UN-Habitat Arena - SDG Localization: Driving System Change through Partnerships and Innovation (WUF13)

Thank you.
Thank you for being here and for those who are coming on time, a special thank you.
Very happy to be here with you in this UN Habitat Ana event that will culminate with the launch of the road to Baku report at the end of the session and where we will hear different voices from all the local 2030 coalition constituencies.
We will hear from national governments, we will hear from a resident coordinator of the United Nations system in Thailand.
We will hear from the Regional Office of Arab States from UN habitat.
We'll hear from local governments also with Zanzibar with the governor of Assan to Egypt.
And we will hear from you also, the youth representative in our steering committee, Nkitan Noya.
We will have a wide range of voices from different places, different local contexts, and this is what this defend is about.
It's about bringing local voices to the global stage.
And this event is co organized with the Regional Office of Arab States and the United Nations Local 2030 Coalition.
And it's part of the road to Baku.
It's the culmination of the road to Baku, the local way, where we have engaged more than 1,000 organizations all over the world on discussing housing solutions.
From local level to inspire global agendas.
The results of this session will feed in the New urban agenda review in the HLPF.
Of course, first, the call to action from Baku, the New urban agenda high level review in the high level political forum in New York one month from now, and the SDG 11 review also at the high level political forum.
It's an important event not only for what is happening here, but because it is a culmination of months of preparation and consultation, and it will continue afterwards towards the high level political forum and beyond.
Towards the water conference, towards the SDG Summit in 2027, continuing to bring these local voices into the global agendas to design it because local stakeholders, you all are not mere implementers of the agenda, you are co creators of the global agendas, and this is what the local Tenth Coalition is fostering.
I will now hand over to the Deputy Head of Secretariat of the Local Ten coalition to moderate and he will call on stage our different distinguished speakers of today.
Thank you very much, Chuck Sara.
Thank you, Sebastian.
Thanks.
We'll now excuse the head of the Local 2030 Coalition Secretary as he has a meeting with the Executive Director.
But it's my pleasure.
I'm In I'm the deputy head of the Loc 2030 Coalition Secretary based in Bilbao.
As you know, a coalition formed by 14 entities of the United Nations to localize SDGs.
So it's my pleasure to call to the stage the members of the panel, right? First of all, Nikita Boas is the lead at the World Food Forum in Cameroon and former member of the Steering Committee.
Nikita, please.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I'm also calling Mr.
Yu juslen senior advisor at the Ministry of Environment in Finland.
I'm also calling miss Mikaela Frito, UN Brexit coordinator in Thailand, please.
Call in miss Nehal El Merk Bell, sorry.
Housing expert at the Regional Office for Arab Estates.
Hadam Javier former Deputy Minister of Planning Monitoring and administrative reform.
Over there.
Yeah.
Please take.
Okay.
Thank you.
Okay.
First of all, thank you very much to all of you for being here, for sharing this moment with us in which we are showing through your interventions and together with the Road to Baku report created by the coalition, how most of the solutions are already localized, already on the ground.
It's the effort as Sebastian mentioned before.
It's the effort we've been doing for F four in Seville, for the Ha, for the Cp in Blen, now for Baku and we will keep on doing in grabbing those solutions and analyzing how this can push the agenda and really deliver solutions and results connected to the agenda, and particularly today, of course, to the World Open Forum dialogues, right? If I may, I'm going to have two rounds, if you agree.
The idea is to have a conversation based on some guiding questions that we have prepared for each one of you.
If I may start with Nakeda, right? And as I said before, Nikita has been a member of the steering committee of the coalition.
She knows very well the work and she's very active in contributing to that.
Our first question, Nikita for you would be through your work, leading youth consultations for the road tos.
You've been doing this for a while in these processes.
If you could reflect a little bit on how these engagements with youth constituents have helped elevate the scalable local solutions existing there that are capable of really accelerating the implementation of key global outcomes, and how they are if and how they are advancing transformative action really at the local level.
So please.
Thank you.
Hello.
Okay.
Thank you very much, Inigo, and good morning, everyone.
Thank you for being here.
So the processes, I will start with the context.
So you also know what this work is about.
So the road to processes that has been led by the Local 2030, brilliantly led by the Loca 2030, is this process where we gather different stakeholders views and consult with them before coming to these big conferences and forum.
In that part, we also had the youth parts, and this is also a good work that the local 2030 is doing in really bringing youth at the table.
