Parliamentary Forum at the 2026 UN High Level Political Forum on sustainable development

Good morning, everybody. Good morning.

Good morning.

Welcome to the IPU Parliamentary Forum at the UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. My name is Patti Torsney, and I'm the Permanent Observer for the Interparliamentary Union here in New York. And together with my colleague Alessandro Mauter, we have put together this agenda for you. You will see a slide there if anyone hasn't familiarized themselves with our anti-harassment policy. It's an important foundational document to the IPU and how we conduct our meetings. And I'll also just encourage you, if you do wish to make an intervention at all this morning at any point, there is a little button just below your speak— your microphone that has, like, little voice Sound waves. That's the button you push, and it generates a request to take the floor from here. Without further ado, I am going to introduce this panel, which of course has our President of the IPU, Dr. Tulia Axon, and our brand-new IPU Secretary-General at her first meeting at the United Nations in this capacity, Anda Philip.

Thank you.

We will be hearing from Anda at the conclusion of this morning's events, but first we'll hear from Dr. Axon. Over to you, President.

Thank you so much, Patty. Good morning, dear colleagues, dear friends. I would like to also note the fact that this is the first time we are having our new Secretary-General with us in this meeting. So, Ander, you're very welcome. This is not your first time to be here, but it's your first time to be here as Secretary-General of IPU. And Paddy, thank you for all the arrangements that you have put in place to make this possible. Colleagues, it is my great honor to be joined by all of you today at this parliamentary forum, and this is going to be marking my last one as the President of the IPU established this forum as a special event of the United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development as the chief global accountability mechanism for the Sustainable Development Goals. We all know the SDGs are off track by a large margin within most countries. As well as globally. While most countries do record some progress on at least some of the SDGs, and some countries are way ahead, no country will achieve all the SDGs, unfortunately. There are 3 main reasons for these poor results. One, weak institutional development Bad governance. Bad politics. Low investments. We have discussed these issues, dear colleagues, on many occasions before, and we had a key stocktaking discussion at last year's parliamentary hearing, an event we organized with the President of the General Assembly here at the United Nations. So I will not dwell on them again. Since the beginning of the SDGs, the IPU placed them at the center of its work with parliaments, often in close partnership with the United Nations. We have worked at the highest political level to incentivize change and provide a supportive environment for action. We have worked to ensure strong endorsements of the oversight role of parliaments in a number of UN resolutions and declarations. Topping that list is the General Assembly resolution of December 2022, which was on enhancing the role of parliaments in accelerating the achievement of the SDGs, which was followed a year later by a strong statement on accountability— on the accountability role of Parliament in the political declaration of the SDG Summit. Friends, colleagues, 2015, when the SDGs were adopted, it is not so long ago, but some of us have forgotten or weren't even in Parliament to remember how this agenda came about. So let's revisit that history for a moment. The SDGs were born as the most far-reaching, integrated, and universal agenda merging together the economic, social, and environmental pillars of sustainable development. They brought under a single framework all of the major sustainable development challenges of our time. They were conceived as the highest affirmation of global solidarity and of human rights. Put more simply, the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda were an implicit acknowledgement that the world had arrived at a critical junction where billions of people felt deprived in their essential needs. Injustices of all kinds were becoming entrenched. And planetary boundaries were being trumped. Those who saw the need for ambitious global goals to be set in 2015 were most prescient of their concern that bold action was needed to save the planet and build a better future for all. Now, fast forward to today, 11 years later, And what has happened? A planet that is becoming unlivable for hundreds of millions of people, with climate and other environmental parameters all flashing red. Austerity economics prevailing in many countries, leading to stagnation and even cuts in welfare and public investments, as well as in aid budgets. Military expenditures at a record-breaking $2.5 trillion and a corresponding unprecedented number of conflicts. Power and money being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, more than at any time in recent history. Growing numbers of people so disillusioned with politics and so apathetic that they don't even bother to vote. Trust in government and in global organizations like the United Nations is at an all-time low. To me, dear colleagues and friends, it's almost as if there was a direct correlation between the low rate of SDGs achievement and emergence of this scenario. The real gains that have been made towards SDGs here and there are being overshadowed by these larger losses, some of which, like the warming of the planet, pose an existential threat. The good news is that we have choices. In the 4 years that are left, we can still make Meaningful gains. As the saying goes, the best is the enemy of the good. Just because we can't get the whole job done, it doesn't mean that we should do nothing. Any action, big or small, that we can take for the SDGs today will result in some improvement to the lives of all people. The cumulative effect of these improvements can be profound, and they will open up new possibilities down the road. I believe that there is still a path forward for this agenda. We are parliamentarians, and we can lead the change that people everywhere are crying for. Our first responsibility as legislators opinion makers, and thought leaders is towards hope. Let's not underestimate this. Without hope, everything is lost. Let us hope that this meeting today will be a fresh new start of our journey towards achieving the SDGs for our people, And for our planet, I thank you for listening.

Thank you so much, President. We are dividing this morning into 2 panels, as you all know. The first one is on making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable, and the second one will focus on implementation lessons learned. I'm going to ask the President and the Secretary-General to take seats just over here, and you'll be with us this morning. And of course, as you are taking those seats, I'll remind all the parliamentarians that we have a reception that you're hosting this evening at 5:30 at our office, and we hope to have lots of interactive discussion with you then. But we'll see you again in a minute. Thank you.

Thank you.

Just as everyone's getting settled, if anyone missed the call earlier, if you do wish to speak during this session to ask a question or a comment, We encourage you, 1 minute to 2 minutes, question or comment. Thank you. And these seats need arm wrestlers. And to do that, just below your microphone on your desk, you'll see a little message wave with the person speaking. And you'll also see a channel. So you can listen to this meeting in English, French, Arabic, and Spanish. I'll sort of wind my way gracefully.

There we go.

Yes, this is mine. Is there— do you mind? A little humor to start the morning. All right, SDG 11. According to the United Nations 2025 SDG report, up to 3 billion people struggle to afford adequate housing, and more than 1 billion people live in slums and informal settlements. I know for many of you, housing is a huge issue in your constituencies, and you're under a lot of pressure. Achieving SDG 11 requires inclusive, resilient, and sustainable urban policies that guarantee access to affordable housing and to basic services such as safe water and sanitation, efficient transport, and green spaces for all. National parliaments hold the levers to make this possible through legislation, budgets, and a regulatory framework. They can enable cities to provide energy-efficient housing, expand low-emission public transportation, and build resilient infrastructure to withstand floods, heat waves like today, and other climate shocks. The leading questions for— oh, sorry, wait. Parliaments can also address the health hazards linked to urban pollution, including methane from landfills, a greenhouse gas that more than 28— is more than 28 times as potent as CO2. The challenge is no longer whether cities must transition, but how national action can ensure a fair, low-emission, and inclusive urban future. This session will explore how you as parliamentarians can deliver cleaner air, healthier communities, affordable urban living, and truly sustainable cities. And so I'm very happy that we have the Executive Director of UN-Habitat, Anna-Claudia Rošbach, who will give us an address this morning. And then we have— Violette, you have to help me with your last name.

Šivutse.

Šivutse, who's from the Global Governing Council. She's the chair of the WARU Commission. So without further ado, please, Ms. Rošbach.

Thank you, Moderator. President, Secretary-General, Excellencies, Honourable Members of Parliament, my panellist colleague Violet, distinguished colleagues, ladies and gentlemen. Yeah, it's a privilege to join you today. I extend my sincere appreciation to the Interparliamentary Union for really convening this beautiful Forum, I have to highlight that I really enjoyed the flowers, and it gives us a special touch for us to work together. And I also recognize all the partners that are here represented: the local and regional governments, the civil society, the grassroots organizations, private sector, academia, the development partners, but above all and most important, the communities, right? Because here we're talking. about the SDGs, you are taking decisions on a daily basis, and their lives are the ones being affected. So this year is a very defining moment for the Agenda 2030 at all, but specifically for UN-Habitat, as we are reviewing SDG 11, and we just launched our report, also Towards the end of the week, Thursday and Friday, we are going to have the high-level meeting where we review the New Urban Agenda at its midpoint after 10 years it has been approved in Quito, Ecuador, and looking forward the next 10 years to go. Our report on SDG 11, launched last week, records progress in some of the areas, but serious, serious warning signs. As you mentioned, we have almost more than 3 billion people actually living in inadequate housing conditions, so we have been talking about a global housing crisis where people all over the world have difficulties to buy or rent houses. There is an affordability crisis that is now happening at the global level. When we talk about slums and informal settlements, more than 1 billion living in extreme precarious situations with high prevalence in the Global South, and we cannot afford to have another pandemic, another situation where people don't have access to the basics, like water to wash their hands. We are also facing serious crises in terms of homelessness. Our numbers are around 300 million people living in this situation, and then the climate and conflict displaced people, more than 120 million. So we are losing houses and we need houses, and people are living in extreme precarious conditions. There are some areas where we improved in terms of SDG 11, for example, access to public transportation. We are not yet there 100%. We still have 4 in 10 urban residents that really lack convenient access, but we improved. We have improved in terms of access to waste management, but all these improvements, they show half of the glass full, but also half of the glass empty, right? So we have to appreciate the advance, which shows that we have the know-how, we have the expertise, and we are doing, but there's still a way to go. Some areas that, you know, areas of concerns, I spoke about housing already, SDG 11.1, but access to public space declined, and we know how fundamental it is for us to develop as human beings, air pollution, so these are areas where we haven't really evolved. In terms of land consumption, I think we achieved a moment where we kind of— we're balancing the pace, the pace of growth in terms of population and territory, but we still have a gap. We still grow more in terms of territory than population, and this urban sprawl has serious impact in terms of the natural environment. That's why we have droughts in many places, fires, access to vital resources such as water, but also biodiversity and food security, because as we speak, rural areas that are being converted to urban areas. So we have to look at urban sprawl, it's one of the areas of the SDGs where we have to pay attention. But these figures, they only reflect what is the reality of people in daily life, right? So families, we're talking about families that have or not secure home, we're talking about workers that are traveling on a daily basis to work and don't have how to travel. We're talking about women and girls feeling safe in cities and in public spaces, right? And we're talking about how we recover from disasters. And so we have evidence. The report shows us exactly where we have to go, illustrates also how we are dealing with these challenges in many places of this world, but it's clearly an area that we have to improve a lot. We are off track, and your role as parliamentarians are critical. And perhaps I will highlight some of the areas where, you know, we can work with you in the different countries to make sure that we overcome the gaps that we have. So, first of all, there is the the global housing crisis, as I mentioned. We need to have strong national urban policies. We need to have strong urban frameworks and make sure that the urban frameworks, they speak to the financial frameworks, because we need the resources to fund the needs that we have in cities. Getting to the informal settlements is always a challenge. Many countries have evolved in terms of having laws that allow the provision of services towards informal settlements, but this is actually a challenge that we have, or laws that enable cities to establish where the new houses are going to be built, inclusionary zoning requirements for the private sector. There are many examples of legislations globally at the national level that then cascade at the city level and improve urban plans so that we can, A, make sure that we have the finance for the housing, we get to the informal settlements, but also we plan for the future in terms of the right locations and the right densities. The second aspect is the connection between urban policy and climate action. So we also have identified this strong connection. We launched a report. We identified that More than 80% of the national climate reports, the NDCs, they recognize urban action as critical and important. So embedding climate risk into integrated housing policies, land use planning, infrastructure through the legal frameworks, the national, local level, is critical. The third aspect is the role of the local and regional governments. In our work, the New Urban Agenda brings the importance of multi-level governance, the important role that local governments play in terms of planning the territory, but also localizing the SDGs, and we have been talking about also territorializing the SDGs. Perhaps I'm inventing a word here now, but the point is SDGs, they don't help they don't happen in abstract. They happen on real ground, and this real ground, there's a leadership, there's a driver role that needs to be recognized. So strengthening the capacity, strengthening the autonomy, the political autonomy for local governments to generate revenues, to access finances, but also to take decisions around their territory is important. And finally, the fourth aspect is really on participation. We're going to have Violet talking about, but participation is part of SDG 11. This is an area where we have to evolve, and we have to make sure that decisions are embedded into, you know, what communities identify as their priorities, that we have the perspectives from women, from young people, persons with disabilities, informal workers, the residents of informal settlements really embedded into the planning of the cities and embedded in the urban agenda, in the housing agenda. So these are 4 areas where we think we can work with you in the future, in the upcoming 4 years for the 2030 Agenda, but I'm thinking about the 10 years of the New Urban Agenda in 2036. We just came from a World Urban Forum in Baku, Azerbaijan, 2 months ago, where we had a parliamentarian roundtable, and the results of this parliamentarian roundtable were very encouraging in terms of identifying the commitment of the parliamentarians into the New Urban Agenda and towards sustainable urban development. The message of this roundtable was very clear: housing, health, education, mobility, climate resilience— they cannot be addressed in silos, they have to be connected through laws, through national planning, budgets, and implementation. So the contributions from the parliamentarians in Azerbaijan are also recognized in the output of this session, which is the Baku Call to Action. So we are committed to work with you. Access to housing, land, basic services in informal settlements is at the core of our strategic plan for 2026-2029. We have been facilitating a very strategic intergovernmental process, the open-ended intergovernmental expert working group that started in '24 and will be living until '29. And this work of the expert working group on housing will be very, very important in terms of extract policy recommendations, and many of these policy recommendations has to do with the legal framework. So your participation and engagement at this open-ended working group will also be very welcome. So I conclude here, appreciating again this space and just highlighting that the decisions that you take in your parliaments on a daily basis will determine our urban future. We are moving from a society that will be in 20 years 70% urbanized, so please recognize the role of cities in sustainable development, climate action, and so on. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. And certainly, we've seen a number of the parliamentarians who are here have good backgrounds in municipal governments and perhaps provincial or state governments, so that combination of things that you were talking about, everybody working together to make a difference, is really quite tremendous. We now have about 5 minutes from Violette, who's here from Kenya. Welcome.

