have him with us for this afternoon. And I think there's no fewer people to— better place to open this conversation. So, Mahmoud, the organizers have given me a bit of a question for you, which is, as we already look ahead, so we have UNGA coming up in September, but of course, In 2027 is the SDG Summit, where already global financing architecture is hopefully going to be looking more at local development. Have you seen lessons, Mahmoud, in your studies, in your work, in your advocacy, that are giving us a pathway for building bankable territorial solutions? Thank you so much.

Right. Thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen, Excellencies. And I'll do that by 3 acts. As an envoy to the Secretary-General on financing sustainable development, I like very much the emphasis on finance follows. This is a practical approach to matters and this has good foundation for the benefit of fellow academics as well in the room. The great debate about finance and projects, the great wisdom of Professor Joan Robinson, the former formidable professor at Cambridge University, when she went into that debate whether finance followed the projects or projects followed finance. Now we have the emphasis that if you have a pipeline of investable projects, if you have settled, which is my not just assumption but by updating from my colleague who attended the discussions about matters related to governance, collaboration, institutions, and policy design, finance will flow. Definitely, you need to compete given the scarcity of finance unnecessarily in some jurisdictions, but definitely matters related to institutions, policy coordination, and I would say at That people must remain at the centre of the work and that the United Nations itself must do more to strengthen its own engagements at the subnational and local level, as reflected in the Secretary-General's report. And again, it's in her speaking notes that finance must follow, and again, this is an emphasis of what we have been discussing. And then we need stronger multilevel governance, which was the subject of discussion from the very beginning of your engagement today. Then let me get you very close to the kitchen and how speeches are being prepared for representatives of the UN. So they go through different iterations. You have this kind of question and then have a good team members, and then let me open the kitchen for you, saying whatever you say, you need to have those key messages for your speech. And okay, and as always, and you have seen me before, if there is any kind of a discrepancy between what's prepared and what's delivered, it should be mine because I have, I think, the great deviation from that. But anyways, so they first say localization is implemented. Of course, especially in this room, you cannot really disagree, and I agree with that. And this is again a common sense approach. You need really to have the locality, the community to implement. And even with our endeavors, or some of us endeavors, to see a place for us in outer space, there will be some locality somewhere, so you will not escape from it. You live on the Moon and Mars one day, but now, as we are at Planet Earth, there is this issue of implementation that needs the ecosystem at the local level to engage in. And then that finance must reach territories at large, not just the projects, and this here about SDGs, you can borrow it from different perspectives. The critical minimum, and I bet my good friends from UNDP can challenge me on that, but I— because they will not see that this is the critical minimum, that this is a kind of an optimized way of doing it. But the Integrated National Financial Framework can really help because it's about many things including the public-private, assessing the costs and doing matter within this kind of institutional framework. But it's not really about projectizing everything. You need to have the projects, but you need to do it in the ecosystem, not just with co-benefits or with spillovers. It needs really to deal with issues of priorities when it comes to localities. And then it's easier said than done, colleagues who say, well, you need to say that finance must reach territories. I would say, what could be the solution for that? You need to agree on budgets, and this has been our discussion for many times when we met here before at the Finance for Development and then at Bilbao, that you need really to reflect the priorities of the local communities and the municipalities through the budget. You cannot just say, well, like, to have better quality of education, or brag about the importance of SDG 3 on health, or areas related to employability of girls and after graduation and all, but basically about how to reflect that in the budget. So this will be your starting point. Then they say build pipeline of bankable local projects. Yes, they will be local projects with national benefits, with global benefits perhaps, but they shouldn't be just bankable, because bankable would remind us that we'll be more reliant on the finance mix on debt, and actually coming from a developing economy, from a continent that spends, in the majority of its countries today, more on debt service than education and health, we need really to rephrase that from bankable to investable projects. And it's not just about playing with words, because here matters related to feasibility need really to be checked in different ways from just the bankability, and I'll come back to that. Scale successful models such as Bilbao Bootcamp— not just to be good to those who have been very much gracious hosts to us in Bilbao, but the kind of partnership, the spirit of providing solutions, applicable solutions, scalable solutions, Here, unlike what we say about other cities and other places, what happened in Bilbao shouldn't be staying in Bilbao. It needs really to be moved beyond it because there is a great deal of benefits and values to share what happened at that boot camp. And then the reforming of the international financial architecture— well, that's easier said than done. I've been at it for since my study almost 40 years ago at Warwick University and York when we had the variety of crises. Every time, reform this international financial architecture, do better with the international financial system. Okay, on a good day this may happen, but we are not in that good day. But what about the local financial architecture? What about the national financial architecture? What about the regional financial architecture? Why we have many proposals and actually deserves all attention, this international