We did that for the Finance for Development Conference in Sevilla, the Cop 30 in Brazil, the World Social Summit in Qatar, and the World Urban Forum here in Azerbijan, Baku.
So this process is really key because we really take the solutions from the ground.
And I will mention some concrete cases that you can see how solution, this scalable solution are important to ensure that the global commitment actually leads to concrete action on the ground.
So for the youth, for instance, we had a an application, in Cameroon because I'm now leading the World food form Cameroon, that is the platform of youth and agr system.
A key solution they had, especially when we were going to COP, a key solution that has been scared also to co de voir was this application for smallholder farmers because we know that in our countries, especially in developing countries, smallholder farmers do not always have the means or the access not only to the information, but also to these global platforms and these global um buyers.
This application was developed by a young person to connect those smallholder farmers to the global needs so they can actually sell their products.
It is specifically important because after this application was developed, we could see the impact, for example, the benefits they will earn when they will connect with these global buyers will, of course, impact also not only the income, but also the communities.
This model, of course, was also mentioned in our consultations and it was scaled out to cultivoir with the World Food Forum Cultivvoi.
This is a country case.
Another country case I will mention, for instance, is the Azan model of volunteering.
Because as you know, a lot of young people when they are involved, it is still volunteering.
This model also connected to the government.
For instance, when they will have a need or when they will see something that doesn't work and because also the young generation is about connectivity, they will take a picture, bring to the app, and the government will be aware and they will take action.
These are concrete solution that show how these consultations are really important for these global commitment.
I will give back the floor to Inigo to the Now, yes.
Thank you, Mercy.
It's extraordinarily important also the work you're doing with youth.
Just for you to know, the Road to Baku report we've been able to measure who of the constituencies participated.
38% civil society, 35% local regional governments, national governments, also 8%.
Then the Habs, the academia and the private and youth are also counting over 20% of the solutions over the ground.
Very important you highlighted this and we'll come back to you in the second question.
Thank you very much.
Let me now pass to the next speaker, Yi n.
He's advisor to the Ministry of Environment in Finland, one of the champions in multi level governance.
Yi, let me ask you about a We know that Finland, as I said, has been long championing multilevel governance through, let's say, the Hall of government Hall of society approach, and this is very much in the DNA of the coalition too, as you know.
From your perspective, what are the key ingredients of effective multi level governance that is really enabling or could enable those local priorities, data, innovations, to shape the NASA decision making and how they can accelerate ultimately, of course, SDG implementation, you.
Please.
Thank you, moderator, and good afternoon to the audience.
It's true, yes, I Finland, the whole of government approach, it's based on a very long tradition of cooperation and open debate, and we've had municipal programs on sustainable development since the 90s.
And even after Habitat three, we started a sustainable cities program with over 50 cities implementing both the new urban agenda but also the SDGs locally.
And nowadays, the key actors in Finland that push this agenda forward are the National Commission for Sustainable Development chaired by the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister has chaired this commission for 33 years.
Of course, not the same Prime Minister, but 33 years of a commission on Sustainable Development.
And the members of this commission, they are members of parliament, ministries, municipalities, regions, NGOs, religious organizations.
So that gives a picture of how broad the participation is already in this one commission.
Then we have the Association of Finnish cities and municipalities, which is very strong in SDG localization.
We see them as a partner and a colleague from the ministerial level, and they also help out the cities, especially the intermediate and small cities in SDG localization.
And they have had an extremely large impact both nationally and locally in SDG implementation.
Now, if we look closer at the VNR process, last year, Finland gave its third VNR at the high level political forum in New York.
Now, the process of producing the VNR that was coordinated by the Prime Minister's office, but we had independent assessments from civil society actors.
Directly into the VNR, we had written inputs from the network of Finnish cities.
We had online workshops for rural actors.
So we tried to get as broad a picture as possible about how we're doing in terms of SDG implementation and localization.
So I think the key ingredients for effective multi level governance, first of all, you have to try and build a long tradition of cooperation and trust.
You need long term political support, both at the national but also the local levels, and you need good partnerships.
For example, UN Habitat, the Urban Practices branch.
We worked with them for several years now with the Local 2030 coalition, and also most recently last year at the HLPF Our state secretary signed a letter of intent to join the Italian UN Habitat Coordinated Partnership platform on SDG localization, and the government is a member of that platform, not only our ministry and our city association is a partner in that platform.
I can recommend this to all member states, all cities, associations, et cetera, to join up with UN Habitat.