Thank you so much. I would really wish to start by appreciating the Executive Director of UN-Habitat, the moderator, of today and the chair of the session and our honorable parliamentarians. It's a big honor for me as a grassroots woman to be on this panel speaking to parliamentarians. First of all, in our own context at the local level, of course, I am a caregiver from my perspective of work, and that's what brought me in development. We see parliamentarians as people that we really associate with because we are voters and we bring them to power. So having such a convening, even if it's at national level or global level, to speak to parliamentarians is really important. It's— and it's something that we should not take for granted. I want to say that as a grassroots woman, a leader, and a caregiver, issues of basic service delivery, especially around energy and water, are really at the day-to-day work that we do, because these are things that we struggle with every day to be able to realize, which are based on the context of where we are living, because many of us grassroots women are either living in rural communities or in poor urban communities where these are really hard times in ensuring that there is energy, there is water, it's really— and this is where we have big population, people that are really in need. And as a caregiver, we come across these kind of scenarios every day. We have not been silent or just waiting for support as caregivers. We are organized in alliances from the municipality level, rural community level, to ensure that we can be able to come up with solutions that provide support to be able to address the issue of water, the issue of energy through innovations. We have innovations such as even we ourselves putting money together and be able to support in rehabilitating the water kiosks that are not usually being attended to, maybe by management because of one reason, or the other, or someone not reaching them. We have innovations that even we try to come up, like in my rural communities, as a means of conserving the forest and also ensuring that we have energy coming with energy-saving models that can be able to make us be able to operate in our communities. The biggest issue that we often fall is that participation in policy discussions with our parliamentarians, one-to-one engagement, not just the forums where you are invited and you get the blueprints of what the government is doing, which is the normal of the day, have often been missing. And this actually makes it so hard for us to be able to engage and be able to ensure that the government's policies really consider the priorities and that the money that is attached to these policies can also come to support the already existing tested innovations that we are doing in the community. For example, I would just wish to talk about solar. We have the private sectors that are doing solar energy in our communities and it's really expensive kind of loan system. When you look at, let me say, a solar system that would cost— simple one— that would cost $2,000, the loan system that is put on makes the grassroots women be able to pay like $12,000, sometimes even $15,000 of the same, because we do not have the parliamentarians and the communities or the grassroots women Sitting together so that the parliamentarians can be able to bridge the gap and ensure that they are really helping in the relationships, in the loaning systems, or in how we are accessing these facilities. And this is just a low-hanging fruit because you only need someone that is in decision-taking with the position of a parliamentarian sitting with the private sector and the grassroots women. to look at how best this loaning system can work and that the grassroots are not usually exploited. Issues about water being commoditized in our communities, water is no longer like the way we used to get water. It is really like now being put as really high value that we cannot be able to access, which often puts the grassroots women caretakers, mothers, at a very, really hard situation in being able to access these facilities. Having the parliamentarians in between speaking to us in a more formalized way than not just turning up for a one-day meeting, developing systems that really bring the grassroots women voices in a more formalized way in making decisions, in influencing And even during the budget processes that are happening, budget hearing processes, than just turning up to share a budget and having these caregivers be able to set the budgets, read the budgets, get the communication in advance on the budget hearing days so that we turn up with information would really be helpful. And sometimes I don't just call this that grassroots women will benefit. But it will also help to retain the parliamentarians in power because if they are working well and they are seeing the grassroots women who are already doing— bringing solutions that are advancing the work that they care about, that they are mandated to deliver, that actually is a win-win both for the grassroots women and for the parliamentarians. So this is some of the things that we have been experiencing and I think that what this forum should should be able to address, particularly that we are now looking at the SDGs, which we all committed to, which we are supporting each other to realize. How do we ensure that in localizing the SDGs, we are coming up with mechanisms that position, that formalize the contribution of grassroots women and recognition of the work that they do? Thank you.

Thank you so much, Violet, and you've already started us well on to answering some, some of the questions. How can Parliament strengthen coordination with local and civil authorities to deliver inclusive, resilient, and sustainable urban development? How can parliamentarians help cities reach the list? I think the first person on the list is Poland. Oh, you took yourself off for real. Okay, that's okay. Okay, you're live.

Yeah, uh, thank you, uh, Madam Moderator, all the honorable colleagues. From the Polish perspective, because we are ranking quite high, thanks be to our lawmakers and our society, because in some SDG rankings we are in the 9th position, on the others we are on 11th. So we are trying to keep up the job, make these SDGs alive and kicking in our society. As for the housing, I think that our experience is pretty simple. All, uh, all is done on the local government level. If the cooperation of the state level with the local government level is working, then we can provide housing, what is critical especially for the countries like us where demography is collapsing and collapsing quickly. But from the Polish perspective, I want to add one comment and one thing. If we think of the modern city. This city should be not only sustainable but agile. In Poland, a couple of years ago, we accepted over 2 million refugees from Ukraine after full-scale invasion. And if anything will happen during this cognitive war, this hybrid war Russian Federation is doing right now in our neighborhood, there will be more.

I hope not.

But maybe there will be more from Baltic States, from other countries, trying to save their lives, trying to escape from the horror, trying to escape from the danger, to give future to their children. And the cities of Poland should be ready for this kind of huge influx of migrants. It's not only the matter, of course, on a completely different level, of Ethiopia, of other countries, of Kenya. with a huge number of people coming there and staying to live. But we're talking about Poland, we're talking about other European countries. We have to rebuild thinking of what does it mean to have sustainable city completely. We should be more agile and we should adapt this SDG 11 in this direction as well. We should think of it.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much. I'll now turn to Mexico.

Thank you very much, Moderator. I should like to greet all my colleagues, parliamentarians, on behalf of the Mexican Congress. Talking of sustainable cities is not just talking about streets, buildings, transport, or infrastructure. Talking of sustainable cities is talking of the lives of thousands of people. In Mexico, we firmly believe that no sustainable development is possible without justice, urban justice. In our country, recently we've taken large strides forward. In 2020, we had a law on the right to mobility with conditions for safety, access, and sustainability. Then in 2022, there was a general law to ensure safety on the roads. This previously did not exist. We have also acknowledged the need for appropriate housing in accordance with international standards. However, laws are dead letter unless they lead to results. A sustainable city has to have housing close to work, safe public transport, water, sanitation, civil protection and also long-term planning. History has taught us, looking at Vancouver in '76 and Istanbul in '93 and Kyoto '26, the international community has moved forward with ideas. Cities have to be built by people, so therefore all of us, men and women, members of parliament, wish to put forward A specific idea. Speaking on behalf of Mexico, I would say firstly we need to ensure that parliaments provide laws with sufficient budgets. Secondly, there has to be an international parliamentary network for sustainable cities in order to be able to share experiences interactively. We have to have urban planning funded by public resources. It has to be assessed on grounds of social justice and benefit primarily those who most need it. We need buildings that will ensure nobody is left behind, cities that don't expel people, that interconnect, that are livable in, cities where development goes hand in hand with human dignity. Thank you.

Muchas gracias. I'll now— Switzerland, please.

Thank you very much, Mrs. Moderator, Mr. President of the IPU, you know, Mr. Charentin, and dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen. This year is a very special year for Switzerland because we're presenting our 4th national report on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, especially with the SDG 11 that we are talking about now, but also in general. Our general feeling in Switzerland— and it's already been mentioned— is that we will only reach a result if we all work together. That is government, parliament, and in a federalist country like ours, it means the cantons and the cities, academia, civil society, and of course without forgetting the people.

Thank you.

men and women, as mentioned earlier. This work can only be done through the shared responsibility, and I would like to salute this event in particular. We as parliamentarians, in this shared collaboration, especially responsibility at legislative, budgetary, and operational level, as well as has been mentioned. Of course, we could be very disappointed, it's been mentioned. That because not all the goals will be reached by 2030, but it will at the same time give us, you know, more impulse and the desire to act with more efficiency and, you know, pragmatism. You know, this experiment we have in Switzerland, and I'm convinced that a number of colleagues, you know, have known it, is that only when we integrate these goals in this daily policy that can have a positive impact and can be realize it cannot be only a parallel agenda, you know. And if you allow me to say here, it is not because we have the 2030 Agenda that it shouldn't be in our other policies. It should be our other policy. This is why the coordination with all the levels must be strengthened. And I was for 21 years in the government in the city of Montreux in Maine. I was a president of the parliament of my canton. now parliamentary, you know, president of the 12+ inside the IPU. And I can see here very clearly, I see this a very important notion of integration. But parliamentary integration means also to make clear political choices. And we all know that these choices are often a question of, you know, linked to financial resources. That is why it's a very important element that we can strengthen, in particular for SDG 11, these elements. And it's important in relation to what will come afterward, in relation to inclusive policy, you know, so that we get in relation to more protection. We talk about provision and in relation to peace. And this is in a sense that I'm happy that we can have this debate and we can especially move forward and share and have a debate in our parliament so that it cannot stay within our IP at the IPU. But, you know, and that what we do at IPU and our parliaments, you know, serve our people on a daily Thank you.

Thank you so much, Mr. Worley. I'll now turn to Senator Galvez from Canada.

