Venice City Solutions 2030 - The future of 2030 Agenda localization

Venice City Solutions 2030 is an annual event to advance and promote localization of the SDGs, identifying and sharing promising tools and practices of local and regional governments. This year, the event focused on Visualizing Agenda 2030 in the City, in consideration of how the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs provide the shared roadmap and vision for the future of cities and territories, particularly in face of pandemic crisis.

Venice City Solutions 2030 is an annual event to advance and promote localization of the SDGs, identifying and sharing promising tools and practices of local and regional governments. This year, the event focused on Visualizing Agenda 2030 in the City, in consideration of how the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs provide the shared roadmap and vision for the future of cities and territories, particularly in face of pandemic crisis. 

"The critical role of visualization is about supporting the decision-making processes and improving participation and access to information regarding SDGs in the context of the city", as highlighted by Petr Suska, from the Fraunhofer IAO.

Considering the challenging global context, and as we enter the United Nations Decade of Action, local expertise and commitment need to be acknowledged for its key potential to drive transformation at all levels. Cities and territories deal with topics that are key to deciding the future, particularly concerning local public service delivery and community engagement, for example regarding housing, mobility, culture, public spaces, safety, gender equality and much more. A long-term approach is needed, putting the local level at the center of development: the point of view of citizens is critical as well, as reminded by Shipra Narang Suri, Director of Urban Practices Branch, UN-Habitat, “as not everyone is embedded and familiar with SDGs and the concept of sustainability, efforts should  be made to look from the eyes of communities and of citizens to identify the point of departure”

Throughout the two-day event, different sessions generated a dialogue among stakeholders on the impact of local action on the global policies and dynamics, as well as the game-changing contribution of local and regional governments to the implementation of global agendas. The relevance of collaboration was emphasized as core to successful SDG Localization, Johannes Krassnitzer, International Coordinator of the UNDP ART Initiative stressed the need of vertical and horizontal partnerships, based on the “development of trust and joint processes and systems for accountability. The very nature of Venice City Solutions 2030 is showing how the relationship between the different stakeholders is critical to trigger the transformation we want”.

The event presented and celebrated the initiatives included in the UCLG Local4Action HUBs, a platform that connects, synchronizes and accelerates the 2030 Agenda localization. As from the 2020 edition, the Venice City Solutions 2030 integrates officially the process of development of the UCLG Local4Action HUBs, as a unique space for cities and regions to share developments, expectations and views around their own HUBs, for the local experiences to continue nurturing global decisions and inspiring other Local and Regional Governments to replicate and scale-up innovative practices.

In this regard, Carla Rey Secretary General, Italian Association for the Council of European Municipalities (AICCRE) reminded that “As local actors we need to communicate better what we do. The Local4Action HUBs by UCLG initiative can help us to find a way to synchronize our communication, to project what we have achieved and to scale-up what we already do. This is the reason why Venice City Solutions 2030 is becoming the HUB of HUBs, an artisan laboratory and a place to foster local knowledge where everyone works together as a community.” 

With the concept of “Visualizing the Agenda 2030 in cities”, local and regional government representatives, urban practitioners, architects, private sector and community enhancers, accompanied by the United Nations System, addressed: 

  1. the links between  SDGs and the  territory,  mapping local actions in space showing how the different SDGs are coming to life in the unique space that are our cities and territories; 

  2. the SDGs interactions and connections in the city’s institutional and governance frameworks showcasing how the SDGs interact with each other, through different government bodies and with the action of different stakeholders; 

  3. the vision for the future exploring the 2030 Agenda as a roadmap to better plan, imagine, co-create and govern the city to face current and future challenges, and finally; 

  4. how SDGs can become a transformative mechanism when led and implemented by local and regional governments by celebrating UCLG's new initiative, the Local4Action HUBs.

During the conclusions, it was highlighted that the global transformation brought by the SDGs, in response to the communities’ needs and aspirations, should happen at the local and regional level and with local ownership. Cities and territories must own global agendas as localization efforts can drive this transformation. 

Localizing is not only transposing global goals into local action, but in ensuring the local ambitions and voices change the world. The challenge now is to accelerate and synchronize our actions, learning together, enhancing our ownership, making sure local initiatives are known and can be visualised, impacting international policy development and making the global local and the local global. 

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