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A special event on sustainable cities conveyed by the President of the UN General Assembly and organized by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs with the support of the Rio+20 partners of the Local Authorities Major Group: UCLG; ICLEI and nrg4SD counted with the Presence of UCLG President Mayor Kadir Topbaş.
The Special event hosted by the Mission of Turkey on Monday 23 September brought together local and sub-national political representatives, development partners such as UN Habitat, Major Groups representatives and national governments in order to (i) review current proposals related to urbanisation and sustainable development; (ii) identify areas where local and regional authorities’ expertise is required and (iii) strengthen partnerships among relevant stakeholders to best manage urbanisation and establish links between rural and urban areas.
The outcomes of the meeting were reported by President Topbaş to the first High Level Political Forum on September 24 the new mechanism set up after the Rio Summit.
"The new development agenda is one and universal affecting all continents and countries. In all cases well managed urbanization with a territorial approach and bridging the rural urban divide will be the key." Stated Mayor Topbas before the member states.
The joint statement further underlines that "the Post-2015 agenda should implement effective decentralization of responsibilities, policy management, decision-making and sufficient resources, including revenue collection following the recommendations of the “International guidelines on decentralization and access to basic services for all” adopted by UN Habitat".
It also demanded that urbanization, in its broader territorial sense, should be embodied in a stand-alone goal complemented by urban targets across other relevant goals.
Click here to read the statement.
Click here to read the full report.