And spread the good word.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
That's very interesting also connected with, as you mentioned, key partnerships for the multi level elements, how we connect the dots on the ground, but how do we connect them also through the different layers of governance.
The report, if I may, also shows us that there is a strong number of solutions.
40% of the solutions are coming from local regional governments in the report, but also we have even neighborhood level solutions, 25% of them.
And also, this is connected with the reality of the report, that is a global, which is we have 15% regional and sorry, 17% regional and 15% national.
So these multi multi layer thing, it's very interesting.
We'll come back to you in the next round, right? Let me now move on to the next speaker.
Mihailla Fribgoys the UN rest coordinator in Thailand, right? Thank you also for being here.
Um, your country, Thailand, the country you work in, it's increasingly recognized as a strong example of SDG localization in practice.
So let me ask you, based on your experience in Thailand, and other countries, what role can the UN system as such, play in translating those national SDG priorities or ambitions, into locally financed and implementable solutions, real ones, that can respond really to the territorial priorities and realities.
Thank you very much.
It really is a pleasure to be here at the Wolf and to be part of this panel and thank you, Yuri and Akita for the comments you made because I think I'm going to build on a few of the issues you raised.
And I think it's, first of all, very important to recognize that the UN's role is to support the countries in achieving the sustainable development goals, to accompany the countries in achieving the sustainable development goals and see how we can leverage and convene to make that happen.
Because at the end of the day, the national ownership, whether it is at the national level or today we're focusing a lot on the local level, it is by the country and the people that the change will be made.
I think it's very important to recognize the accompanying role of the United Nations as a system.
I think that's also what you're saying in the road to Baku and the things that are coming out and what we're talking about here today.
So if we're focusing on Thailand, we're seeing a society that is aging very rapidly, and that is also going to bring new challenges to the housing situation, and we're seeing a population that is increasingly being urbanized.
By 2030, 60% of the population in Thailand will live in urban areas.
Of course, Bangkok, the most visited global metropole in the world, and I invite you all to come and visit, is, of course, unique, but it's not the only urban area in Thailand, so it's very important to focus on the secondary cities as well.
So I think one of the most important things to have as an onset is looking at this from the holistic view of the sustainable development agenda of Agenda 2030 and see how housing, how the urban agenda is an enabler for achieving all the SDGs.
I take note of what you said, Yuri on anchoring this with the committees you have as well to see how we can do that, regardless of whether we are in Finland or in Thailand or here in Azerbaijan.
So there are three things that stand out to me that I think that the UN works with as key priorities.
And the first is supporting and building on the political will, the political will of the country at national level, at provincial level, and at municipal level.
So as the United Nations in Thailand, we have convened all the 77 governors of Thailand, and jointly, they signed a statement of commitment to the sustainable development goals.
That is something that we can now support and leverage by anchoring the work on how to localize the housing dimensions here.
The second element I think is very important to raise is then or actually before coming to that, looking at then how we leverage that international agenda.
I really want to make a point out of the fact that the recently elected new government in Thailand has put decentralization and localization as a priority in this policy speech.
For us, as the UN is now saying, how can we support this? How can we support the government in achieving the aims that the government has? Because that's what we need to do.
The second point therefore brings me to making sure that we support a data driven policy basis.
We have the tools as the UN, with the voluntary local reviews that are now being translated into a national framework that Thailand is taking on to make sure that the SDGs are being driven at the local level.
Accompanied by what we call SDG profiles that are carried out now in close to 20 different provinces across Thailand.
Like this, we can ensure that we are data driven in our support at the provincial level.
And the third element, and this is, of course, something that is the enabler for anything we want to do is looking at local financing solutions.
Here, again, the United Nations will not come with the big funds that is going to unlock the SDGs across the world.
That is not how it works, but we will be able to come with some of the catalyzing support to make that happen.
Thailand is therefore very glad to be participating in the Bilbao boot camp through the local 2030 coalition and the joint SDG fund with the support of the government of Spain and the Basque regional government because this is a unique platform to really unlock private and public investment in bringing the issues forward at a sub national level.
Throughout the Wolf 13, in every session I participated, the issue of localizing and creating ownership at the mayor level, at the local level, at the community level has transpired regardless of which angle we look at.
That's why in Thailand, I think the work that is being done by the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security in collaboration with the housing authorities and with CODI, the community Organizational Development Initiative when it comes to adequate housing with the support of UN habitat, of course, is unique and it really is a story to be told globally as well.