financial architecture from one of those who are trying to be one of the architects at the IMF one day. They have been mentioning that it's— calling it a system is a kind of exaggeration because in a system you are talking about predictability, but here it's more of international financial arrangements not a system, and definitely not an architecture. But can we really start by— when we said back in Addis and before that in Montreal, domestic resource mobilization, and we had the famous acronym DRM, and we spoke about that, not to be confused with another DRM, which is disaster risk management. We said it's domestic resource mobilization. Possibly you may have disasters if you are not really doing better in domestic resource mobilization, like resorting to debt. But can I introduce another acronym, LRM, Local Resource Mobilization, and another acronym for— I never like acronyms. I have an acronym of mine which I'm going to share with you in a minute, which I shared when I was at the World Bank managing director, confused by their many acronyms. I said NAP. NAP is N-A-P, No Acronyms Please. But anyways, I'm asking you not to nap now, of course. But here we have the LRM, the Local Resource Mobilization, to support DRM, and then there is a great deal of work at the regional level. And now the regionalization is becoming a way— and here we are represented by a regional leader from UNECE, and we were speaking with the representative from African Union talking about this great deal of regionalization in Africa. We have— if you are asking me what is the better example today of regionalization, I wouldn't really— I would say that the best region on earth now regionalizing itself is the United States of America because this is the biggest regional— yes, it's a federal, it's a kind of a nation today, but it's a kind of the biggest region when it comes to economic transactions and trade between the states. But the EU had its good attempts since the Treaty of Rome, but definitely our good friends from the ASEAN are giving us great examples of how to do it better than others despite the challenges. And there are many things, as I was sharing with fellow Arabs and fellow Africans, that we have a lot to learn from the ASEAN example, especially when it comes to their pragmatism. So before talking about fixing the international financial architecture, I would say the financial architecture at the local, domestic, and regional levels need to be fixed, and there are many good examples for that, and then mobilize public and private capital. So, and that— how many minutes I have left? Get me a signal. I'm beyond— well, I've seen some teams scoring at the last minute. Yes, of course. So, well, I may not score much beyond what I'm saying, but I'll just share with you a couple of things. What can— just to give you a direct answer to what we should be expecting from that global financial system and global trading system and global economic system, I would tell them from a local villager, because I'm from a village in Egypt, I would say, well, perhaps you cannot do much today because ODA has gone as far as we know. That's not really the ODA of the past. Perhaps some trade facilitation could be helpful, better market access could be helpful, but if we are failing almost in everything, can at least we stop the harm? We stop the harm of lack of cooperation when it comes to debt disputes and settlement of old debts, can we really listen to the good guidance coming from the late Pope of the Vatican to great minds like Joe Stiglitz and others that, like the 11 recommendations coming from the UN systems, that there are many good solutions on debt because we cannot really fix it at the local level while there isn't really development finance flowing as it should and we are making a matter that is very difficult very much impossible by not cooperating in debt management and debt resolution. Can we stop the harm of illicit financial flows? Because I cannot go and dare talking to my fellow villagers, do better in local resource mobilization, domestic resource mobilization, and for that to be ending because of bad governance through illicit financial flows. And it takes two. It is not just exploiting the bad governance in some of the countries, but because we have some sort of unnecessary tolerance in accepting these illicit financial flows. Can we stop the harm of protectionism, including some of the confusing arrangements related to climate, including the CBAM? And I will not say much beyond the CBAM here because we haven't concluded our verdicts on it at the UN. There are individual views on that. Can we stop the harm as well of every possible protectionist measure, not just against trade but against the flow of knowledge. And here we can really get those local communities flourish because it— and I think we had a nice exchange, positive one, because I like, of course, the last mile, but I'm keeping— last mile is important, but the first mile as well. We're enabling those great minds, especially after we We listened to the excellent intervention from our young speaker today. There are many good ideas, not aspirational goals or targets, but practical solutions to these aspirational goals and targets, and they are very much at their first mile that we need really to capture. And of course, we need to make sure that the implementation will be there with us as well at the last mile, so there is no confusion between the two. Having said that then, So there are a great deal of solutions that are happening— mobilizing finance, benefiting from the maximization of knowledge and capacity to harness new technologies, and provide the right incentives for these localities, communities, towns, cities, and villages to do better than what they are doing if we are allowing them to do what they should by at least minimizing the harm before bringing the benefits. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much, Mahmoud. I think a systems approach to so much of the broader discussion has taken us across so many elements of the financing flows, and I like your reminder that the first mile and the last mile can be equally important, and if we don't set the right foundation. So I think that's a lot of the conversation that we're doing here today. Thank you so much. I now move on to our panel, and I'm really delighted we have Ambassador Antônio da Costa da Silva from Brazil, who is the Chief International Advisor to the Ministry of Cities. We're really thrilled to have Brazil represented here. With the World Cup debacles outside, we want you to focus in maybe a bit on 2-1.