Thank you very much. I have different hats. Today I'm going to wear my parliamentarian hat. I think that we are here as parliamentarians to promote accountability, transparency, and the coherence of our legislation. Legislations at our parliaments. I want to say that having been around the world, I see that we are communicating. It's very easy today to talk to anybody on the planet. We also see that there is a big food production. We, as Canadians, we export a lot of grains. We know that there is a lot of food. We are in a period where money is very abundant. You just have to see the trillionaires that are growing. So what's the problem? Why are we not reaching the Sustainable Development Goals and why do we seem to have difficulty? I realize that it's because, in general, what we are seeing is the privatization of profits and the democratization of risk by the financial sector. So the financial sector is the pension plans, the banks, the insurance, and they are not being honest in making the reporting of the risk, of the risk that climate change brings, of the risk that extreme weather events brings, the risk of inequality brings, the risk that cybersecurity and artificial intelligence is proving. So I will say that we need to push a financial sector and to come with us to force or to promote the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. And in that sense, I think that I would like to recommend 3 actions. First, that when as parliamentarians we look into the budget, we should look into these budgets' revenues and expenses. Are they increasing the debt? One question that is becoming so critical is when are we going to finish the debt, not only the developing countries, but even developed countries as Canada? When are we going to end paying the debt? Second, why don't we ask the artificial intelligence developers to participate in attaining and promoting the Sustainable Development Goal. I think that it has been produced and developed with taxpayer money, and we should ask to help with us. And finally, I think that there are model laws in many countries that we don't need to invent nothing from zero, but we can learn from many other places. And therefore, if we can have a bank of model laws, legislation that have proven to be optimal in attaining the Sustainable Development Goals, we should look at that.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much, Senator. And of course, on that last point, the IPU does have some of that available to you, and that's part of the goals that my colleagues, particularly based in Geneva, have been working to do some regional meetings to help with that. And this afternoon— this morning, the second session is also about lessons learned, so we don't need to reinvent the wheel. With that, I'll turn to your next-door neighbor colleague from Brazil.

Efficient housing is not a luxury but a necessity for people of low income.

I'm afraid the speaker is speaking Portuguese rather than Spanish, which is not one of the languages available.

Excuse me. You're speaking Portuguese. Did you bring an interpreter? We don't have Portuguese.

We have English.

No, no, no. It's Spanish.

Spanish? Oh, the interpreter thought otherwise.

He has a strong accent, but he speaks Spanish.

OK.

I'm just getting the message. Interpreter, are you—

OK. It is rather a strong accent with some Portuguese words, but I'll do my best. The message for the forum is that efficient housing is not a luxury. It's necessary for residents of low income. When we look at energy, That is necessary. We can have labeling, looking at standards, improving living spaces can help us. At present, we have dispersed laws, unstable parameters. We need them to be stable and to progressive. We have to have public subs. Subsidies at a minimal level for efficiency. This is necessary. If we have a generation of energy supplied in a way which is sustainable, we have to look at accessibility because for the families, those families of low Income. Solar panels can help as well as isolate— insulated walls. So therefore, we had Law 14300 in 2022, which provided a framework for the micro-generation and mini-generation of energy distributed with a compensation system for electrical energy and essentially a sustainable program for renewable energy aimed at residences for those— housing for those with low incomes with information about energy efficiency. This is our contribution to the forum.

Thank you so much to one of the vice presidents IPU. And I will now turn to Myanmar for up to 2 minutes.

Hello, Madam President and Excellency and distinguished colleagues. Thank you for the—

I am honored to have the Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President, for the opportunity to speak on SDG 11 today.

On behalf of the committee representing the Consultative Dossier PH of Myanmar, I would like to express my sincere appreciation for this important discussion. SDG 11 aims to make cities and human settlements inclusive safe, resilient, and sustainable in Myanmar. However, years of conflict following the 2021 military coup have severely undermined these goals. Millions have been displaced while homes, schools, healthcare facilities, and public infrastructure have been damaged or destroyed. Yet, despite these challenges, the people of Myanmar continue to demonstrate remarkable resilience. The CRPH, the National Unity Government, ethnic resistance organizations, civil society, and local communities are working together to build a peaceful, inclusive, and democratic future. Through the Steering Council for the Emergence of the Federal Democratic Union, SCEF, democratic stakeholders are strengthening cooperation and laying the foundation for the future Federal Democratic Union based on human rights, equality, and inclusive governance. Achieving SDG 11 requires more than rebuilding infrastructure.

It requires peace, justice, democratic governance, and the meaningful participation of the community in shaping their future.

We therefore call on the international community to continue supporting the peoples of Myanmar in their efforts to build inclusive, resilient, and sustainable communities, and to ensure that no one is left behind.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, sir. I will now turn to Myanmar, and after Myanmar, we have Côte d'Ivoire, and after that, Indonesia. Sorry, after Côte d'Ivoire, Indonesia, and then Austria.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam Moderator and President, if I may so speak. Dear colleagues, members of Parliament, according to the United Nations, more than a billion people are still living in shantytowns or in informal housing. In Côte d'Ivoire, we see this further emphasized by the massive arrival on a daily basis of migrants fleeing terrorism in the Sahel. We border that region. So this situation requires resolute action on the part of parliaments in order to achieve SDG 11. In Côte d'Ivoire, the rate of urbanization has gone from 39% in 1990 to 53% in 2023 with an annual growth of 3.2%. Given this and what I just said previously, the government action aims at 3 priorities. Firstly, fostering the access of everybody to economic housing with building with sustainable local materials, energy-efficient ones, taxation adapted, attuned to those who are worse off. Then we also want to look at the structure of cities and invest in waste management. So we have the National Waste Management Agency which has been created. We want to reduce methane emissions. We have public transport covering about half of the city with subways and flood protection. So the local agencies in Côte d'Ivoire have looked at gathering together, involving citizens, and ensuring that there are adequate resources for urban planning. When it comes to legislation, budgetary control is necessary. We believe that we can act and in this way help investments in the National Development Program 2026 to 2030. This is a program for housing, water, sanitation, transport, and sustainable land planning with our main aim to ensure that our cities are inclusive areas, resilient, and provide opportunities for all. We believe that in this session we can look at the data we have and exchange good practices, and we trust that this will be the case as we participate here. Thank you.

Merci beaucoup. Now we have—

Thank you very much. And now we have Indonesia, Austria.

Sorry, Indonesia, Indonesia, then Austria. Indonesia, thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Indonesia, we moved early to institutionalize the 2030 Agenda. By adopting Presidential Regulation 59 of 2017. This ensures policy coherence at the national and municipal government levels. The SDG acts as a North Star, and due to this, we managed to keep up 62.7% of the SDGs on track for 2030. In regards to urbanization, SDG 11, for medium-term development plan, Indonesia seeks to increase the percentage of families with access to adequate and affordable housing. Beyond 68%. This is done via budgeting through Housing Finance Liquidity Facility, the government— a government-backed lending facility whereby low-income families can purchase their first home with subsidized interest rate of 5% for landed houses with a long mortgage tenure of 40 years and exemptions from VAT. In the waste management space, under Law 18/2008 on Waste Management, the Parliament shifted focus from collect, transport, dump to a circular economy model. We advocate for budget allocations towards waste-to-energy plants and sanitary landfills that capture and utilize methane gas, transforming climate hazards into electricity. There's a push for public-private collaboration to waste and housing. De-risking this investment is necessary. As mentioned in the last parliamentary hearing, globally around $30 trillion of global savings remain idle, waiting for the right regulatory environment. So what is the— what do you say the Royal Parliament in de-risking and aligning the investment regulation with SDG targets. It is especially important given we're all aware that globally there's a $4.2 trillion global funding gap in achieving the SDGs. Indonesia aims to have 100% targeted waste management by 2029 and believes in the whole-of-society approach that was mentioned, working with academia, civil societies, municipal bodies, and all stakeholders, creating a regulatory environment that is conducive

Thank you very much, Indonesia.

It is our North Star, and that's terrific. I'm just going to read out the list of the next speakers. The list is closed so that I can turn back to the panel. We're going to have Austria, Tanzania, Romania, Paraguay, Kenya, Albania, and Egypt. I know there are some more people on the list, We'll get to you if there is a chance, but right now I'm going to turn to Austria, maximum 2 minutes, please.

Yeah, thank you very much. I'm a very proud Viennese, and I don't know whether you are aware of the fact that the city of Vienna and the city of Copenhagen are always competing about which one is the most lively city in the world. This year Copenhagen won. I'm sure next year it will be up to us again, but where does it come from? I think it comes mostly from the fact that we never privatized public services. So when it comes to the management of water supply, when it comes to garbage treatment, when it comes to public transport, that's all owned and managed by the city of Vienna. Even one-third of the houses are public housing, and another third is subsidized, which of of course, makes a lot of pressure on the private market. So also the private houses are quite affordable in Vienna compared to other big cities in Europe. So what is the goal? The goal is simply that we do not make profit, but really have high services, high quality of services for the people. And the advice I only— and I echo what you said before— don't let them— that they these people or these enterprises run the services who just want to make profit, but really have a look that the services are of high quality and affordable and open to everybody. And use your taxes wise and always put people in the center. Thank you very much.

What a great message, Petra Beer. And of course, I have people going, yes, yes, beside me. That's always a good sign. I'll now turn to Tanzania and then Romania. Tanzania, please.

Thank you very much, Madam Moderator. The Tanzania Parliament took a decision in encouraging and advancing on electric vehicles on issues of transportation in Tanzania.

The Parliament of Tanzania has promoted energy-saving and eco-friendly motor vehicles by passing sweeping tax reforms.

Reducing the taxes from 25% to 10% to encourage more users of electric vehicles in Tanzania. The duty exemptions, complete exemption of excess duties and other taxes of engine capacity of both electric and gas-powered vehicles, VAT exemptions for infrastructure, value-added taxes, all have been reduced to encourage the people to use electric vehicle and gas-maintained cars so that we reduce the CO2 in Tanzania. Reliefs on different types of exemptions, and this will help the country to reduce its importation of petroleum and reduce the CO2 emission in the environment. Regarding the— to promote the climate resilience programs, Tanzania has established a dedicated environmental unit, Ministry Strengthened Climate Change Management, by the Minister of Environment, regulates water source protection. Further, this act strengthens Tanzania's climate and conservation framework in several ways, and most notably, it creates a new national carbon monitoring center. Last but not least, I invite you to Tanzania for the 153rd Global Meeting in Arusha. There are, I insist, and say again, there are no health issues in East Africa, especially Tanzania.

You're all welcome.

Come one, come all, and enjoy Mount Kilimanjaro and the spicy islands of Zanzibar.

Karibu ni sana, Tanzania.

Thank you so much, Mr. Speaker. And of course, for those of you who don't know, the IPU is having, as the Speaker said, its next parliamentary Sorry, its next assembly in Arusha, and we're all very much looking forward to that. If you're looking for information, ipu.org under events and future events, you'll see the details and the need to register through your national group. I'll now turn to Romania, then I've got Paraguay and Kenya. Please.

Thank you, Madam Moderator, distinguished colleagues. First of all, I would like to congratulate the organizers for this excellent event and bringing us up together on this important topic. In 2016, the Parliament of Romania adopted a comprehensive political statement on SDG, and we, we are proud to say that we were one of the first parliaments in the world to officially declare its support for 2030 Agenda. Tangible results can be achieved when Parliament and the government and local authorities can work effective legislation with funding and strong implementation. I would like to share a few examples of good practice from Romania. Through national finance programs, we support citizens and companies in installing photovoltaic panels, helping them produce clean energy and reduce their bills. In 2026, we have also introduced support for energy storage solutions. The support is 90%. We provide eco-vouchers to replace older vehicles with cleaner and more efficient ones.

Thank you.

And electric cars. Romania has faced a large influx of secondhand vehicles, and a practical solution was needed to review the national vehicle fleet and reduce urban pollution. The eco-vouchers were at the highest level in European Union. We also funding the energy renovation residential building and apartment blocks. More than €2 billion were allocated to this initiative. Another important priority is reducing dependence on firewood for heating in rural areas, where approximately 3 million households still rely on it. A future successful example in Romania is deposit return system. For every plastic, glass, and metal beverage container returned, citizens recover a deposit, approximately 11 US cents. Since the system became operational in 30 November 2023, more than 10 billion containers had been returned by May 2026, with the collection rate reaching approximately 85%. These results demonstrate that the green transition succeeds, succeeds when national and local institutions cooperate and when environment policies provide clear, accessible, and measurable benefits for citizens. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Those are some great examples for us. I'll now turn to Paraguay. And if I can just remind everyone, the room is quite sensitive, so if we can— if you're talking, we sometimes can hear. Mr. Paraguay, you're on. Your mic's red.