So I think for us as the UN, it is also making sure that when we have these initiatives, we bring them outside for joint learning, just like we do in Woof 13.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Very interesting.
Also, many of the points where we take a political world, data, data driven solutions and local finding, the three elements.
Thank you for reminding also about the book Bom, because that's a little bit of what the correlation is trying to do is to materialize into really attracting and channeling at least catalytic funding that can move and attract others to the local level, as a secure and safe place to invest really deliver solutions, right? Deliver.
And let me connect with this holistic approach that you mentioned, right? The report has also been trying to and I can tell you it's a it's a difficult selection of solutions because otherwise, there are tons and the report would be this big.
But we have also tried, as you will see in the report, a to connect with the different elements that make it holistic.
It's not just about housing.
Housing, it's, of course, the challenge of housing.
27% of our solutions are there, but it's also about informal settlements, 2020 5% of them.
But there is a strong connection with the social and economic dimension of housing, how this is empowering the social contract and there we go with another 30% of the solutions.
Let me, um, Now, move to the next speaker.
Miss Nial Mhhbel, I think it's correct.
Thank you very much.
She's a housing expert at the Regional Office for Estates in navidad, and as I said before, former Deputy Minister of Planning, monitoring, and administrative reform in Egypt.
Thank you very much, Sukan.
Um, let me also address the first question for this first round.
Given the Arab regions a growing body of research, particularly on housing and it's quite extensive work on SDG localization.
How is the regional office using Evidence.
The innovation we can see also in the report, the innovation data that Mihala mentioned before, and from its housing program that you have to strengthen localization, to strengthen localization efforts and to inform more, let's say, targeted policies and investments, very concrete ones for adequate housing in the cities of the region.
Please.
Thank you so much for the question and thank you everyone for attending.
I'm very happy to share with you the experience of the Regional Office for Arab States regarding the housing profile and the housing program that they are implementing.
Based on data and real evidence and also information from the ground, the UN Habitat, Regional Office prepared several profiles for a number of Arab states related to the housing sector.
Let me first confirm that the Arab region is not a homogeneous group of countries.
They have are totally different.
At least we can have three categories oil rich countries and we have the countries that are suffering from security and all the risks and also instability.
There are some of the countries that are doing well relatively regarding economic development and so on.
Despite these changes and despite a number of challenges that the Arab states are facing, especially, of course, as I said, the security and all the geopolitical conditions and also the economic tight economic conditions and climate risks because the Arab region is one of the most regions that are suffering from climate change, all of the types of climate change, despite all these reasons and because of all these reasons, the housing sector is very important.
The way the regional office is supporting for Arab state is supporting the housing sector, as I mentioned, these profiles that includes three main parts.
One of them is diagnosis because it's very important to have a diagnosis.
If we know the conditions, then we can reach evidence based policies and reliable solutions.
And then the second part of this report is actually about prioritizing the challenges, which challenges can be faced based on the type of challenge and also the ability of the country to face these challenges.
And the third part is very important because it suggests some recommendations and some reforms that could be adopted by the countries.
So based on these profiles, it's very, easy and very straightforward to move to other parts.
Making these profiles the base for investment framework for housing sector and also for monitoring and evaluating the policies that could be based on these profiles.
The profiles also help in localizing the SDGs because they are not promoting one size fits all.
It's based on country specific, and even for the whole region, it also take care of the diversity of the different countries.
So it helps localizing the SDGs, as I mentioned.
It also helps utrizing as I said, where do we start? Because it's not only the housing sector is not only about the supply and demand, there are a lot of other issues.
It relates to infrastructure, it relates also to job creation, it relates to other issues like informality, housing finance and so on.
It's really a good tool and very helpful to support the other vision.
One important thing relates to institutionalizing this process.
And with that support and in coordination with the League of Arab States, the Regional Office of Arab States Jon Habitat Regional Office was able to include these profiles and the housing policies in the agenda of the Ministerial Council for Housing Ministers.
And hence, it is very important that each time these ministers meet, they will be looking at the implementation of the policies and looking to update these profiles and so on.
So the institutionalization is very important.
There are, of course, few issues for reforms for future reforms like the legal issues that are related, that could be also accelerated and there are issues related to capacity building at the local level and at the country level.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
As we can see some of the points started already in the conversation to be connected.
This institutionalization, if I may start from there, it has a lot to do with political will that Mikayla mentioned before, but also the diagnosis that monitoring data driven solutions, which is the of multilevel society, all of society approach that you mentioned before.
