The President of UCLG, and Mayor of Al Hoceima, Mohamed Boudra, visited the United Nations for the first time as President of the World Organization, to talk with the head of the UN about the transformation needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and how, in the implementation decade, the local and regional governments constituency is a key partner for this to happen.
Local commitment with the global agendas
President Boudra met with the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, to convey to him the keys of our international agenda to achieve the SDGs. The next frontier of the municipal movement will be driven by inclusivity and equality, have intergenerational dialogue as a tool to safeguard the future, and an unwavering commitment to the global agendas as a framework for development.
"The world's cities and territories are changing the current conversation and will be key players in the multilateralism of the future. Their commitment to sustainable development and global agendas is key to transformation". Mohamed Boudra, Mayor of Al-Hoceima, President of UCLG, President of Moroccan Association of Mayors (AMPPC)
The conversation with the UN leadership addressed how to shape an inclusive and networked multilateral system that will enable us to meet the ambitious global goals. Securing a place at the global table for local and regional governments remains, in President Boudra's eyes, key to moving forward with a United Nations that delivers in 2030. Local and global action are intrinsically linked, and it is becoming increasingly clear that acting locally in an interconnected world is key to crossing borders to achieve the SDGs.
Following the discussions during the UCLG World Congress in Durban, President Boudra agreed with UN Under-Secretary-General Fabrizio Hochschild, who is in charge of the celebrations of the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, to identify the specific contribution of our constituency to the global conversation that will be launched by the UN system during 2020 to define the future of international multilateralism.
A movement that places equality in the centre
The Secretary General of UCLG discussed gender equality with Åsa Regnér, Deputy Executive Director of UN Women. The meeting sought to identify transformative actions in order to situate the contributions of local and regional governments around the world to gender equality in the 64th edition of the UN Commission on the Status of Women and the Generation Equality forums in Mexico and France. The positioning of gender equality in the agendas and political participation of women in local and regional governments were also discussed.
- Read here the Durban Declaration.