Exactly.

We'll keep the score updates happening as well. Ambassador, if you'd be willing to share some of the financing and governance innovations that we know that is leading SDG localization across cities in your country, but also beyond. The floor is yours. Thank you.

Okay. In the first place, thank you.

I'm going to speak in Spanish.

Because we're going to have a World Cup that's going to be Spanish-speaking.

So if you heard that shouting, that was Argentina's first goal. They tied. And then after the second goal, toward the end, and they got 9 minutes of extra time, and my colleague and I were suffering over the result, but Yes, we had 9 extra minutes of playtime. Thank you very much for the invitation to speak. And don't be fooled by my accent. This is a real Spanish accent, but I think that for the final, as a good Latin American, I will be thinking more about Argentina than Spain. I confess that, and that's not natural for a Brazilian man. I'm just telling you that so you know. Having said that, yes, Brazil first. We are extremely proud to have been one of the partners of the Civil Platform for Action. We have a series of projects on the care economy that we've done with Colombia and Mexico. We have one on adequate taxation that we're trying to roll out with Spain. With the Inter-American Development Bank, we have also created mechanisms to ensure stability in currency in terms of the exchange rate in some development projects. And we have a scheme to finance what we call our ecological transformation program that began with COP30. And we always, always— and this is Brazil's way of doing things— we always try to work at the local level. And given that we heard some initial thoughts that were very enriching and very interesting, in the 3 minutes that I have left after talking about soccer and just making this brief introduction on Brazil, I would like to remind you that for Brazil, it was really a source of pride to be part of the steering committee— I don't really know how you say that in Spanish, unfortunately— of the Local 2030 Coalition in the last 2 years. This really strengthened our conviction when it comes to thinking about what it means to localize and territorialize SDGs. We've led certain initiatives. For instance, with Germany, we are co-leading an initiative of multilevel governance for Climate Action in order to elaborate different indicators and initiatives and how you support that at the local level. But here I want to take a two-pronged approach. First, in terms of budgeting, Brazil uses a municipal approach towards budgeting. So budgets are decided locally. But objectively, what we have experienced in recent years has been A mechanism that is natural for a democratic country such as ours, which is the political capture of certain budgets, especially in parliament. And what we have seen is that the logic of government programs that we want to land at the local level isn't always successful because there are 2 problems. On the one hand, the political capture of certain projects, which Unfortunately, is a result of political logic and electoral cycles, and we do need to work on that. And I think that here there is a planning deficit, and there is a lack of conversation in terms of planning, especially with parliaments. And I think we do need to address this somehow. And we have to do this through partnerships that don't just happen locally, and I think that was mentioned here. This has to be a regional approach. And perhaps you already know this, but if you don't know this, I will tell you. Brazil, among the many challenges that it faces— we're a big and complicated country. We are a federation of states and municipalities. So municipalities don't depend on our states, and they really don't depend on the federal government. Municipalities are autonomous, states are autonomous, and the federal government tries to coordinate among them to the degree that that's possible. And what we have tried to do is to try to organize a conversation with states and municipalities to organize budgets and see how we can work with those budgets so that they are mutually reinforcing. In terms of the Ministry of Security, if you will, it's a very specific ministry. We work with the entire urban agenda. And since we are talking about SDGs, It is important to say this. The Ministry for Cities is the ministry for SDG 11 and SDG number 6. That's what we do. We've been focused on budgeting. The second challenge, I believe it's more complicated, and it's for small municipalities. It's easy to work with Rio de Janeiro, with São Paulo, with the major cities. It is very difficult to work with small towns and especially isolated small towns. They do not have the technical capacity. They do not know how to prepare and craft projects. And we have to meet them where they are. We have to find a way of working with them and give them the technical skills so they can carry out these projects and that these projects are financially viable. And just final thoughts. I promise it's the last one. I know I've gone over my time. In terms of the upcoming SDG Summit next year, in a way I get the sense that we've been speaking a lot about national priorities and local implementation. And I would like to say that the Brazilian experience has shown us that we need to turn that logic on its head. We need to listen to local governments. and see how their vision of Agenda 2030 can revitalize our debate on what sustainable development means multilaterally. And I'll leave it at that because I know I've gone beyond my time. Thank you.