Thank you.
It's also interesting as you mentioned, the Arab region is very diverse and that implies also different challenges in different geographies, of course, right.
Also the report has faced this let's say this challenge of trying to gather solutions from around the world because each one of the regions offering, even though they are shareable, very different and adequately, let's say, tailored to its reality.
We see that in the report, as you will see, 23% of solutions coming from Africa, while the Americas are offering another 20, Europe another 19, the Middle East in North African region and 10%, and then we have others coming from other parts of the world.
Let me now maybe go to the second round of questions, if you allow me.
And then I come back to kita.
Apart from the issues you shared about the youth engagement, from your experience, again, as a youth representative within the UN, of course, Local 2030 coalition Steering Committee, you did a fantastic job there.
Thank you very much for those two years of engagement.
Um.
Being very concrete.
What do you think the role of young people in play in advancing SDG localization, right? In their own communities, right? And it's kind of a double question, if I may, right? So what's the role, but also what needs to change for that youth participation, right? To move from just a consultative status into real influence in the action? All right.
Thank you very much, Nigo and I really like this question.
Yeah.
Because often young people are consulted, which is already a great step because as you could see all the expo there is not implementation without a design.
So the step of consultation is already a good step.
But now we should move from this consultation to the implementation.
And problem what key issue has been identified to move from this step is the institutional support.
So I will mention three point, institutional support, the trust, and of course, funding.
There is not big things we can do without funding, but now I will take a very clear example.
As we are talking about localization, we need to talk about concrete example.
For example, there is a project we call cultivated Steel under the Waterfoo Farm that aim to give young people soft skills and it targets high school students and university students that are looking for jobs.
So you can have the potential, but you do not have the soft skills to communicate that potential and this can be a problem.
However, when we try to go a to the communities, there was a barrier because you cannot just go to a school like this, you need the government authorizations.
For some cases, for some counties, governments were keen to support and for others, governments were not keen to support and obviously, those counties where governments were not keen to support, they couldn't receive these training.
Institutional support is key here because without our local government support, we can't really touch this population we are targeting.
That is a clear example.
And now when we go to funding, young people have ideas, they have creativity.
But as we used to say, ideas without funding is like a seed without water.
So you have the seed, you have the soil, you do not have the water.
How will the seed grow? This is where funding comes into play.
And to move from consultation to implementation, we need trust to young people because when we look at the banking, the funding, the finance access, the restriction or the conditions that are access to people are too strict constraints to access this finance are too much for the young people that are leaving schools, they do not yet have a house.
But for instance, they require, maybe you have to show your house, you have to show your job, but you are actually looking for this funding to start your business.
This is also why SME, small and medium enterprises are key and the big part of this young business because the SMEs, they have easier access.
So maybe what we can leave here today is to ease these funding processes for young people so that they can have this water to water the seeds, to bring those ideas into realities.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you, Nikita.
That's two elements I grab from here.
The institutionalization, again, comes with political institutionalization, and therefore institutional support.
But also the fantastic input you gave about youth participation versus youth implementation.
Not just the classics because yours is the future, et cetera, but also because as you said, there is a different view.
It's a different understanding of the same reality when you do it with a youth perspective.
Thank you very much for that and we can see that also in the solutions we are grabbing, not just for Bakua, for Seville, for Doja or Belen, when those are implemented through the eyes of youth that is ep, it's a different thing.
It's a different story.
Thank you.
I Let me now go to again for the second question, building a little bit on Finnish experience.
As you can see, I'm asking you in the second question is slightly more concrete things.
Some practical mechanisms or institutional arrangements that have proven, let's say, most effective in your experience in translating that multileve governance that you talked about before, into concrete investments, and policy actions that support sustainable urban transformation and of course, adequate housing at the local level.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Well, first, thanks to the other panelists.
As a father of three youths who are still trying to find their way in the world, it was inspiring to hear Nakita's points.
Finland also has an aging population as well as Thailand, so we probably have something to learn from there.
Climate risks are evident in Finland as well in how the housing survives warm winters and excessive rains, et cetera.
We have We have questions that are similar to these examples.
Now, going into some concrete solutions related to urban development and adequate housing, first on housing, the foundation lies in our constitution, in our legislation.
In the Constitution, it stated that it's the duty of public authorities to promote everyone's right to housing.
