The inception meeting of the sixth U20 engagement group, U20 City Sherpa Meeting, under the G20 was among the significant steps in carrying forward the agenda of sustainable urbanisation in the world. This meeting in Ahmedabad, the Chair city for U20, was very well attended by representatives of governments, national and international organisations, and a wide cross section of all stakeholders.
The U20 engagement group is uniquely placed to shape the narrative and guide the deliberations on key urban challenges facing cities of the world. Given the inevitability of rapid urbanisation, there is need to embrace the phenomenon while shaping its trajectory towards a just, fair, equitable, and sustainable path. Urbanisation will remain a key plank for economic development and for meeting the aspirations of the people. This could be all the more relevant for countries which are currently experiencing greater traction in urbanisation; these countries could reap the greatest rewards.
Several dignitaries have stressed upon the U20 engagement group for addressing the overarching issues of global governance while leveraging its opportunity for global peer learning and creating a visionary roadmap that can steer the G20 agenda. A landmark event during the sixth U20 engagement group was the presentation of six priority areas by the Chair city. The priority areas are well articulated and comprehensively cover the major issues facing cities and are therefore crucial. These are: encouraging environmentally responsible behaviors; ensuring water security; accelerating climate finance; championing local identity; reinventing frameworks for urban governance and planning; catalyzing digital urban futures. These priorities rightly reflect the major issues facing the urban landscape, namely the environment including climate, the need for governance reforms and for promoting digitization which can help bring about transparency, accountability, and help in ease of living of citizens. Therefore these priorities received overwhelming support from the participating city sherpas after due deliberation. These priorities will likely figure in the final communique to be presented to the G20 leaders during the Mayoral Summit in July 2023.
Several U20 events lined up during the coming months will address pressing urban challenges such as water security, circular economy, and climate finance, among others. It is crucial that these and other issues are deliberated upon, and clear, actionable roadmap prepared for cities to move towards a sustainable future. An overarching theme is likely to be a citizen centric, transparent and accountable governance architecture that can meet the aspirations of all sections of society. The G20 Presidency gives India the opportunity of leading the international discourse on all these issues and jointly with the G20 countries addressing the pressing challenges of the planet.
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