Thank you, Ambassador. I think a very inspirational way to end is really taking those local priorities all the way up into, uh, national dialogue. I think that that would really reflect a lot on the earlier conversations that were held at this event and throughout the week. Notable how you talked about limited capacity at those villages, those remote areas, and it's really quite timely now that we move to Mr. Daniel Ortega, who represents CAF, which is the Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean. You are the manager of planning and development impact. We're really thrilled that in one particular case, I'm sure in many, that you are working with the UN in Colombia to actually launch and unlock the first municipal credit to a municipality in Colombia, Chocó, and a much larger CAF-UN partnership on the ground. It's a great example of responding to the Ambassador on what do you do when you want to really work at municipal level? Is there possibilities to make breakthroughs? And are you seeing a way that this can help CAF, but also others following your footsteps for more? So, thank you so much. Over to you.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak here and bring CAF's experience to this important forum. Let me begin with a bit of perspective on corporate strategy, which I— which is where I think everything really begins. Because following CAAF's first or largest capitalization, which occurred in 2021 or was committed in 2021, along with the board, the organization prioritized local development as one of its key pillars, uh, strategic pillars going forward. And right now, when we are in the middle of a renewal or a revision of this strategic outlook towards 2031, this pillar is reaffirmed. So I think the starting point is really important from a DFI perspective or from an MDB perspective, which is commitment to the agenda is essential for scaling these— this kind of work. It is necessary to have commitment at the highest level. This is one thing that I believe is essential. The second piece of this is CAF's— CAF has particular attributes which are related to its governance structure. Its attributes are— or its recognized significant attributes are proximity, flexibility, and agility, and a commitment to quality on the ground. So what we do is we— part of CAF's DNA is to actually listen and to understand our clients' needs and to tailor solutions to these contexts. So you have one piece of commitment to local development. The second is close proximity, flexibility.

So going—

if you zoom out a little bit, you have like more than 18,000 local and regional governments in Latin America and the Caribbean. And we are— CAF is the, as far as we know, the only development bank that has a department that is devoted to to territorial development. We were actually the first MDB— we're not the only one anymore, but we were the first— to offer financing to subnationals without sovereign guarantee. And so in CAF's general framework for addressing— for supporting local governments, there is like 3 tiers, and this goes to Antonio's comment on the heterogeneity of capacities across different subnational entities. So you have the large and credit-ready with access to finance municipalities or local governments, and you have an intermediate that requires some support. There are sort of— are almost there or already there, but, you know, still require some support. And then you have the third tier, which is the fragile segment, where you really need enabling conditions and institutional strengthening to help pull them up to a creditworthiness level that will make some finance actually feasible. And this has to be done through, you know, non-reimbursable technical cooperation. So this is the landscape. You have 3 tiers of development, and our work in Chocó is basically very much in partnership with the SDG Fund, is very much focused on the lower tier. And so— and this is where another piece of this whole story comes in, which is financial innovation. So you have to— sometimes you have to sort of innovate. So we, we drew like a trust fund structure with the municipality in Canelones in Uruguay of $12 million, a very small program, but which was implemented with no sovereign guarantee and which is repaid with, with the local tax revenue. So it's a particular structure that worked and that is helpful. in advancing a local development and institutional capacity agenda. So institutional capacity building enables finance, and this is exactly the case of Chocó, you know, where it's a very, very— one of the poorest areas, municipalities in Colombia, or It's not a municipality, the area in Colombia with 67% of monetary poverty rate, with major, major deficits in infrastructure, connectivity, and access to public services. So there are 3 basic things. Technical assistance goes in first. And so innovative I'm almost done. Innovative subnational financing, the Territorial Readiness Facility in the, you know, this joint CAF-UN through the SDG Fund that transforms these priorities into actually bankable projects, aligning stakeholders and mitigating risks and mobilizing other resources. Like, this combination of things will— is exactly what you need to pull some of these places into actually being able to access finance, which is necessary— which is the necessary lever for the development program. So, 3 things: commitment, innovation, and capacity building, I think, would be the 3 main messages.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Daniel. Just, just to ask quickly, so if no sovereign guarantee— you gave an example of a $12 million trust fund outside of Colombia. I think it was another example you gave. So in lieu of a sovereign guarantee, what does CAF take? What do you look for?