Now, this includes the municipalities as they are responsible for the local housing policy and also for the land use planning.
Moving on to some concrete actions.
For example, between the state and municipalities in Finland, we have an agreement on land use, housing, and transport.
Now, these agreements are 12 year long agreements where the state provides funding for transport infrastructure, especially public transport infrastructure in the metropolitan areas.
And then the municipalities and the city's job is to produce a specific quota of new housing to receive that money for the transport infrastructure.
And in this way, we also sort of cover the needs of the big metropolitan areas.
Now, these agreements, they cover seven regions and 62 municipalities have agreements with the state, and it's a win win situation in this way.
And of course, the end goal is a more functional urban region.
Now, on housing, I'd like to give a few details on what we're doing.
First of all, 40% of the rental flats in Finland are state subsidized, so quite a big proportion.
And this subsidy caters for the middle class, but also, of course, to the low income groups.
We've had four national programs on homelessness in the last 15 years, almost 20 years, sorry, in cooperation with the cities.
And as a result, homelessness has decreased 10000-3500 in Finland.
Now, I understand 10,000 is not a lot in a global context, but for us, decreasing it to a third of what it was before is a success story.
And of course, the cities are doing their share in implementing SDG 11.
For example, Helsinki has this rental to ownership model where when you acquire a rental flat with some additional gradual payments, you can actually end up owning the flat.
So you start off as a tenant and then you end up as an owner occupier of that flat.
We have a policy of combating segregation through, we call it positive discrimination.
Where we put a lot of resources into the areas with more low income groups in terms of education for the youth, sports, possibilities, culture, et cetera.
This is our way of trying to make sure that everybody has the same level of opportunity.
And we also have private housing companies owned by the city, sort of subsidized by the city that manage rental houses.
For example, in the city of Vanta, one tenth of the flats are under this company and tailored for the low income groups.
So these were just some of the examples, practical ones that we're working on and have in place.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Very interesting because that is kind of showing to the things that also the coalition is trying to promote and accompany to all levels of governance, right, which is the national local cooperation when it's aligned, right, makes a big change, right? As you said, the numbers sometimes, depending on the scale means different things, right? But also the fact that we share similar challenges in many parts of the world, right? And a And this is in the very essence of the Agenda 2030.
And this cooperation of local, local, national, local, local, national, with a very important component of inclusivity as you mentioned, right, not only in the objective, but also in the nature of the program, which is very interesting.
Thank you very much.
Let me now pass to the second question for Mikaela.
And sorry, I mispronounced your name a couple of times before.
The UN, right? We are at a time where the UN really is seeking to become more integrated and I know you've heard this question probably many times this week, more efficient, more impact oriented.
How can SDG localization serve as a practical entry point for that UN system that is in transformation? How can enabling maybe country teams you working in Thailand to work more effectively across sectors and across the levels of governance? Thank you very much for that question.
If you can answer that in 2 minutes.
That's a challenge.
Nikita said that she liked the question.
I'm not really sure I do like mine, but for those of you that work with the UN, you know that we are a big ecosystem.
For those of you that don't work with the UN, don't worry.
You just need to go to the office of the resident coordinator in whatever country you are based, and the resident coordinator will be your one stop shop to give you the perspective of everything the United Nations system does and works with in the country.
I think that this is literally the gist of where we are in the UN reform, of making sure that we are easier to work with for partners, more impactful in what we're trying to achieve.
Localization will help us to remain and focus on being human centered.
Sometimes we talk about expressions like top down, bottom up, I much prefer a human centered localization because it doesn't create that hierarchy of who is up and down.
I don't really get it to be entirely honest.
At the end of the day, governments are there to provide for their citizens, and we are there to support the people.
So I think that the UN reform will allow us a real stronger UN system of being a symphony orchestra playing of the same tune.
And as the RC, I may well be the conductor, but it is the UN entities that are holding the instruments.
Those are the musicians.
So with that, I really think that what is so important is to make sure that we come together in the country as the UN.
Imagine you're a local authority and you have ten, 15 UN entities coming asking you, what about this? I'm you in this, I'm you and this? Don't worry, just come to the RC.
And we will be able to support you.
If you're a UN entity, make sure that your RC knows about your work in the country as well.
Use UN info.
That's an internal reference, but never mind.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mikaela.
I grab it from there.
Easier, more impactful and localization is we recognize the localization really does that.
You said orchestra, right? I put two things together, an orchestra with a human core.
