Together for the 2030 Agenda

The Service Agency Communities in One World (SKEW) was co-organiser of the international conference "Together for the 2030 Agenda - Municipalities as trailblazers for global sustainable development" on 19 November 2020. All participants, who gathered online for the event, were aware that international cohesion and collaborative work on global goals are particularly important in times of the pandemic.

Originally, the conference was intended to take place as a face-to-face event in Berlin, but had to be converted into a digital conference due to the current worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. The format was aimed at representatives of municipalities and cities from the Global South and North who are pursuing, planning or implementing ideas and projects to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). About 90 municipal delegates participated in the event.

Norbert Barthle, Parliamentary State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, began the meeting by pointing out that today, five years after the 2030 Agenda was arranged, there are now only ten years left to implement the vision it contains, including the SDGs. More than half the world’s population live in urban spaces. Therefore, the impact of what happens in cities and municipalities on sustainable development has an enormous effect on the whole sustainability movement. Norbert Barthle emphasised municipal partnerships as one important and promising way to localise the SDGs and implement the 2030 Agenda.

Emilia Sáiz Carrancedo, Secretary-General of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), added in her input how important it is that stakeholders from all different spheres, such as politics and business, and of course citizens, should be involved in this process. For that it is necessary to empower local governments and increase their freedom to act in the process of sustainable development. Anna Lixi, Head of Sector for local authorities (DG DEVCO), agreed in her statement and led back to the importance of cooperation in partnerships in which the two sides can share support and knowledge. She also underlined how the COVID-19 crisis has shown once again that we are all connected.

An international Mayors Talk offered an interesting impression of the collaborative work in a municipal partnership, both in general and in times of COVID-19. Katja Dörner, Mayor of the city of Bonn in Germany, and Richmond Yeboah, Planning Coordinator from her partner municipality of Cape Coast in Ghana, Hans Janssen, Mayor of Oisterwijk in the Netherlands, and Rohey Malick Lowe, Mayor of Banjul in Gambia, participated in this lively conversation. Especially the comments made by Mr Yeboah and Mayor Ms Rohey Malick Lowe showed a new perspective on the current situation. This highlighted both how important international municipal partnerships are, and that the joint work is still ongoing even in times of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bodo Ellmers, Director of the Global Policy Forum´s Sustainable Development Finance Programme, opened the second part of the conference by presenting the current status of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda from a global perspective. He pointed out that after all the setbacks experienced during the COVID-19 crisis among others, a rethinking is necessary. Calls to apply the principle of “building back better” are getting louder and louder, combined with the question of how this can be realised. Critics fear a reconstruction of the old status-quo. A lot of civic pressure is rising around the globe, with different substantive requirements. Prof. Dr Stefan Siedentop, Scientific Director of the Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development (ILS), added in his presentation that structural social inequality must be reduced in order to create spaces that are open to change and transformation, which also include crises.

The participants also had an opportunity to discuss issues in smaller focus groups in the form of “Breakout Sessions” on how to localise the 2030 Agenda. The closing remarks were made by the co-organisers Anja Wagner (BMZ), Marlène Siméon (PLATFORMA) and Dr Stefan Wilhelmy (Service Agency), who thanked all the speakers and listeners for the interesting conversation and the productive knowledge sharing on this conference day.