Muchas gracias.

Thank you very much, moderator. Members of Parliament, distinguished members of Parliament, just to speed up a bit the debate because talking of sustainable development, although it covers the same regional problems in different countries, I believe that we need to tackle how it is possible to attain the sustainable development we all need without respecting sovereignty. We need to respect the will of the people. We need to strengthen institutions, state institutions. Unless we can do this, it's very hard to attain sustainable development and the SDGs. I believe that when a country becomes an area that is responsible where there is a secure legal system, then business can find an environment where it can invest safely, generate jobs, and in that way ensure that countries can develop social policies that are able to diminish, to reduce these problems that we all suffer. We as members of parliament bear the responsibility of drawing up laws that can develop social policies. For example, in Paraguay we have implemented various significant laws. One, zero hunger, where we have managed to feed more than a million children, school children every day, and another very important Yes, I think the most important one is dignified housing with a name that means my beautiful home. Here we've achieved a record over the last 20, 15 years that is a roof for the family. It's not the quantity of laws that's important. It's having laws that really can sustain the development to which we all aspire. Thank you.

Muchas gracias, and thank you for that good reminder that it's not the quantity of laws, it's the effectiveness. We'll now turn to Kenya, Albania, and Egypt. Sorry, microphone. Thank you.

For Kenya, SDG 11 is both a constitutional and an aspirational commitment. The 2010— our 2010 Constitution entrenches socioeconomic rights, environmental protection, and devolution, all of which intersect with sustainable urbanization. However, our urban centers continue to face rapid spatial expansion, inadequate housing, congestion, and environmental degradation. This pattern Is consistent with the UN-Habitat finding that African cities are expanding faster than their populations are growing. These are Kenyans' recommendations for achieving the SDG 11. 1, adopt an SDG 11 parliamentary oversight framework. Committees should use a common checklist covering housing affordability, public transport, waste, air quality, climate resilience, public spaces participation, and the devolved coordination. 2, require SDG and climate budget tagging. National and devolved budgets should show how allocations advance SDG 11 targets and climate resilience. 3, strengthen affordable housing oversight. Parliament should require annual reporting on affordability bonds, beneficiary data, location, energy performance, public participation, land allocation, and the procurement and use of affordable housing funds. 4, prioritize slum upgrading and basic services. Housing policy should include water, sanitation, drainage, Kenya security, community facilities, and livelihoods, not only the new constructions. 5, accelerate clean urban mobility. Kenya should invest in integrated public transport, that is non-motorized transport, and road safety linked to land use and housing plans. Implement methane and waste reduction measures. Counties, that is the devolved governments, and cities should be supported in separating organic waste, expand recycling and composting, rehabilitate, strengthen— on sprawl, settlement growth, service gaps, and climate risk.

Thank you.

And lastly, institutionalize public participation and participatory budgeting. Urban residents should influence housing, waste transport market public space and climate resilience priorities before decisions are finalized. And lastly, moderator, I would like to make a point on the earlier mentioned urban challenges in our cities that the world must pay attention to the issue of the urban poor, in particularly on food. It is dehumanizing. That in our upcoming urban areas, and especially the slum areas, children and women go without food, which is— must be a concern to the world. So other than water, other than housing, other than lighting, other than the roads in the slums, we must ensure as a world that the urban poor have some food to sustain them as a basic need.

need.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. That was an important plea. I'll now turn to Albania and then Egypt.

Dear Mrs. Moderator, dear panellists, I'm very happy to be here because this is a moment that we can share views and opinions. I'm coming from Albania and in Albania the parliament has approved a resolution on December 2017 regarding SDGs, that we all have committed ourselves for the achievement of 2030 Agenda. But in the moment that we have committed ourselves in this resolution, Albania have started the road towards European integration. So a lot of policies that are linked with the Agenda of Sustainable Development Goals are also connected with European integration. And for us, one of the main issues that we have supported during this period in the Parliament is to have in the center the voice of the citizens. And for that, participatory budget is one of the key elements. In the moment that the government designed the budget, we have a lot of discussion between interest group communities to see how the development of the priorities in SDGs are linked with the integration process. This is very important because nowadays, when the budgets have restrictions due to a lot of crises that are happening all over the world, we have to be very careful how we are going to spend the budget and how strong the financial system in the countries has to operate. So in this context, it is very important that we can be also innovative, in my point of view, to see how we can interact, even the private sector, to take care of some ideas that are linked especially with the new technology and new science models that are appealing all over the world. So I have to go in line with our colleague from Austria that there are some services that you cannot render them profitable because they have to go to the citizen, but there are some other ideas that need to be supported by the private sector. In Albania, we have done a lot regarding water, electricity, transport, and also housing, and all these are part of the strategy that we have planned around the national development that is linked with SDGs and European integration. The first thing is that water, for example, has been— yes, one minute more. Water has been one of the sectors that we started to work with private sector, then we see that it is not profitable, so we turn the model and we have been very public in this sector. In electricity, we have invested a lot in renewable sources of energy, so we need more money for that and we invited the private sector for photovoltaics and the eolic energy. So there is a combination of sources, and for us, it's very supportive that we are giving possibility in financing sector for the young families to buy their houses or to profit from the social houses that are building all over the country. So it is very important to combine sources of resources and also models that are across the country. Thank you.

Thank you very much for those good encouragement. I've got Egypt for 2 minutes and Germany for 2 minutes, and then I'm going to turn to the panelists.

Egypt. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the panel for an excellent introduction. I hear, as we are approaching, and I want to thank IPU for bringing us together and for this excellent platform where parliamentarians, share experiences, lessons learned from how and where are their challenges in terms of achieving the SDGs. I was fortunate to be bringing forward the early review and the high-level forum a few years back for Egypt, where we were one of the 21 countries that did early bird reviews. And now I can see that we have gone as As a senator and as a part of the parliament, we are very proud to see what we have achieved so far in terms of establishing smart cities, resilient cities, industrial zones that are environmentally friendly, but more important, also transforming informal settlements into modern, resilient cities. We've also done major milestones in terms of connectivity because It would be a major challenge if we do not do the connectivity to transform and achieve the SDGs. Regarding how can parliamentarians help, in Egypt last June, just a few weeks back, we've discussed the national strategy where we made sure it is aligned with SDGs and with a special focus on, of course, Goal 11.

Thank you.

Where we have stressed the importance of allocating sufficient budget to achieve that goal, but we've also managed to put forward legislation that takes into account that industrial zones should be environmentally friendly and they should be resilient and smart moving forward. On another front, it is also important that We're happy to see UN-Habitat here on the panel because they've also helped Egypt redraft several laws and take into account resilience into consideration. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you so much. I now have Germany, and then I know there are people who still would like to speak. I'll have to get you on to the next panel. Germany, the floor is yours. The floor is yours. If you can be 1 minute, that will be a bonus.

Thank you, Chair, or thank you, Moderator. I just will bring in 3 points from the German perspective that we have the experience on. First, climate resilience through integrated water management. This week in Germany marks the 5th anniversary of the devastating floods in the Ahrtal, one of the most severe flood disasters in our country in recent decades. The strategy shows that resilient cities begins beyond city borders. Water management starts in rural areas by restoring natural retention, protection, floodplains, and slowing down water before it reaches urban centres. At the same time, we need sponge cities that can absorb, store, and reuse rainwater. And second is a secular economy. Combined with modern waste management, waste should be regarded as a valuable resource. Better collecting, recycling, and recovery systems protect the environment, reduce emissions, and create economic opportunities. And third, and there is Germany also very strong, strong local institutions and sustainable financing empower it, or empowered municipalities, municipality, or municipal utilities At local public banks, we in Germany demonstrate how long-term investments— housing, energy, water, and urban infrastructure— can be financed close to citizens. So Germany stands ready to share these experiences and to work with UN-Habitat and all partners to learn from each other, and I would be interested on these 3 points, what is the perspective from UN-Habitat on that? Thank you.

Thank you very much for that. And he's the guy in the white suit if anyone wants to ask him for his contributions. We are going to turn to the panelists now. I know there are more people that wish to speak. We'll put you on the list for the next session. And can I just remind people that it's, it's a very sensitive room, so when people talk on the floor, we hear a lot of it here. So if I can encourage you to listen to your colleagues. I will turn I will turn— you'll speak last? First? Okay, perfect. Violet, civil society first.

Yeah, please.

Okay, sorry.

Thank you so much for the presentations that we had, and I think there is something that I still feel we are not bringing out on the issue of ensuring oversight and accountability. Which we have to ensure that the communities, especially the women, as I said, that are beneficiaries and also problem solvers in these issues of water, sanitation, and energy, being part of the oversight team that helps to inform government on what is not going on well. Because if you come to most of the rural communities, informal areas in the areas where we live, you find that some of these services even were broken long time ago, but there is no one that— there is no mechanism that allows you to be able to give feedback to the government, or where some, like the private sectors, are overcharging, there is no grievance handling mechanism that can be able to help you be able to speak to government and come up to a solution. So the issue of accountability in SDG 11 is really important because it's not about just giving the service. It's also about people's rights. These services are also the rights of the people that are living in those areas. And then the other important one is in some of these services can also be done in a good way If the government also, parliamentarians come up with policies that integrate social protection, like giving vouchers to some of these women that are doing caregivers to be able to subsidize when they are getting water or when they are getting energy, or some of the private, the women-led activities like care homes that they People leave children when they are going to work because of— to avoid fires, things like that. These are areas that women are just doing to be able to promote a caring community in the issue. But then they are also paying a lot of money to be able to do this service that actually the women that are leaving the children are women that are getting very little wages where they are going. So they cannot be able to pay enough money. So giving vouchers to really support these women to be able to subsidize, the government to subsidize for this kind of facilities for water, for energy, and the last that really, really burns me always is how the government's parliamentarians are not watching where the private sectors that are taking tenders to collect garbage, where they are taking the garbage. They take this garbage to the informal areas, they pour it next to people's areas where they live, but then no one is taking charge of that to ensure that these people that have been contracted to collect garbages are really taking this garbage to a place where people are not living. This is an issue of human rights. It's really bad because then it really looks like there's some part of the people in the city that are being marginalized. These are things we should look at if we are talking about realizing the SDG 11. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Violet. And I'm struck, as you were speaking, that while the situation in Kenya could be quite different than perhaps in Hungary or some other places, that concept of remembering the caregivers and figuring out innovative ways to finance, whether it's in Austria or in Europe or here in North America, that's a really interesting way to take a learning from Kenya and bring it back here, and perhaps there's things we can exchange. So I'm very glad that you're here and doing the work that you're doing. And now, over to you.

Thank you, moderator.