Thank you for the arts to play that orchestra conductor role that you are fantastically doing in Thailand and all these are doing around the world.
Let me now go to the second question for Enh.
In your experience and before, but also now in your habitat, how is this? And we mentioned this before, of course, multi level governance, advancing SDG localization, particularly in the Arab region by connecting the national priorities with the local realities, and particularly maybe through experiences, if you can refer to that, such as the partnership platform and the SDG cities.
Thank you.
Let me first emphasize that the Arab region is one of the oldest and most centralized region in the world.
However, during the last decade, there are a number of countries that realized that all the solutions related to development be held by the central government and the central government cannot be held accountable for all the different needs of the people.
Therefore, the countries now several ones adopted decentralization strategies or at least I'm trying to empower the local authorities.
As we said that the housing sector, this is the main focus and the main program for the Regional Office of Arab States It's actually not related only to SDG 11, for instance, but it's related to several SDGs.
It has to do with health, with the water and sanitation, with energy, with climate resilience, with decent jobs.
It has to do with a lot of SDGs.
Therefore, it cannot be the responsibility of the central government only.
Of course, the central government has a role to play in putting the policies, and supporting local authorities and giving them guidance and technical assistance.
But at the end, many of the issues related to housing has to come from the local authorities.
Let's take land allocation, let's take, as I said, the infrastructure, water and sanitation, transportation.
All these issues related to housing has to come from the local authorities.
And also a number of countries that during the COVID, for instance, they realized that really the local authorities had a role and they played it very well, and there were several good experiences that could be scaled up.
So I think that now in the Arab region, the multi governance issues is raised and put at the top of the agenda, but not only multi level governance, but also multi stakeholders because you cannot only work with the government, local authority or the central government, you have to work also with the civil society, with the international organizations.
So there are a lot of, I think, um issues that could be dealt with at the local level with the guidance and with the support of the central left.
And of course, we cannot, we have to emphasize the issue of investment, and this also has to come mainly from the central government, but also with some support from the local thing.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
It's essential, right? Even in centralized, let's say, constitutional systems, right? The essential role that the habit and other players are doing it into you created that sensitivity for the local, to play a role, not just as a subsidiary thing, but as part of the equation, right? Where the national independency platforms and the SDG cities are complementing on that, plays a substantial role.
It's indispensable, of course.
Otherwise, there's a cap there.
But it's, as I said, an equation.
Thank you very much for noticing that because this is not just for SDG 11, as you said, this is really and Michael also mentioned that as well as Erie before.
It's to advance the whole thing and to deliver finally to the people on the ground.
Thank you very much.
Time flies, and it's been an absolute pleasure to have this conversation with all of you.
Thank you very much for your inputs, for connecting with each other.
Now it's my pleasure Because we have with us miss Afar Mohamed.
She's the acting Executive Secretary of the Zanziba Planning Commission, Sanzbar it's now a new member of the new court of the steering committee of the Local 2030 Coalition.
A, would like to invite you to address the panel.
Thank you.
If I might have an applause for the speaker Thank you very much.
Good morning, everybody.
Afar Mohammed from United Republic of Tanzania, part of Zanzibar.
Zanzibi is an island located at Indian Ocean in East Africa.
The population of Zanzibar is 1.8 according to the censor of 2022.
It is a semi autonomous country that made it Tanzania, we have Tanzania, Zanzibar and Tanzania, Mainland, that's made Tanzania Zanzibar.
In that semi autonomous in Tanzania, we have our main framework, we have national Development 20 2050, and also we have Zanzibar Development P Z 2020 2050.
Also, we have two DV Issue of localization are starting in our main framework, national Development framework for Zanzibar and for the Tanzania Mainland.
During the development of it, we consider looking on, first of all, SDG 2030 point, but also we are looking on African Development Agenda 20263, and also East African agenda.
All are considered during the development of that main framework, and, We are reporting it and we are localizing indicator from SDG to local, and we have presented VNR three times and we are presenting VR in this year.
In particular, Zanzibar Development Plan 2020, in pillar, it is formulated by pillar.
It has got four pillar.
The first pillar is Blue economic agenda, but also we have the economic transformation.
We have human capital and social services.
We have also infrastructure linkages.
And resilience and climate change.
The issue of human settlement, urbanization and all in the infrastructure linkages and indicators aligned with the SDG African agenda and indicator from the East African and the main aim of human settlement priorities in infrastructure linkages is to make sure all an zibarris having access to good settlement and affordable energy and everything.
