As part of a series of ‘Special Sessions’, a session on “National Urban Forums – Strategic Platforms for Implementing the SDGs and New Urban Agenda” was organised at the 11th World Urban Forum. In preparation for the New Urban Agenda, and after different meetings related to it, the decision was taken to create National Urban Forums – to bring together a wide variety of stakeholders, various levels of government from all places – to offer an inclusive platform, to align national policies with the targets, with the agendas, sharing experiences and learnings to move forward quickly enough – to design and introduce policies that have civic engagement.
The beginning
At WUF9 in 2018, the Kuala Lumpur Declaration on Cities 2030 called for supporting “the creation and consolidation of inclusive platforms and agendas for dialogue among all levels of government, decision-makers and stakeholders.” Later in 2020, WUF10 gathered previous hosts of NUFs to exchange lessons learned, outcomes and impacts and share ideas on how to enhance such platforms. Participants agreed and reaffirmed that the NUFs could promote scaled-up efforts for the Decade of Action by building on international exchanges and collective delivery on the SDGs while mobilising a wide range of partners to bring up the urban debates to the World Urban Forum.
NUF at WUF11
WUF11, through this session “National Urban Forums – Strategic Platforms for Implementing the SDGs and New Urban Agenda”, aimed to provide an opportunity to take the discussions further and share innovative mechanisms for advancing the role of multi-stakeholder platforms to scale-up efforts in localising the SDGs.
Martin Grisel, Moderator of the session and Director of the European Urban Knowledge Network, introduced the theme and speakers of the session. Carmen Cecilia Lecaros Vertiz, Vice Minister, Ministry of Housing and Urbanism, Peru, who had joined the session virtually, noted that 93 per cent of the urban growth in the last years in cities of Peru has been informal, and only 13 per cent of the local governments have a planning instrument. She said that the laws had been designed to act as key instruments for constructing inclusive and prosperous cities and communities.
Cecilia Chamutota, Vice Minister, Ministry for Public Works, Housing and Water Resources of Mozambique, quoted the current President of Mozambique, “NUFs are unique opportunity for everyone to contribute openly to the analysis, reviews and formulation of policies, strategies and actions for urban areas.” She said that until now, two NUFs had been organised in Mozambique, one in 2016 and another in March 2022. This year, the NUF was extremely important because it was the starting point of discussion on their National Urban Policy (NUP), which is yet to be formulated. Cecilia noted that NUFs have been a good opportunity for dialogue and consensus on political and institutional coordination.
Wiktoria Saganowska, Director of Strategy at the Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy, Poland, said that since 2019, five NUFs had been organised in Poland, which has been dedicated largely to the theme of implementation of NUP. But what has been important, she noted, is that they have been trying to bring together different representatives from all levels of government, NGOs, social organisations, experts, and social movements from cities across the nation. Naomi Tsur, Founder and Executive Chair, Israel Urban Forum, shared how in 2012, at WUF 7, Dr John Clowe, through his speech, inspired her when he said, “It is time that all the countries of the world established their NUFs.” She mentioned, “I was, at that time, Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem and was therefore painfully aware of the disconnect between local government and national governments, between all levels and the civil society, and the need to address that gap.” She said that Israel is a rapidly growing nation, wherein densification is the order of the day in cities, and that creates the need to do something to crack the DNA of good urbanism. “It took us a bit of time, but in 2015, Israel’s first NUF, which was the initiative of the civil society, was organised,” added Tsur. She said that their aim through such NUFs is to create partnerships and collaboration to crack the DNA of sustainable urban living.