And also, thank you, Violet, for bringing this real-life picture to this session, because this is what we need to do. But thank all of you for your inputs, comments, and contributions. I'm very glad to see that we have advances in terms of clear energy, clean energy, waste management, electricity, pollution, even on housing and so on. So it's very important for us to look at the half of the glass that is full as well, that we're advancing on that, recognizing the role of the local and regional governments. From the federal country's perspective, it's more obvious, but I think this is a road that we need to also go together and understand how important it is. But there is advance. Kenya mentioned the devolution process, the constitution, and so on. So it's important to recognize, but also the challenges, right? And specifically in relation to Africa, so many challenges related to informal settlements, urbanization, and how it interconnects with urban mobility, with women in cities, safety, waste, and all areas of the SDG 11, and the high pressure on the ones living in vulnerable communities and more susceptible to the climate events. By the way, the next 2 billion people coming to cities in the next 20 years, they are coming to Africa and to Southeast Asia, and in Africa they are mostly young people, so this is very, very important. But also recognizing some aspects that came to the table, the economic— the role of cities in terms— and the role of the national legislations in terms of guaranteeing the security for— the legal security for the investments in cities and attracting investments in cities, this interconnection, cities, urban development, and economic development. and industrialization and so on. The role of technologies— there is a lot that we have to do. Germany mentioned the sponge cities, but others mentioned smart cities and so on, so this is an area where we have to evolve as a system within the UN. We're just launching now in Barcelona a Smart Cities Toolbox on people-centred smart cities, so a set of guidance— the whole UN Cities system is working together. to provide some orientation on mayors, but there's a lot that we can do. Technology and AI and so on can be a villain, but can be actually our savior if we use that correctly. I think a lot has been said around budgeting, tagging budgets, but also the participation in the decision-making process of setting up budgets. A lot has been said in terms of the role of public and private So these are the things for us to think through. Participation, the importance of participation, and oversight, right? Oversight at the national level, some ideas, and oversight at the national level— at the global level. In that, I would like to recognize the role of the World Urban Forum, and I was just listing the countries that spoke, that hosted previous World Urban Forums, and that's Egypt, that's Poland, that's Brazil, that's Canada, that's Kenya. We have the upcoming World Urban Forum in Mexico. The speaker from Mexico highlighted the importance of having a global network, and perhaps on the way to Mexico and thinking that we are planning another roundtable and building on Baku, if we can think about the roadmap together to work together and go deeper into these issues. Thank you.

Perfect. Thank you so much, and we're so lucky to have you both with us here today, and all of you who've provided contributions. We are going to thank our panelists. Thank you. We're going to do a quick photo. Alessandro is going to just put up a slide for all of you who are in this room. You know that this is the IPU's year. We're focusing on human rights. There's a QR code that takes you through a little survey. You can ask yourself what kind of a human rights ally you are. So please do pick up on that QR code, and we'll have it available later. And just as we're asking the other panelists, I'll also remind you that we have a copy of our IPU strategy here for you, some information on SDG implementation, some work on gender for those of you men and women who are interested If you're interested in that portfolio, and we have lots more on our website. So I'm going to vacate this spot. Alessandra is going to moderate, and we'll get the panelists up here. And first we'll do a quick photo.

Thank you.

And you need glasses, Allison. I mean, not these glasses. Wait, your purse. Barbara Adams, you're coming up here. And I know I come off like a schoolteacher at my grade school But every time you guys talk down here, we can hear it really loud up at the front. So while they're— if you can, I really encourage you, if you have a phone call or something, just step into the hallway. And if you're talking across your earpiece, you may not realize just how loud you are. So take it off. Thank you.

Thank you.

Here, I've got it, I've got it.

You're starting also.

Madam Adams, just say hello.

I'm over here, right at the door.

Yep, you're on. I'm going to get you more water.

Oh, thank you.

Now I feel sweet and surely.

Okay. Good morning again. My name is Alessandro Motta. I'm Senior Advisor for Economic and Social Affairs at the New York office here in New York. I'm very honored to be moderating this last session that touches very close to home for me, because it is something that I have spent quite a few years working on. We're talking about the concrete ways in which you, as parliamentarians, can operate in order to bring the SDGs to fruition. And so, in the first instance, we will be hearing from 2 distinguished panelists. One is here in person, the other one will be online, and there will be a video, who will give us their sense of the lessons learned from the implementation of the SDGs concretely, but also some of the challenges, I hope we can hear, with a framework that is very complex and very vast of the SDGs, because we knew from the beginning that 17 goals would not be easy to metabolize inside the government machinery as well as the parliaments. So we want to know what worked and what didn't work as much as possible so that we can spend the next 4 years accelerating what we can to get as close as possible to the SDGs. We heard from the President this morning that realistically we're not going to realize 100% of the goals by 2030, but that doesn't mean we have— we are going to give up because The more we can do in the next 4 years, the better we are positioned for what comes after the 2030 deadline. And on that score, we will also hear from a distinguished member of the civil society community, Barbara Adams, who will spend a little bit more time with us on the question of what comes or what should be coming after 2030. because the development agenda obviously does not end automatically on a given date, but it's work in progress. So on that note, let me introduce you to a distinguished member of parliament who is the co-chair of the Committee on Development in the European Parliament, Ms. Abir Al-Sahlani. You have about 5 minutes. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Chair and distinguished colleagues. Good afternoon. It's really a pleasure and an honor being among my peers from different parts of the globe. Really nice to be here with you, and I hope that we can have a few moments together where we can make each other better. I would like to extend an extra special thank you to the IPU for organizing this and for bringing us together. The Sustainable Development Goals were never meant to become another UN document. They were meant to be a promise, a promise that where you are born should not determine whether you survive to childbirth, whether you receive an education, whether you have clean water to drink, or whether your fundamental rights are respected. Today, that promise is under severe pressure, not because we lack knowledge, not because we lack technology, but because we increasingly lack political courage. Around the world, we see shrinking democratic space, growing authoritarianism, armed conflicts, climate disasters, and attacks on women's and girls' rights. They are not separate crises. They reinforce one another and undermine every Sustainable Development Goal. That is why I believe we must recognize something truly fundamental. Democracy is not simply one goal among many. Strong democratic institutions are what make all the other goals achievable. Without accountable governments, independent courts, free media, and active civil society, sustainable development cannot succeed. As parliamentarians, I truly believe that our responsibility is therefore not only to endorse the SDGs. It is to hold governments accountable when they fail to deliver on them. We must use our legislative powers, our budgetary powers, and our oversight powers to ensure that commitments become reality for our citizens. But accountability must also extend beyond governments. If implementation is not transparent, if corruption diverts resources, or if progress is measured only on paper, then more financing alone will never solve the problems. We must ask not only how much we invest, but whether those investments actually improve people's lives. The European Parliament remains fully committed to Agenda 2030. We have translated many of the SDGs into concrete legislation, and let me mention a few. From renewable energy and circular economy policies to clean water, environmental protection, and sustainable innovation. Unfortunately, our implementation is still somehow fragmented. Too often, we still treat sustainable development as environmental policy, development policy or social policy as social policy, instead of recognizing that it is all of these at once. And there is another blind spot. Spot we must address. There is no sustainable development where half of the population is denied their rights and their freedoms. Women's rights and gender equality are not a side issue, and it should never be treated as a topic that can be negotiated away, thrown under the bus for governments to achieve their own interests. They are preconditions for economic growth, better health outcomes, stronger institutions, and lasting peace. Likewise, human rights cannot be separated from sustainable development. A country cannot truly claim progress while imprisoning journalists, silencing civil society, or excluding people from political participation. Looking beyond 2030, I do not believe we need an entirely new vision. The challenges we face today have not disappeared because a deadline is approaching. If anything, they have become more urgent. Climate change, Food insecurity, conflict, and forced displacement increasingly reinforce one another. Security, development, and climate policy can no longer be treated as separate conversations. We must also ensure that the next framework embraces technological progress responsibly. Artificial intelligence and digital transformation have enormous potential, to accelerate development, but only if they remain inclusive, accessible, and grounded in human rights. And we must invest in young people. They are not simply beneficiaries of sustainable development; they are the generation that will build it. The Framework Beyond 2030 should therefore build on what works, strengthen accountability, mobilize both public and private investment, protect democracy, and place human dignity, human rights, and gender equality at its very core. Because sustainable development is not only about economic growth. It is about freedom. It is about dignity. It is about giving every person the opportunity to live a life in safety and with hope. The SDGs are not failing because humanity lacks solutions. They fall short where political courage is absent. Sustainable development is ultimately a choice, and I repeat it, it is a choice. A choice to defend democracy over authoritarianism, human rights over oppression, equality over discrimination, and long-term responsibility over short-term politics and political wins. That is the choice we must continue to make every day in our different corners of the world. People do not live inside indicators. People live inside true stories. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you so much. That was great, and you have already advanced the discussion that we're going to be having later on, what comes on the 2030 deadline. You are suggesting essentially keep the vision alive, strengthen accountability, build on what works, and above all, ensure the respect of human rights as the fundamental condition.

And democracy.

And democracy. But also you said something very interesting. You mentioned that one of the weaknesses, as far as the European Parliament is concerned, has been the fragmentation and how the 3 pillars of sustainability— economic, social, environmental— have yet not been merged into one. And that remains very much the eternal challenge, isn't it? hopefully, we'll hear some of your experiences in that regard. Now, we were going to have in person, or remotely connected, the Director of the UN SDG Campaign, which is one of the major outfits at the UN to try to work with governments and civil society and parliaments to facilitate their integration of the SDGs. Unfortunately, she cannot be connected because, well, she's in some remote location in Italy, but she has sent us a video. So I'm going to try to play the video now. And as it says in the program, her name is Marina Ponti. So here it comes, if I can be connected.

Good morning, good afternoon, everyone. Dear family and dear colleagues from IPU, Thank you. Although I cannot be with you in person today, I'm truly honored to join you and contribute to this important conversation. We meet at a turning point. With only 4 years until 2030, we face the last window of opportunity when your leadership will matter most. I would like to share 4 areas where you can accelerate progress for people and for the planet. First, SDG localization and prioritization. The SDGs should be translated into ambitious yet achievable national objectives and plans that respond to the needs and aspirations of the citizens you represent. I know that the SDGs did not help you set— on setting priorities, priorities, but now is the time to do so. Consult with your constituency to identify priorities and to co-create strategy and implementation plans. For one country, it may be ensuring access to clean water. For another, it may be managing rapid urbanization, strengthening education systems, or creating decent jobs and economic opportunities. For youth. Elsewhere, advancing women's empowerment and gender equality may be the key that unlocks broader social and economic progress. Second, SDG financing. Those of you who serve on the budgetary committees and/or are involved in defining and negotiating the national budget, you have a special role in making sure that the agreed SDG plans are included in national budgets. The SDG financing gap can seem overwhelming, but significant resources already exist in our economies. For example, every year countries lose near $500 billion to tax evasion, while Africa alone continues to lose around $88 billion through illicit financial flows. Parliamentarians, you have a critical role in ensuring that this stops through stronger legislation, oversight, and accountability. Third, SDG legislation. Transformation is not only about funding. While financial resources are important, Many of the transformations needed do not require budget. It is about legislation, particularly now as political debates that once took place inside your democratic institution now are happening online. In many ways, social media is becoming a substitute for negotiations rather than a tool that complements The public discussion is increasingly conducted through posts and comments instead of parliamentary debates and compromises. The role of legislation is critical to remove barriers, expand opportunity, and create a more inclusive and enabling society for all citizens to thrive. For example, Strengthening women's land and property rights can improve economic security, agricultural productivity, and family welfare. Eliminating discriminatory laws and administrative practices can increase participation in education, employment, and public life. Legislation can be a catalytic for powerful transformation by asking What barriers can we remove instead of asking how much money this will cost? In many cases, progress begins with new laws, better regulation, and fair institutions. Fourth, SDG accountability and communication. As elected representatives closest to the people, you are well positioned to understand the challenges facing your communities and bridge the gap between national policy and local priorities. When citizens understand how development goals relate to their everyday lives, whether through better schools, improved healthcare, safer communities, they are more likely to support and contribute to these efforts. You can build a stronger connection with your constituents by demonstrating tangible results and responding to real needs. Doing it effectively requires the setting up of clear accountability mechanisms through the protection of civic space for civil society and free and independent media. Last year, I addressed this forum about the growing crisis of public trust, which is worrying and deepening. Across the world, many citizens feel unheard and overlooked. Regardless of the technical, financial, or political feasibility of the plans, progress will be difficult to sustain if citizens do not understand, support, or feel the ownership of the agenda. Lastly, let me conclude with an important message that we should all convey at all levels in today's reality if we want to achieve the Agenda 2030. It is a message about the value of genuine cooperation. Too often, cooperation is viewed through a transactional lens. Partnerships are formed based on immediate benefits, short-term interests, or calculations on what each side can gain. If we truly want to address the challenges of our time, we must move beyond transactional thinking and embrace the simple but powerful truth that has guided successful society for generations: together we're stronger. Thank you.