In implementing that priorities, we make sure that the government are supporting infrastructure development in terms of road and everything, but also we have priorities and plan of improving our settlement activities in Zanzibar.
Among it, we revamped our national housing cooperation, and also we have other companies who build the house, but some population are given the housing for free, but some are sold it, but it is a low cost housing.
So our national housing planning, the government supporting it by giving them seed money, so as they could build a house and sell to the Zanzibaris.
But also, we have a lot of private companies who are doing real estate in Zanzibar.
As we know that the Zanzib is a tourist island.
We have a lot of tourists coming to Zanzibar, a lot of people investing in real estate in the tourist site.
Apart from that, in the UN coalition, they are supporting a lot of activities.
Among it is blue economy, support to local, like supporting women in farming seaweeds and also drying seaweeds and doing value addition.
Thank you.
Thanks to you, A.
Thank you very much, not only for being a new member of the S committee for accepting and it's an honor for the coalition to have you on board also, but also because in the case of anziva you're impersonating many of these elements we've been discussing.
That multi level governance, that the youth approach in the and of course, the different elements that the UN is providing there, right? Zanzibar, I have to tell you, was part of the 2025 Bilbao boot camp last year.
And let me take 10 seconds, right, to recognize the incredible work they did, right? It was an extraordinary project, a level of mativity involving everyone, right? Really representing, I would say, let me put it this way, representing what we really claim should be this multi stakeholder multi level approach, bringing everyone in.
I know that San zivar is coming back this year to the Bv Bookm in two to three weeks.
It's really a pleasure to welcome you all B with this Blue Economy project And happy to accompany as much as possible from the coalition and the coalition members and from the UN to the extraordinary journey, p for your country and for host of Tanzania.
Thank you very much for being with us here.
With this, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for all your input and incredible stories and solutions on the ground connecting to the Road to Bacha report, also for all the help you have provided to really making this report a reality.
I would like now to I'll pass the floor for final remarks to Sebastian Bozzel is the head of the 2030 2030 coalition Secretariat, please, Sebastian.
Thank you very much.
And sorry I was not able to be here throughout, but very happy to be launching finally the report of the road to Baku, the local way.
I will give one to each of our distinguished pioneers.
I believe you already have one, and I will show to the audience.
Thank you.
Nikita, Yuri.
Thank you very much.
This is the road to Baku, the local way with local solutions that are feeding in the call to action of Baku, but also the high level review of the New Urban Agenda and the SDG 11 in New York in the high level political forum in July.
And we have similar reports.
We have launched similar report in Cevi for the financing for Development Conference last year, also in Blan for the COP and in Doha for the World Social Summit, and now in Baku.
Here, it's a bit special because it's not an intergovernmental process, but it's a process of shared leadership and dialogue.
And so for the other processes, we had shared it in advance with the facilitators.
So it had been published way months before, but this is published just for Baku to inspire the call to action.
So very, very happy to be launching it, and I encourage you to see through the local solutions because really, If the SDGs are to ultimately succeed and what comes afterwards, they will succeed in cities and regions, and they will succeed only if they are localized.
And we have seen today examples from national governments, from a resident coordinator, from a Regional Office of Arab States, from Zanzibar, Tanzania, from the youth organizations, how localizations means acceleration of SDGs, but not first thinking and then localizing, but starting from a bottom up approach, starting from the needs, the reality is the cultures at local level to escalate it into national policies, into global agendas so that we respond to the citizens need and the population's aspirations and reality through global agendas.
It's really the only way to secure the ownership, to secure the leadership that is needed and the partnerships that are needed to succeed on the road to 2030 in general.
I want to thank again the Regional Office of Arab States for having co organized the event.
I want to thank our distinguished panelists.
I also want to recall the tools that the local such coalition and UN habitat are providing also to cities, to region, to national governments.
For instance, the SDG, the partnership platform and the SDGs national localization frameworks that we working on with Senegal, with Tunisia as pilots, but with more countries coming enabling this approach of having multiple stakeholders participating in local development with a multilevel governance approach and territorial transformation at heart.
DG cities also that is providing tools, and this is the combination of all these efforts of UN habitat, of the resident coordinators of all the 15 UN entities that are part of the local T coalition to make local realities inspire global agendas and to accelerate the SDGs everywhere, respecting local cultures, local contexts, local realities.
Thank you again.
Thank you very much.
Very happy again to launch the report and thank you to all of you for having attended.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.