Global Dialogues

Local governments need to familiarize themselves with the Global Agendas that impact on the achievement of economic development goals. These agendas include 1) the Sendai Protocol on Disasters management; 2) the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development; 3) the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); 4) the Paris Agreement on Climate Change; and 5) the New Urban Agenda adopted in Quito, Ecuador.

UCLG Africa serves as a point of reference to help local governments of Africa localize these issues and define them as local policies and strategies if they are to have an effective impact on the ground. This territorial perspective of the definition and implementation of global and national policies is innovative in that it can help to foster a new dynamic in favour of inclusion and participation at a local level.

UCLG Africa will endeavour to popularize these global agendas and instruments and publish and disseminate guidelines and advocacy tools on the territorial approaches African local authorities should adopt when localizing the global agendas. In addition, this will require that UCLG Africa organize training sessions for officials and officers of local governments taking advantage of the local authorities and local professionals networks it has built.

UCLG Africa will also mobilize experts to provide technical assistance to those local authorities engaged in the process of localizing the SDGs and willing to use a territorial approach in local development. Furthermore, UCLG Africa will be in sync with UCLG, the world secretariat, and other UCLG regional sections around the implementation of “waves of actions” defined by the UCLG as the contribution of cities, local and subnational governments to the awareness and advocacy campaigns, concrete implementation initiatives, learning, monitoring and follow-up strategies for an effective realization of the global development agendas.

New Urban Agenda

The New Urban Agenda aims to “Reinforce the relationship between urbanization and development.” The agenda provides guidance to nation states, cities and regional authorities, civil society, foundations, NGOs, academic researchers, urbanization and sustainable development.

As an organization UCLG Africa helps to provide these guidelines in an accessible and practical way, which helps to localize these agendas. We offer our members guidelines on a range of ‘development and operational enablers’ that can help them to understand the relationship between urbanization and sustainable development and the practical things that need to be addressed in order to have an impact on communities.

Development enablers include: national urban policy; laws, institutions and systems of governance; and the broad urban economy
Operational enablers include: activities that result in better outcomes such as patterns of land use, how a city is formed and how resources are managed

The priorities that underpin the New Urban Agenda include:

Adequate housing and sustainable human settlements
Democratic development and respect for human rights
The relationship between the environment and urbanization
A significant focus on equity in the face of globalization
Ensuring the safety and security of everyone who lives in urban areas, regardless of gender and age

UCLG Africa engages with members representing the cities and local and subnational governments on some of the key areas that underpin the New Urban Agenda.

For more information on:

How our African Local Government Academy has supported local governments. Click here
How the Covenant of Mayors for Sub-Saharan Africa hosted by UCLG Africa’s West Africa Regional Offices has supported mayors of cities and local government areas click here
How UCLG Africa’s partnership with Slum/Shack Dwellers International Know Your City Campaign impacts on local governments in Africa click here

Sustainable Development Goals

SDGs – A Call to Action

“SDGs are not legally binding, but governments are expected to take ownership and establish national frameworks for the achievement of the 17 Goals. UCLG Africa aims to ensure that cities and local governments contribute to these national frameworks and encourages them to take responsibility for follow-up and review of the progress made in implementing these Goals on the ground, which will require quality, accessible and timely data collection. Working with partners, UCLG Africa will provide information, support and follow-ups to showcase local contributions that will be shared and disseminated at events, training, workshops and seminars”

As with all global agendas, UCLG Africa is driving a number of interventions that localize the Global Goals. On the 1^st January 2016, as part of Agenda 2030, 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted and came into force.

With this global agenda in mind the next fifteen years will see these new goals universally applied to all countries in an attempt to mobilize efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change, while ensuring that no one is left behind.

The Covenant of Mayors for Sub-Sahara Africa (CoMSSA) hosted by UCLG Africa’s West Africa regional offices supports the localization process by providing guidelines to implement practical accessible solutions on the ground with and for grassroots communities.

For more information of CoMSSA click here