Excellent.

I think her presentation says it all, but I just want to draw your attention on a couple of points that I think are particularly useful in the 4 years remaining. The point that it's not all about money, although the financing part is essential, is important. There is a lot that can be done simply by changing the laws and the regulations. Yes. The example she gave of laws that reform, that allow women to own property and land in some countries, alone will liberate so much potential, economic potential, as well as the human rights of women, to advance the SDGs across the board, which is one reason why, at the IPU, very much we invest a lot in Women empowerment and gender equality is a pillar of development, as we say. The other point I want to draw your attention to is the one on taxation. Marina mentioned the importance of— again, it doesn't cost a dollar to simply change the fiscal regime. And here at the UN, there is a discussion going on right now and next year on a new tax convention at the UN. That has the potential to greatly transform the fiscal environment globally and nationally, that will also enable to generate more revenue for the SDGs. So our members have all been alerted to this process, so I just want to remind you of it. If you have questions, please ask us at the end of the meeting, but it is very important that you stay engaged because there is a lot cooking here at the the UN that will affect the global fiscal framework. Now, I want to turn to Barbara Adams for what we said was the other big question of the moment, which is what is to come in 2030. Now, let me remind you that next year, here in September 2027, the UN will hold its probably last SDG Summit of the whole 15 years, and it is at that point that the question will be addressed squarely: what are we going to do in 2030? Are we going to keep the SDGs as they are? Are we going to modify them? Are we replacing that with a whole new framework? What is really the approach, also considering so many new things that have developed, happened in the last 10, 15 years. So this is the first time at the IPU that we are beginning— this is the beginning of the discussion, if you will, at the IPU. It will continue certainly into next year, but the idea is to try to have, for us as an institution, as an organization, a clear position that we can put forward to the SDG Summit when it comes next year. So it's really important that we begin that conversation now. The expectation is not to have an agreed position today, obviously, but to begin that conversation. So, Barbara, I leave it with you.

Thank you very much, and thank you for inviting me to be here. I really appreciate having the opportunity, as someone who spends most of my time in these halls of UN headquarters tracking a lot of different policy processes and negotiations across different themes. The opportunity to really be with you to say and try and understand how relevant is this for people who are not here. There's often often talk about the various different bubbles that people live in. I work extremely closely with organizations in developing countries that are committed to policy changes in their national contexts and through parliaments. So for me, this is very, very valuable. And the question that was asked with regard to this overall panel was, what are the criteria going forward? And I can't separate that from lessons learned looking back. What I would like to say, first of all, is it is completely unavoidable that we have to face the fact that we are concluding the last quarter of Agenda 2030 in a fundamentally different climate from the one when the SDGs were adopted in 2015. We're in a situation, and this will be the climate to some extent that shapes what Alessandra has already mentioned, the negotiations starting in a year's time in 2027 SDG Summit of what is the successor agreement to Agenda 2030, that the current climate is definitely the climate that is going to influence conversations about it. We're in a climate, we know, of deepening inequalities— inequalities in income, inequalities in wealth, inequalities, if you like, in what is referred to as non-income, namely discriminations, gender, race, religion, etc. We're in a climate of conflict, escalating conflict, a climate of climate breakdown, debt crises increasing enormously, undermining— we've heard from panelists— the lack of attention to environmental legal agreements. So in addition frankly, to recognizing this as we go forward in terms of how we set our agendas and our commitments. I think we also need to bring this into our narrative of why we have this so-called failure or weakness in the achievement of the current SDGs. We do not quantify when we are measuring how well the SDGs are doing, the complete change of context from when the SDGs were actually negotiated. And what has already been mentioned by the previous speakers is this has exposed the accountability gap that exists in terms of those achievements, the accountability gap in terms of whose voices are being heard, in terms of what is the accountability of fiscal policy, etc. And also that financing— if we measure what we need only in money by numbers, we are now talking about trillions. We weren't talking trillions when we adopted this particular program, but it's clear that this is not bringing the results and it is in fact exacerbating the inequalities. And so, for me, the key issue here is we really need to pay much better attention to how we actually even measure progress. Because how we measure progress, what these indicators— targets and indicators are, are what are telling us today that we're failing on implementation. And so I think there's another huge gap between the goals that we want, the targets, and actually those actual implement— if it's implementation, what those actual gaps are. And I want to just mention a couple. I confess to being an economist, and I promise I won't keep throwing out too many, but there are a couple of things I think are really serious.

Yes.

Why do we measure progress with these aggregate percentages that disguise inequality? Why are we always measuring progress with aggregate numbers, not net positions by country and development type? Net positions would then include regression. Net positions would then show how some of these external factors, externalities, have actually— not within the SDGs themselves, but within other factors, whether it's conflict, whether we are talking about the failure on the inequalities goal, for example— are obviously pushing backwards. And then we come up with this narrative about how we need all of these trillions to achieve the SDGs. The trillions are there. Where did they go? So I think we have to really look at the whole question of these. Now, I'm going to mention a couple more things along those lines because the current SDG indicators that measure implementation do not discount or count disasters created human or nature. The data has not been recognizing the impact of COVID which was a very important phase through which this era of Agenda 21 went, does not look at the way in which we seem to have maybe paused— I think it's much bigger than a pause— being serious about addressing the climate crisis. says nothing about the increased cost of capital, the way in which interest rates have gone up enormously, and how because of the way in which the cost of capital is measured— in other words, how you borrow money to achieve your SDGs— how in fact the current setup means that developing countries are having to pay 4 times interest rates rates because of the role of the credit rating agencies that are not measuring what we're talking about. They're just measuring short-term financial returns measured mainly through stock markets. And so in fact, it's not frankly a surprise when you look at all of these kinds of issues, not measuring the non-action from climate mitigation, not measuring the way in which the development agendas of so many countries have been pushed completely off target, been undermined by floods, by disasters, and have actually wiped out development decades and work with regard to development. And yet the money that we see now that is is going far more to humanitarian concerns and not going, in this case, to supporting longer-term investments for development. So going forward, I would say immediately we have got to take a whole new look at the SDG indicators, and we've got to take a whole new look at 2 of them in particular, SDG 16 and SDG 17. These are the 2 indicators that are really measuring progress. And if you look at some of those, and if you look at SDG 17, for example, that includes issues to do with debt crisis and so on, but the actual way in which they've been calculated and included is inadequate. The other thing we need to look at when we're looking at these indicators is is in the UN system, we have this interagency expert group measuring these indicators, and there are so-called custodial agencies that are taking the lead on some of them. SDG 17, the macroeconomic indicators that are included in there, are basically determined and led by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and the OECD. The numbers are straightforwardly GDP-based, gross domestic product-based numbers. We have had in recent years, and I don't know how many of you know about the Pact for the Future, there is in the Pact for the Future that was adopted just over a year ago, there is an action and work is underway to really revisit the adequacy of gross domestic product as a measure of progress, not as a measure of what it is. It's a very accurate measure of economic activity. So if you have an oil spill, there's a lot of economic activity to clean it up. If you cut down trees, you have a lot of economic activity to basically move it to market, to do all those things. If you have healthcare crises and you have the gender-based health system where basically the unpaid care economy work, as we are aware of, is not counted because it's not paid in the same way, GDP doesn't see it. It's not calculated. If you are looking at the economic efficiency and you use these GDP tables as rankings of which countries are more economically efficient or more economically sound than others, and the bulk of your employment in the country, which is true for a number of developing countries, is the informal sector, It doesn't do justice. GDP does not count those numbers adequately. If you overpay your CEOs of big corporations and they receive as bonuses billions, or maybe I'm exaggerating, I fear sometimes I'm not, that makes wherever that is registered look like a more economically efficient country. And this contributes to everything we think about in terms of achievement. I think that as we go forward, now you asked me, what about the timing, what's going to happen next, how should we think about post-2030? I certainly would feel, given the current political climate, geopolitical tensions, And this could completely— this is a personal opinion, but I currently think if we were to open up the SDG negotiations right now, we could not get back to what we've got. And yet I hear a lot of people, I've been in a lot of meetings, people feel the SDGs themselves are inadequate. We need something on emerging technologies. We need something on AI governance, for example. People have got a lot of ideas about how to improve the SDGs. I think if we were to open them up, we'd more than likely lose more than we'd gain. But you are all in parliaments, you have a much better political read of all of this than I do. But I think if we looked at the indicators, which are not subject to this, and we really worked to make sure they really did measure what we were trying to achieve, then we could still work and build in issues to do with AI governance, et cetera. There is lots that we can do. So, I wouldn't say that we need to kind of give in to the current political tensions. I think it's an opportunity for us to understand that the way in which we are wanting, measuring, assessing our own ability in implementation, which is far better than the numbers are showing, that this is a really good opportunity for us to do it. Thanks.

Thank you, Barbara. I think that was absolutely illuminating, and I want to crack a joke just to break the ice, a famous quote by Joseph Stalin who said, what matters in elections is not how people vote, but who counts the votes. So how we count progress is actually going to influence our view of reality. And Barbara, you're absolutely right in reminding us that the indicators by which we measure progress on the SDGs were part of a negotiation. They don't come out from the sky. They were the result of a negotiation among member states. There was, in the Commission on Statistics, I mean, there was a lot of debate on what these indicators should be. So there are other indicators of progress that were not necessarily included in the pot, and that might be part of the discussion going forward, so keep the goals but change the indicator— but look at the different way in which we measure progress. And the question of GDP, I think, is fundamental. IPU was actually in the forefront of the discussion already in 2015. We wanted to have a goal that already nuanced the whole point of economic growth with other considerations. And there were some other countries that, especially from Latin America, they were keen to have a different approach with regard to GDP, and that all came down to a single target at the end of Goal 17, the call for these negotiations now taking place this year on complementary ways to measure GDP. But that's fundamental. way we will measure that aspect of economic growth and its implications is going to change the perspective of the actual benefit to people in real life. So on that note— we could talk forever— so on that note, let me open the floor, and I think I want to start with Mexico, that was already in the queue from before.

Thank you. Thank you.

It is an honor for me to be here today and to share these thoughts.

I would like to start with thanking the moderator and Ms. O'Shaughnessy and Ms. Adams. So the time is now.

We're basically 4 years away to reach the 2030, and in Mexico we have created strategies for legislative and budgetary review that strengthens the exercise of open parliament, all with the objective of leaving no one behind and guaranteeing the implementation of the 17 SDGs.

The next step is to build efficient and effective follow-up mechanisms that guarantee the control and review of everything that has been built. Parliaments have very useful political control mechanisms to implement the 2030 Agenda, among them ensuring the executive branch implements and safeguards the action in favor of the 2030 SDGs, both national and international policy. In addition to the impact of federal and secondary laws, involving citizens and civil society through parliamentary commissions that integrate work plans, opinions from the sectors, and from constant legislative feedback. Finally, the budget review and follow-up mechanisms are fundamental. The work of parliaments should not end in the review and approval of these laws, but focus more on the implementation and the results. While this work can be carried out by already established commissions and specialization of the matter, which is why it is increasingly common to find special commissions and workgroups. In this regard, the adaptability of Parliament is necessary, not only in the face of unexpected scenarios such as pandemic or natural disasters, but also the emergence of new technology. The protection of human rights is necessary in all these scenarios. This is why parliaments must build strategies that integrate citizens. I also want to point out and acknowledge the extraordinary leadership of our first woman president, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, of doing this job in implementing this agenda in Mexico.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mexico. And I'm going to take maybe 5 or 6 questions and comments and turn to the panel so that we don't just wait until the back and then we go in waves. Canada, you're next. Great.