More?

Oh, okay.

So we take the risk.

That's what we take.

Yeah, beautiful.

Good answer.

Good answer. I think it's important to say that, right, that in a normal operating, you know, situation without a development bank like CAF, without your leadership, that would wouldn't happen, and that's why we see so many opportunities missed. So it's really notable, and I just want to acknowledge that it's a game changer for the Joint SDG Fund to meet a partner like CAF, to be able to already be working in Colombia, and to really look at how we can look at the region. So we're very hopeful for expanding our partnership. I'm really delighted now to go to a part of the UN family to welcome Ms. Elizabeth Maruma Murema, who's our Deputy Executive Director of the UN Environmental Program, as well as a member of the Local 2030 Working Group. So basically, Elizabeth, you are most welcome for bringing in the environmental dimension, which of course we know cuts across everything that we do in finance and in SDG acceleration. And you're speaking both on behalf of UNEP, the UN Environmental Program, but also on behalf of them, Local 2030. I refer to Sebastian, but it's a huge coalition of agencies, funds, and programs. So I have 2 parts to a question. First is what really needs to be in place for environmental sustainability to be baked into investments from the start rather than bolted on or added in as an afterthought? And number 2, as the voice of Working Group 2 of the Local 2030 Coalition, are there already key recommendations that the group wants to already put on the table for next year? Thank you so much. Over to you.

Thank you, thank you very much, and I should also say thanks to all the previous speakers. It has been very interesting. But many thanks for Habitat and UNECE for convening this event. Let me begin with a common phrase for environmental community, which is also used particularly for the local implementation, and that is think globally, act locally. This approach is essential for sustainable development, and SDGs, as we know, had been agreed globally, but then of course their delivery is locally, and that's why we are here this afternoon to discuss these issues. Cities, regions, Territories are where people's experience and realities of climate change, pollution, biodiversity loss, inequality, economic uncertainties really are felt. This is also where solutions are designed and services are delivered and resilience being built. We know, for instance, Today, 1.16 billion people globally live in slums and informal settlements, and often this is the population without secure housing or basic services or even protection from climate risks. That's why SDGs localization matters so much, because it's about the global commitments meaningful in the people's day-to-day lives. But if we want local governments to deliver on the Global Goals, we must also give them access to the resources they need to be able to do so. Too often, the local and regional governments, these are the entities closest to implementation and yet very far from finance. So it's good to hear from CAF the risk ready to be taken to support this local implementation at local level. And this is where precisely we at UNEP are proud to co-lead together with UNDP and UNICEF, the Local 2030 Coalition Working Group on Localizing Finance. Our key objective is simple: to help local and regional governments across the financing— to access the financing they need to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals. We are doing so in 3 ways. Is by promoting integrated local financing frameworks, which help cities and territories align the budgets and investments and financing with their own SDG priorities. 2, or second, is by supporting reforms that strengthen local capacity and expand access to financing, including through greater fiscal decentralization and dedicated financing windows for local governments. Thirdly is by bringing partners together to translate ideas into investments. For instance, last year the working group produced a policy brief entitled Local Finance is Development Finance. And this year, we are soon launching another local finance forum to help countries put integrated local financing frameworks into practice. And we are also supporting the SEVILLE Platform for Action initiative on localizing finance to drive progress towards the 2030 agenda. Our contribution to this work builds on our broader commitment to helping cities and regions turn environmental ambition into practical investments. We supply the evidence needed to support investments, while our State of Finance for Nature in the Cities report shows that investment investments in urban nature amounts to around $200 billion annually, while more than $540 billion will be needed each year by 2030. At the same time, we know nearly $7 trillion continue to flow into activities that damage nature.

