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The Habitat III Informal Hearings with Local Authorities Associations concluded on Tuesday, 17 May 2016, at UN Headquarters in New York. The meeting brought together representatives of local and regional governments to exchange views with member states and observers on the recently submitted zero draft of the Habitat III outcome. The meeting was mandated by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in December 2015 (A/RES/70/210).
In the morning, two panels took place on building the urban structure, establishing a supportive national, sub-national and local framework, and on planning and managing the urban spatial development. On building the urban structure, discussions addressed: capacity building; the importance of citizen participation; participation of local authorities in the New Urban Agenda; a forum for monitoring implementation; and access to development funds. On planning and managing the urban spatial development, the debate included suggestions to improve the zero draft of the New Urban Agenda, and how to address issues related to food and healthy lifestyles.
In the afternoon, two panels addressed enhancing means of implementation, and follow-up and review of the New Urban Agenda. On enhancing means of implementation, the panel addressed, inter alia, the need to ensure: sufficient funding of local authorities; access to funds from both the national and international levels; review implementation; and mechanisms for grant funding of small projects. On follow-up and review of the New Urban Agenda, discussions focused on: eliminating socioeconomic segregation and poverty; building multi-level, multi-actor partnerships; constructing frameworks for follow-up and review that feed into the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) process; and decentralizing cooperation.
In closing, Habitat III Co-Chair María de los Ángeles Duarte, Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ecuador, thanked representatives of local authorities saying the zero draft will be further enriched by the contributions made. The meeting closed at 5:31pm.
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IISD Reporting Services, through its ENB+ Meeting Coverage, has provided daily web updates from the from the Habitat III Informal Hearings with Local Authorities. In addition, IISD Reporting Services, has published a summary report of this event, which is available in HTML and PDF format.
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L-R: Luis Fernando Matute Rivera, Mayor, Pujili, Ecuador, and Association of Municipalities of Ecuador; Juan Espadas Cejas, Mayor, Sevilla, Spain; and Habitat III Deputy Secretary-General Kumaresh Misra
The first panel of the morning addressed building the urban structure—establishing a supportive national, sub-national and local framework
L-R: Luis Fernando Matute Rivera, Mayor, Pujili, Ecuador, and Association of Municipalities of Ecuador; Juan Espadas Cejas, Mayor, Sevilla, Spain; Habitat III Deputy Secretary-General Kumaresh Misra; Deputy Permanent Representative Helena Yáñez, Ecuador; Habitat III Co-Chair Maryse Gautier; Radhika Ochalik, Secretary to Habitat III; and Illiza Sa’aduddin Djamal, Mayor, Banda Aceh, Indonesia
L-R: Geoffrey Makhubo, Member, Mayoral Committee for Finance, Johannesburg, South Africa; Habitat III Deputy Secretary-General Kumaresh Misra; Habitat III Co-Chair Maryse Gautier, France; Habitat III Co-Chair María de los Ángeles Duarte, Ecuador; Rachel Stein-Holmes, Secretary to Habitat III; Philip Anthony McPhee, President, Bahamas Association for Local Government Authorities and Caribbean Association of Local Government Authorities; and Souad Zaïdi, Deputy Mayor, Rabat, Morocco