Thank you very much. I want to thank the leadership shown by all of you here. As a parliamentarian, I'm elected by my constituents. I also have the role of Parliamentary Secretary for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, and I note some of the comments, obviously, and the issues that obviously arise. And so, you know, one of the challenges that we've been grappling with— of course, Canada's just released an AI for All policy which contemplates how do you use AI to help lift everybody up. There are obviously very real opportunities. And we look at the, we look at the, the SDG goals with the 4 years that we have. Some would say that health and education, and possibly, possibly I say, so 3 and 4 and possibly 13 would see some benefit from AI. One of the challenges I think that we also need to acknowledge and sort of think through as parliamentarians is how do we bridge the gap between this rush towards AI, this need for digital transformation, this desire to be able to be leading edge in all things and have AI for all in a way that does not compromise some of the other SDG goals? For example, if we think about inequality, number 10, if we think about decent work, number 8, if we think about energy and consumption, 7 and 13, we think about countries where the consequence of innovation that is supposed to help us in a variety of different ways. And how do we square the circle of what this tool, this sort of means by which we can make humans theoretically more productive and deliver better value using AI, how do we make sure that that isn't the unintended consequence of that is not the commitments that we've all made around these goals? So I struggle with this. I think it's an important consideration for us as we reflect on the urgency and the need with which there is a desire globally to bring AI into all that we do. And I think there's a lot of benefit. I we all recognize that. But how do we measure that balance? How do we deliver value to all citizens, not just those that may have privilege in these situations? And I think that the conversations around the timelines around SDG and what we will try to accomplish factor into that, should factor into how governments are reflecting. So insights on that, and I think dialogue on that, would help us all kind of move a long way as we try to move this down.

Thank you. Certainly, AI is a new development, and we need to account for that. I have Hungary.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is a real honour for me to participate in this High-Level Forum for the first time, and I would like to reaffirm our unwavering commitment to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and to the Paris Agreement. Sustainable development is not just a merely imperative, it's a shared responsibility, both at national and international level. While today security challenges have created new priorities for international community, however, we do not diminish the importance of sustainable development. On the contrary, strengthening peace, economic stability, social resilience, climate action, and inclusive developments constitutes an essential prerequisite for long-term security. Consequently, implementation of the 2030 Agenda has become not only a development policy objective but increasingly a matter of peace and security. Hungary, as a nation with deep agricultural traditions, places particular emphasis on protection of fertile soils, productive farmland, and also water resources. Food security begins with sustainable, really sustainable agriculture and resilient rural communities. Farmers must be regarded not only as producers but also as stewards of our national heritage. The Sustainable Development Goals can only be achieved— can only be achieved if we combine ambition with pragmatism, solidarity, and responsibility, and global cooperation with respect for national diversity. Hungary stands ready to contribute to that common endeavor, and I would like to quote an old proverb: we do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. Thank you very much indeed.

Thank you, that was very profound. Can I turn to Switzerland?

Are you there?

Thank you very much, Mr. Moderator, dear colleagues, parliamentarians, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to take the floor again regarding, you know, the follow-up. You know, even though we can hope that in the next 4 years many progress can be made, we need to consider right away what We're going to have to think about that. I think it's very important because we can at the minimum notice that the economic, financial, and geopolitical context—we just talked about artificial intelligence and the technological context—all these contexts has changed dramatically and has evolved significantly since the very first years. So when we set those goals at this SDG, so I don't think we can continue to think that this goal cannot take. Into consideration this change of context, especially at the financial level. And we as parliamentarians have a special responsibility in that level. I think that very clearly we need in our countries, but also, you know, thinking within the IPU, remind the governments that the parliamentarians vote the budget, you know, they vote the laws, and the parliaments are in charge of the control of implementation by the government and administration of what they vote of the laws. And these elements are very fundamentals right now in these times. My colleagues just mentioned, you know, a very well-known proverb, and, you know, I would like to mention a phrase that's very well known in Switzerland: together we're stronger. And I think in that sense we need to strengthen really this collaboration at the interparliamentary level as well in the context of the 12+ in which we group 47 countries of Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and this is a so-called Western nation, but deliberately open to other geopolitical reality. We have set up a number of seminars in this area in 2018 in Paris, and we will continue to strengthen these sharing of experiences and to reach together to formulate a definition that will allow us at the UN to have goals for for a 2030+, if I may call them, that allow us to really move for our population in an inclusive way and especially in favor of peace. Thank you very much.

One more, and then I'll turn to the panel for an initial reaction, and then we'll continue. I'd like to mix it up, so I'm gonna call on P, N, and D. Mr. Granath, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There was a President of the United States who once said, every gun made signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. One bomber is schools in 30 cities, numerous hospitals. SDG 16 is about accountability at every level. There is accountability already existing existing in the current structure that we are not demanding fulfillment of. In the United Nations Charter, in Chapter 5, Article 16, is a duty of the Security Council, which must be held accountable, to convene the military staff to reduce armaments for human development. That commitment already exists as a matter of law. When commitments that exist in the form of law are ignored, language falls apart, pacta sunt servanda falls apart. Promises must be kept. If they're not, the only way in which the major powers communicate are through bullets, and in the nuclear age, that's simply not acceptable. And I thus come to the second commitment that exists in law. that the most powerful must be held to account. 9 men who could end the world in an afternoon as we speak. Not particularly wiser or more insightful than any of us, just 9 regular men. The International Court of Justice unanimously ruled that there is a legal duty to negotiate the elimination of nuclear weapons. And that includes the 4 states outside of the NPT and especially the 5 permanent members of the Security Council, which have committed to nuclear disarmament in Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. These are existing commitments and consistent with the most important of the SDGs, the one upon which all of them depend, SDG 16, requires accountability. So I urge that every parliament in the world put pressure on their executive branches to step forward and demand compliance with the UN Charter, the International Court of Justice, and explicit promises in treaties to move the world away from pursuing security through existential threat to actually meeting real human needs, a logical, moral, and legal obligation. Thank you.

Thank you. May I call on the 2 presenters here for any initial response that they might have? Barbara, you want to go first?

I think something clear with all of the contributions is how, in a way, in a way, the SDGs trigger issues, concerns that are basically intimately connected to all aspects of people's lives, whether we are talking about the AI challenge, whether we are talking about conflict and peace challenge. And I think it's completely understandable in that context that people tend to zero in on whichever SDG or whichever SDGs are the ones that capture most their concerns and their expertise and their passion. I think that's a real dilemma in a different kind of way because the SDGs were created because of the interrelationship of them, which we heard very strongly, I think, from the President at the beginning, and we've been hearing from the previous panel and this panel, how in fact the ability of a person to enjoy their human rights isn't just civil and political rights, but is also issues to do with access to housing, is issues to do with decent work, and so on. And so on the one hand, the SDGs are a huge ambitious agenda because of their interrelatedness. I think, on the other hand, we've also got this challenge that if we focus on some aspects only, then we stop challenging some governments or some governments don't feel able to participate for various reasons in the same way or participate in different ways, looking more for capacity support and looking for more assistance rather than feeling like they've got an equal seat at the table. I would imagine that this is a challenge you all face every day as parliamentarians, the challenge of people having multidimensional challenges in lives, and yet then how do you work together? certainly also a challenge that the United Nations faces. I think I'm not the right person, frankly, to be able to say, as we go to the next iteration of this agenda, it's better to focus more at this moment in time on some key issues, or it's really important to maintain that cross-thematic approach. One thing I will say is we now absolutely today are living in a world where things that affect our constituents on a daily basis are not completely determined within the countries where we have our representation. That so much— if COVID and climate didn't demonstrate it, AI is certainly doing it now, as is also just the cost of financing. These are factors that influence people's daily lives that are not shaped within the territorial boundary. So I think these are actually really enormous challenges for all of us. I'm sorry if all I've done is make us feel the challenge more without having any great ideas. But I'm really glad that people can see how, in a way, this is part of the essence of the 2030 Agenda.

Ms. Al-Sahlani, any reaction so far in just 1 minute? Because we need to continue with the list.

Yeah, well, I think it's the AI question from Canada was really important and really interesting because we have spent some time in the European Parliament actually trying to legislate and try to cope with the challenges ahead. But I think that 3 main, maybe core messages that I would like to give is that we should avoid creating an AI divide between developing countries and richer countries. And we— and that could be achieved by not only using developing countries as merely producers of raw materials or cheap labor, but rather making them co-owners and co-developers of AI. The second message I would like to convey is making actually AI ethical. So we know that a lot of algorithm is very gender biased, is— it has a lot of bias in it. So when AI is going to inform us, I think it's important that we know that the algorithm is biased. So creating legislative framework that forces the developers of AI to have an ethical AI is very important. The third and last message that I would like to make is that AI may inform our decision-making, but at the end of the decision, there has to be a human being that is both responsible for the decision and answerable for that decision. We cannot take away the human factor of our decision-making. So that is also doable by legislative frameworks. That is what we can do as legislators.

Okay. We have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9— we have about 8 or 9 interventions, so I have to ask you to keep it to about 1 minute or so. If you have a question for the panel, that would be best so that they have an opportunity at the end to respond. I'm pleased to introduce the next speaker, who is from the government side, and it's good to hear from them also as part of this discussion. He's the Deputy Permanent Representative of Uzbekistan, and he's seated at number 122 for the booth. Uzbekistan, you should know, is currently sponsoring a resolution here in the General Assembly on the role of parliaments in social development. So it's very interesting that we have this distinguished representative here with us today. Please, room 1, seat 122.

Okay.

Thank you, Mr. Moderator. We would like to express Uzbekistan's appreciation to the IPU for its commitment to strengthening parliamentary diplomacy and advancing the Sustainable Development Goals. Uzbekistan believes that parliaments play a central role in achieving sustainable development by adopting effective legislation, ensuring adequate budgetary support, strengthening oversight, and promoting inclusive dialogue with citizens. In this regard, we are proud to promote the General Assembly resolution entitled Enhancing the Role of Parliaments in Accelerating Social Development. The resolution seeks to strengthen international recognition of parliaments as key actors in advancing social development. We are grateful for the active support and close cooperation of the IPU in advancing this initiative. The successful hosting of the 150th IPU Assembly in Tashkent reaffirmed Uzbekistan's Uzbekistan's commitment to parliamentary diplomacy and international cooperation. It also demonstrated that stronger partnerships between national parliaments and international organizations are essential for addressing today's complex global challenges. As we look beyond 2030, Uzbekistan remains committed to working closely with the IPU and all Member States to strengthen parliamentary institutions, promote inclusive and accountable governance, and accelerate progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals. Thank you.

Thank you, Ambassador. Now I give the floor to European Parliament. Mr. Mandel.

Thank you very much. Thanks for convening this again in the International Parliamentary Union, because parliamentarism contributes to solutions, and that's why The United Nations urgently need the parliamentary contribution and I'm happy that this year the room where parliamentarians convene is even much larger than the last year, so this is a good sign of a good contribution to a good development. The world needs the United Nations and at the same time the United Nations are in urgent need of a reform. I can share with everybody that the European Union is right now negotiating on the new multiannual financial framework and we call it Global Gateway and Global Europe. What we want to contribute and the gateway we want to contribute to our international partnerships are called like that and we will put emphasis especially on all the Sustainable Development Goals, meaning there are 17 of them and a balanced approach, approach to follow all of them accordingly is our aim in the outreach to the world and I can also share with you that we align with everybody who claims for public-private partnerships, for also including private money in our international cooperation, for encouraging European companies to cooperate with companies all over the world for the sake of the people, of jobs, of growth, of innovation, of opportunities for the youth. and especially also of education, and all of them are also Sustainable Development Goals. So I think I have not used entirely the 2 minutes I was given, but I thank you again for convening this, and let's keep up and even strengthen the parliamentary contribution to the urgently needed reform of the United Nations.