Thank you.

Thank you. Antonio— Mr. Mohammed there alluded to this in the context of illicit financial flows. Closing this gap will support our planet while at the same time also creating the economic opportunities needed. We also help cities to turn investment plans into reality, and we do so through initiatives such as Urban Shift and its finance academies, where UNEP supports local governments in strengthening technical capacities, engaging investors, and mobilizing funding. We work with partners to access new and blended finance that will help to unlock investments in technology and innovations. Examples range from cool roofs to permeable pavements to address extreme heat, green mortgages such as Hipoteca Verde in Mexico, carbon market opportunities for district heating and cooling projects in China, Likewise, support for Green Cities Guarantee Fund. The lesson is clear: financing localization is not only about the size of investment, but also how effective these investments are. It is about also smarter finance, stronger local capacity, efficient partnerships, that channel investments to the communities where those investments make greater difference. As we approach SDG Summit next year and the final stretch towards 2030, we must scale up what works. National governments, local and regional authorities, us international organizations, development banks, private sector, civil society, all have a role to play, because when local governments are empowered, communities become more resilient, and when communities become more resilient, the Sustainable Development Goals move from aspirations to achievements. Let us continue to work together to ensure that local action drives global transformation.

Thank you.

Elizabeth, thank you so, so much. Powerful to hear so many data points in your presentation. I think the 1.16 billion people living in slums is really something that we should all not lose track of. as we go into these discussions and really trying to remember those who won't ever have the privilege of being in a conference room like this one. So, really excited to hear all the examples and how seamlessly we can see the alignment between localization of the SDGs and all of our advocacy for climate finance and for the planet. So, well done. Really thrilled to move on to our next speaker. This is Mr. Ander Caballero, and I'm really thrilled to welcome him from from the Basque Country, from the Basque government. He is Secretary General for External Action, and he's part of the Euskadi Local 2030 Hub. As you've heard referenced earlier in our event today, it's the Bilbao Bootcamp that's really been such a thriving example of how at least the Joint SDG Fund, but many of the agencies, funds, and programs that are represented by the Local 2030 Coalition, have really come together to really program and to spotlight the work that we can do. It's no accident that when you're in Bilbao, you're walking the streets and you're feeling the reality of that success, which they tell in such a beautiful way over the decades of how they transitioned. Really thrilled to have you here, first of all. Thank you, thank you, and welcome. Could you describe for the group how becoming a Local 2030 hub has has maybe had some connection or impact on your existing governance programs, your academia, civil society, and what you see as opportunities for replication. Because one of the outcomes of our recent boot camp was to see, could we do this at country or regional level? So, you know, the boot camp idea is really something that can be packaged and taken elsewhere. So, we'd love to hear what you— what your vision says. So, thank you so much.

For sure.

Thank you for having been with us along the journey. Much, much, much appreciated. When I was thinking about the response to, you know, the questions that were posed, I thought how the human brain is wired. We tend to look for simple answers to very complex questions. Typically, right? And we're talking about what the innovation is that can be replicable and so on. And we typically look for the newest technology, the latest app, the ultimate solution, the ultimate tool. But the innovation that we found, especially in the Euskadi 2030 Hub, is not about the token itself. It's about the method, right?

It's about the process.

