Deputy Secretary-General Urges Dynamic, Balanced Urbanization, in Remarks at Habitat III Informal Hearings with Local Authorities Associations

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson’s remarks at the Habitat III Informal Hearings with local authorities associations, in New York today:

It is a great pleasure for me to welcome you on behalf of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the United Nations and to New York, and to join you for this opening of the Habitat III Informal Hearings with local authorities associations.

It is encouraging to see so many governors, mayors and other local officials here today.  Your institutions are among the closest to citizens, to “We the Peoples”, in the words of the United Nations Charter.  You face daily challenges in terms of housing, jobs, basic services, infrastructure and many more tasks affecting our citizens’ life in a very tangible way.

You come to the United Nations at a unique moment in the Habitat III process, which is critical to helping chart the future of the urban agenda.  I would like to recognize and thank for the invaluable work the co-chairs of the Preparatory Committee, Honorable Minister Maria de los Angeles Duarte, Minister for Urban Development and Housing of Ecuador, and Madame Maryse Gautier of the Ministry of the Environment, Energy and Marine Affairs of France.

Earlier this month, the Preparatory Committee submitted the zero draft of the New Urban Agenda.  This is a significant milestone in the preparatory process that began here in New York in September 2014.  The draft has benefitted from a rich array of contributions, including 22 issue papers prepared by the United Nations Task Team on Habitat III, 10 policy papers written with the participation of 200 experts, and 11 regional and thematic declarations.

I was glad to hear that you had productive and engaging open-ended consultative meetings during the last week of April.  This is the first United Nations consultative process to recognize subnational governments as a specific constituency.  It represents an important step towards realizing on the local level the vision of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development.  We all know that local authorities will play an important role in achieving progress over the next 15 years.

The 2030 Agenda also recognized that sustainable urban development is a crucial element in achieving the interrelated Sustainable Development Goals.  As the Secretary-General has said, the battle for sustainable development will be won or lost in our cities.  Our world is becoming more and more urbanized.  Cities are centres of social and cultural interaction as well as engines of growth and development.  Our shared challenge is to ensure that this growth is inclusive.  It must contribute to poverty eradication and to building safe, resilient and sustainable human settlements.

The New Urban Agenda to be adopted in Quito is our opportunity to improve the way we plan, develop and manage urban development.  It is also a first step to operationalize sustainable development at the global, regional, national, subnational and local levels.  This must be done in an integrated and coordinated way.

We have committed to work with local authorities and communities to renew and plan our cities and human settlements.  Now is the time for all of us to join our efforts to foster healthy, prosperous, peaceful and open urban communities.  Our goal should be cities which prioritize prosperity for all, job creation, women’s empowerment, environmental protection, respect for human rights and strong as well as functioning institutions.

Let us make the most of this opportunity.  Let us together draw up a road map for urban development and set a practical vision for dynamic as well as balanced urbanization.

Over the next two days, you will have an opportunity to engage in dialogue, propose solutions and prepare an ambitious outcome of Habitat III.  I wish you all successful and fruitful discussions.  I thank you for your attention.