Thank you, Mr. Mandel. I'm sorry, but because we're running out of time, I'm going to have to try to ask people to keep it to about a minute or so. I appreciate your intervention. Egypt?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As we are fast approaching 2030, and so we have 4 very critical and challenging years for us to achieve, and it's important to reflect, hearing Barbara right now, that when countries endorsed the SDGs, we were different setup. Let me focus on my region. The geopolitical situation is completely different from where it was in 2015, and that could not be undermined. But we cannot neglect what's happening globally. We see the IMF announcing a general global slowdown, and it's very true, at the end of the day, whether we're discussing health, education, poverty, access to infrastructure, industrialization, it's all about GDP. That's how we measure it. I'm an economist, so I get so much influenced by you. I think the best way is, number one, is we need to look into the budget in a participatory way, in an inclusive way, because if I look at the GDP without seeing whose share is what of that, or even poverty where we see gaps between poverty among— by gender, between women and men. If I look at education, it's not just the number of schools that— so it's not only quantitative. We have to also look at the qualitative measures, which is like the quality of education. So I think these are important things that our parliament in Egypt do. We discuss that. We do it on annual basis because of the limited time left. We have targets that we've gone beyond the indicators, beyond the targets. Others we need to accelerate. Others we need to adjust the path because the exogenous, the factors, the variables based on which we built our model are not relevant anymore, so we need to look at the impact of policies, fiscal policies, education. All these policies need to be taken into account. Participatory, regular monitoring, and because also more inclusive, meaning needs and challenges differ by region within the country in itself and the impact of policies. Here, I want to also be optimistic, so I feel we should be still committed, determined, and I really want to take the opportunity since this is my first time as a parliamentarian. I've always attended the last 5 years as a minister that I see IPU can play an even more critical role in the coming period because it So taking stock of lessons learned and avoiding mistakes and mishaps, how to accelerate, I think would be very beneficial for all countries that are here. Thank you very much, Mr. Moderator.

Thank you. I turn now to Indonesia. One minute, please.

Thank you, Chair, and the IPU for organizing this important meeting to discuss how Parliament can contribute to the accelerate of SDGs. It is truly an honor to be here with all of you today. As a geographically diverse archipelago nation, Indonesia recognizes that sustainable development cannot be implemented through a one-size-fits-all approach. Indonesia has learned that with this condition, it needs a strong collaboration between national government, parliament, and regional governments in enhancing policy, coherence, improving public service delivery, and ensuring that no region is left behind. Indonesia has embedded the SDGs into both national and subnational development planning through the National Medium-Term Development Plan and Regional Medium-Term Development Plans. This approach allows provinces, regencies, and municipalities to localize SDGs implementation according to their unique social, economic, and environmental circumstances. Indonesia SDGs DESA initiative demonstrates that realization is essential for accelerated sustainable development. Looking ahead to 2030 and beyond, the Indonesia Parliament is committed to serving as the bridge between national commitment and implementation on the ground. Our Parliament shall continuously ensure that the implementation of SDGs by 2030 and the future Global Development Agenda move beyond universal targets towards adaptive implementation and strengthen resilience. We believe that the future trans— framework should uphold the spirit of the 2030 Agenda, of universality, inclusivity, partnership, and leaving no one left behind. Promote people-centered and locally driven programs recognizing the diversity of national and subnational contexts. Prioritize resilient constitution, evidence-based policymaking, and stronger parliamentary oversight. Promote wider access and ensure fair space for developing countries through technology innovation, equitable financing, as well as advancing meaningful partnerships across the levels of government. As we prepare for the 2027 SDG Summit and the future of the Global Development Agenda beyond 2030, Indonesia reaffirms its commitment to strengthening parliamentary diplomacy and international cooperation. Through inclusive governance, localized implementation, and effective parliamentary oversight, we can accelerate progress in the remaining years to 2030 and beyond. Thank you.

Okay, one minute for Myanmar, please.

Thank you.

Madam President and dear colleagues, as we reflect on the future of sustainable development beyond 2030, Myanmar's experience offers one important lesson: sustainable development can't be sustained without democratic institutions, accountable governance, and effective parliamentary oversight. Before 2021, our parliament played an active role in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals through legislation, budget scrutiny, and public accountability. The military coup abruptly dismantled those institutions, and years of development progress across many SDGs were rapidly reversed. This experience reminds us that development achievements built over many years can be lost within a very short time when the democracy and rule of law are undermined. As we shape the post-2030 agenda, we should place greater emphasis on resilient institutions, meaningful public participation, human rights and peace. These are not separate from sustainable development. They are essential to achieve it. Parliaments therefore have a unique responsibility not only to accelerate implementation of the SDGs but also to safeguard the democratic institutions that make sustainable development possible. Thank you.

Thank you. I have one final comment from Tanzania. Please, 1 minute.

Thank you very much. I would love to share on our parliamentary efforts in aligning with SDGs. It was quite timely for Tanzania to be implementing its financial year development plan 1, 2, and now 3, which has completely aligned with SDG. Good news for Tanzania, we have implemented our Vision 2050, which has also supported the country to climb from the foundation to integration, and this has involved more stakeholders. Early integration matters, budget oversights, and allowing committees to own the SDGs has really been helping Tanzania towards attaining the SDG targets. The stakeholder engagement has been the highest. We have included civil societies, local governments, international partners in supporting the SDGs. Good news is that Tanzania has also developed a monitoring framework for SDGs. It has been under the legislative supportive program, and Tanzania have been building capacity at committee level and the parliament, opening up doors for SDGs performance. The last thing, but not the least, is the importance of data has been quite accepted by the committees, the Parliament, the oversight, and the National Bureau of Statistics in ensuring we have quality data, because it is the lifebloodline for our oversight. Thank you.

Excellent. Thank you so much. With that, we conclude your comments, but I want to give 1 minute to each of the present— of the panelists, in case they have a final thought before we depart.

Any—

you want to go first? Okay, Barbara, 1 minute if you could.

1 minute. I think the comments earlier about algorithms were absolutely essential and the way in which they affect and will be affecting all of the SDGs in different ways. And I think they're also intimately connected to the SDG with regard to inequalities, as well as the implementation ones. And my final comment, I just did a very quick tally looking at the indicators, and I can tell you that in the current setup, 9 of the 17 cite GDP as a crucial area of measure. So, I'm glad to hear that Egypt is not going to let this rest.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you so much, dear colleagues, for your interventions. I just want to make one last ask. We see that the global order is being renegotiated in real time in our phones. We see that all the time, and I want to ask you one thing, is when you go back home, Take a good look at the mirror and ask yourself, am I doing my utmost to defend my citizens? Am I doing my utmost to bring peace and justice to this world? Ask yourself that. Ask your neighbor who is sitting next to you now, are you doing your best to bring peace, justice, democracy, freedom, and prosperity to your nation? Do that and let us together be the frontline for our citizens, because it is our job. We were put where we are today because we are supposed to be the representatives of our citizens, no less than that. Our responsibility is huge. Let's step up to that challenge. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you so much, everybody. Now I I ask you to stay for a few more minutes for the closing segment of this meeting today, and I invite the President of the IPU and the Secretary-General of the IPU to the podium. Thank you so much.

Ladies and gentlemen, we just have 5 more minutes if we can keep you in your chairs. You're going to do a quick photo? You're going that way? I'll remind people that there is a lunch for those of you who are interested in Article 109. You are welcome to I'm going to a lunch. If you want to see me, it's at 1:15. If I can get you guys— Thank you so much. Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, the Secretary-General of the IPU, Ms. Anda Filip.

Good afternoon, everyone. I know it's been a long session, but a very substantive one. I want to be very brief. It is my distinct honor to be addressing you today. I've been in and out of the UN many times over the years, but it's my first time speaking from the podium as Secretary-General of the IPU. And like— thank you. Thank you. And like you, I've learned a lot from this parliamentary forum. In fact, that is the very purpose of this whole exercise, to bring MPs together, to provide a platform for you to share your good practices, your model legislation, the challenges that you face, and then to take the lessons, the findings back home to your capitals and to your select committees. One of the key takeaways that I have from this session, it reminds me of that very old saying, where there is a will, there is a way. And indeed, we believe strongly that every country, irrespective of its size or its means, can advance the SDGs to some degree by mobilizing the political will that is needed and bridging political divides. And any action on the SDGs is very important. Every win, big or small, can make a difference in your countries and for your citizens. Our global community, as we have heard, may not get to the expected finish line by 2030, but it is very important that we do our utmost to get as close as possible to the objectives that we have set out for ourselves. We also heard here that we cannot— no one can go about this alone. And that is why the IPU has really embraced the ecosystem approach. It is tremendously important that in our respective national contexts, parliaments engage not just with the governments, but also with civil society, with the academia, with the private sector, the financial sector, and we heard here also, of course, with the AI companies. As indicated previously at the session that just concluded, nobody knows what the post-2030 agenda will look like, but we have an opportunity to prepare for that moment and for the midterm summit that will be taking place here at headquarters next year. What is it, 11 years ago, when the SDGs were first adopted, the IPU and our members, we pushed for 2 notions. Number one was democratic governance. The member states maybe were not ready for that. We have SDG 16 that talks about strong and effective institutions at all levels. And the second one that we have heard quite a lot about is this whole notion of making progress beyond GDP. And we have— we were among those that really pushed for a people-centered approach, less consumerist, more human-centered. And as the UN will soon be having discussions here on this issue, we can continue to advance this very important agenda. We will follow the process closely. We will make sure that you are well informed and we would certainly encourage you when you go back home to engage with your governments and to request regular updates. The success of the development agenda, which is about social justice just as much as it is about environmental sustainability, is also key to the survival of the multilateral system, and we know that a lot remains to be done. We cannot let go of this agenda, no matter what shape it takes, in the years ahead. People expect this system here and their governments and parliaments to deliver progress to them. And that is why the IPU's new strategy that was circulated in the room for the next 5 years, 2027 to 2031, aims squarely at empowering parliaments as key institutions of democracy. This strategy also identifies democratic backsliding as one of the underlying factors impeding progress on the SDGs. Its first 2 objectives are building strong and inclusive parliaments and facilitating parliamentary diplomacy, dialogue, and joint action. Going forward, the IPU strategic priorities build on the work of the past few years: climate change, democracy, human rights, gender equality, youth participation, peace and security, and sustainable development for all, with the wildcard of artificial intelligence mainstreamed throughout the strategy. And I believe that this parliamentary forum at HLPF is a good example of the work that we can do together in our efforts to empower the institution of Parliament. It aims at strengthening your capacities as parliamentarians to examine your nation's SDG progress based on hard data and expert insights so that you can engage with your governments to take more action effectively on the SDGs. If your government has yet— although it's difficult to imagine that there are such situations, has yet to produce an SDG strategy, it's never too late. If a strategy is already in place, please go and check that it is still current, that it is appropriately focused on the next 4 years, in order to get your country as close as possible to the SDGs. As in the past several years, this year again, we surveyed parliaments of the 36 countries undergoing their voluntary national reviews. We asked parliaments how much they have been engaged in the process back home. And we have to say that the results are still coming in, but we have— what we have seen until now is not particularly encouraging. There are some champions, but in many of the parliaments, they remain on the sidelines of this process. And so we do want to work with all of you in this very important accountability exercise. In closing, I just want to reassure you all again that you can count on the IPU, on our team. We are a member-driven organization. If you have questions, if you have requests, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. And then one last word maybe about Alessandro, who has been with the IPU for 26 years. This is his last HLPF. He's really been— he was the one that welcomed me to the IPU when I first joined 23 years ago, and he has really been the heart and soul of the IPU office. and of our main activities here at the United Nations, in particular the annual parliamentary hearing at the General Assembly and this HLPF Forum. We wish you, Alessandro— we thank you for everything and we wish you the very best. And we look forward to seeing you this evening at our reception, 5:30, Uganda House across the street. And please feel free to come along with your ambassadors. They have been invited as well. So thank you, Patti.

Go forward, NSDG. Thank you. Thank you to the interpreters as well.