A method, as we see it, of governing systemic transformation. And that is what we're talking about with the Agenda 2030. Everything else, the hub itself, the boot camp, the blueprint, the SDG 18, and so on and so forth, those are evidences of the proposition that we're bringing. It is true also that in our history, throughout sort of the vast history, we have a long tradition of decentralized, multilevel governance. That is a historic feature of our country, and also private-public collaboration. Along the way. And it's maybe precisely because we've been a constantly evolving laboratory of multilevel democratic governance that we know again that the answers to the complex challenges are not either simple answers or answers that can be found by single actors. We know that to look for those answers, we need for public institutions at all levels again, of governments, supranational to local, universities, academia, business, civil society, and very engaged civil society that we're finding that is crucial to this endeavour, and then citizens themselves, that we work around shared objectives, number one, and then for the common good. I think that's also a feature of how we do what we call collaborative governance in the Basque Country. But again, this ancient innovation, I would call it, a historical one for us, is not just a way of organizing institutions or consulting with institutions for that matter. It's democratic culture as we see it. And as the Special Envoy pointed out, it's about values as well, right? I mean, democracy for us is definitely value, especially considering the challenging times we live in. Enhance our drive to push for SDG 18 as the one on linguistic and cultural diversity, because we think that systemic transformation, in the middle of which is the implementation of Agenda 2030, is a democratic form of governance that requires the respect for unique character of each territory. Again, in other words, the respect for our cultural— everyone's cultural and linguistic diversity. The other part of the question about the UN Local 2030 Coalition, outstanding partners throughout the journey, and the Local 2030 Hub itself, it is true that what it allowed us was to elevate from the local, from the regional experience, to connect it globally, so to bring, in a way, the local experiences into global learning and generating some global knowledge that can then trickle down again to local implementation, to local action. It's definitely something to be proud of and something interesting as well to see that both Under-Secretary-Generals today stressed the importance of having the UN finally connect directly also with regional governments all along the way and since the very beginning of the process, as Ana Claudia was saying this morning. We think that is crucial as well. And in that sense, I took a note last night, and maybe paraphrasing the Assistant Secretary-General of UNDESA, he said something similar to the effective multilevel, multistakeholder effective governance, a trust-based partnership at the end of the day, that is public infrastructure. We need to think of it as such. It is public infrastructure over which a platform, one may think, over which we build all these mechanisms, let's say. And this is, I think, the approach that clearly demonstrates that the Bilbao Bootcamp, which has been highlighted again several times, and we feel very proud of that, but we feel very proud of that from a collaborative perspective. Again, it's not something that we did. We couldn't have done it without the governance around it and the partnerships, right? And that is what I think was called earlier in the afternoon a truly collaborative United Nations effort. That is what it sounds like to us, and I couldn't agree more with that. The result of that was the Bilbao Blueprint, a shared roadmap where we're aligning financing, partnerships, and governance, and hopefully bringing the projects from 9 months down to 3 and even further. So again, just to cut it short, I think the ultimate innovation that we're proposing and that we found is governance itself, and possibly that's what SDG 17 is asking us, and maybe the ultimate effort, the missing accelerator of the implementing of the agenda itself. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Ander. I love the idea that It is really the journey and not always the destination, right? The process really does matter, and how we involve people and how we're really embracing the way the Basques have really made this experience a reality is really something that needs to be replicated. So, I think that's an open invitation to so many represented in the room to see how we can really find further partnerships for that. So, thank you so, so much. And last but not least, thrilled to move to Justina Kulunaté, Chair of FORUS, who is our civil society representative. Of course, that's where we are meant to serve, it's where we're meant to focus, and of course, that's where our principle of leaving no one behind inevitably has to be kept honest. Please, Justina, your question is, how can civil society foster genuine local ownership How can we make sure the localization process really does thrive? And is there any way that we can strengthen accountability and partnerships from your view? So the floor is yours. Thank you.

Thank you, Lisa. Yes, indeed, last but not the least. Thank you for inviting and having us here today, but more also, thank you also for Local 2030 Coalition having 4 of us in civil society as well as in the steering committee. Which shows your commitment to meaningful participation and cooperation. So, FOROS is a member-led global network uniting national and regional coalitions together, representing more than 24,000 civil society organizations. Our role is to connect members with one another and with also other cross-sectoral partners, strengthen their capacities, generate evidence-grounded realities, and support collective influence in the local, national, and the global level. Today, we heard a lot of perspectives and insights of mobilizing the finance and scaling the territorial solutions. Let me add a bit of a different angle to these questions from the civil society perspective. So, who shapes the finances? Who can access it? And who holds it to account? A project does not become localized simply because it's delivered locally. Localization is real when people and locally rooted organizations have power over priorities, resources, and decisions that shape their life. Localization without local power is decentralized delivery, not local ownership. My own personal experience in in locally led development projects in Rwanda, Colombia, Cambodia, and many others have reinforced this lesson. Change lasts when communities have a genuine say. Across all the forest network, we see 3 shifts that are needed. One, share the decision-making power. Those furthest behind are not simply beneficiaries to be reached, They are right holders and experts in their own realities. Civil society, special organizations rooted in informal settlements and representing women, young people, persons with disabilities, and other groups facing exclusion and discrimination must be involved before priorities and budgets are fixed and remain involved through the implementation, monitoring, and the review. Second, make finance reachable. More finance at the territorial level is necessary. But more finance is not only the same as accessible finance. Too often, resources arrive late, heavily restricted, and through long chains of intermediaries, while local actors carry the operational and political risk. Financing must be directed where possible, predictable, flexible, and multi-year, with proportionate requirements and general risk sharing. A partnership in which civil society is asked to deliver a plan it did not help to design is not yet an equal partnership. Third, build accountability into the architecture. Those furthest behind are the most often absent from administrative data and from formal meetings. Community organizations know who is not being reached, why they are being excluded, and what and what must have been done. For example, in Nepal, youth-led voluntary local reviews brought children's and young people's perspectives into municipal and national policymaking. In Zambia, community budget monitoring and citizens' audits strengthened transparency and influenced local spending in areas such as agriculture, health, and education. These are not just aside activities. They are part of public infrastructure and localization. I heard today one thing, it's good to copy the good things. Civil society helps make the invisible visible. Community organizations know who is missing from data, services, and formal meetings, and why. Once again, civic spaces also predict precondition for this. Civil society cannot strengthen accountability if organizations cannot organize, access information, or speak without fear. We cannot ask local actors to hold implementation together while closing the space in which they act. This is what local ownership looks like in practice. People can help shape priorities, follow the money, and influence the decisions. As we move towards the 2027 SDG Summit, Forum asks the Local 2030 Coalition and its partners to make these conditions minimum safeguards for every fund, market blueprint, and localization initiative. For each one, we should ask, did communities help to decide? Did resources reach locally rooted actors? And can people see, question, and influence the results? If the answer is no, the initiative might be locally delivered, but it's not yet locally owned. Civil society is not peripheral to localization. It's essential infrastructure connecting institutions with communities, turning evidence into accountability, and ensuring progress reaches people whom our system too often overlooks. Forest Hands is ready to bring the experiences of national NGO platforms and regional coalitions into this work. and help to connect the Local 2030 roadmap with grounded civil society evidence and participation. The future of SDGs is local, but local must mean locally owned, locally resourced, and publicly accountable. Thank you.

Justyna, thank you so much. I think most of us are privileged enough to work in the field, to work with local communities. We know how much that resonates, and I think it's critical that we keep that top of mind as we end this session. There's been many examples of pioneering work in the panel that I've led, and I just want to acknowledge all of that, from the municipality work that was detailed in Brazil to obviously the risk and the the support that CAF is giving in Colombia and beyond to that criticality, the work of the UN through UNEP on financing of climate change, and of course the Bosca leadership and civil society's leadership. On behalf of the Joint SDG Fund, really honored to be here. We really are here to serve and to continue this momentum. We hope that we can continue to be useful, and it's my pleasure to hand back to Sebastian. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Lisa. Thank you for a great moderation and the great partnership we developed over the years together with you and your team. So thank you very much. I will be brief in the closing because we are already almost at the hour, but thank you very much. It's always amazing and inspiring, and also it gives a lot of energy, I guess, to all of us to see how territorial innovation is happening everywhere in the world, from your different regions, from your different territories.

Thank you.

From your different contexts, cultures, and realities. And this is the bottom-up approach. This is the territorial transformation that is changing the world and that is ultimately accelerating the SDGs. So we have seen how do we move from projects to systems change, how do we do it from a bottom-up approach, from the aspirations and the ownership of the population up. And we have seen how this is transforming global agendas. And this is why the Local 2030 Coalition exists. I want also, beyond this very event, to thank you because by setting— installing the Local Change Strategy Coalition, the UN decided to open the doors and to make you, national governments, local governments, civil society organizations, youth organizations, private sector, territories, etc., academia, the driving force of change. including within the UN and in the UN reform. This is what localization is. This is this driving force that is changing the world from the bottom up, from communities and territories up, and this will continue for the remaining of the SDGs. Of course, we talked a lot about the SDG 2027 Summit, but also towards 2030 and beyond. Looking forward to this amazing journey ahead, and thank you again to everyone.

Thank you.

for participating today.

Thank you.