The Advisory Group will engage contributions from sub-national stakeholders and enhance coordination and collaboration between cities, regions, national governments, and international processes, to course correct and “identify resources for the delivery of the SDGs with impact, scale, and speed”.
The Group and includes 15 representatives of local and regional governments and leaders from Colombia, India, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Spain.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has launched an Advisory Group on Local and Regional Governments to provide recommendations and strategic guidance on how best to engage local and regional governments in global efforts to rescue the SDGs and on issues to be discussed at the Summit of the Future in 2024, including peace and security, reform of the global financial architecture, and the governance of digital technology.
The Advisory Group will engage contributions from sub-national stakeholders and enhance coordination and collaboration between cities, regions, national governments, and international processes, to course correct and “identify resources for the delivery of the SDGs with impact, scale, and speed.”
The Group will work to identify:
Development … is based on a reformed social contract, which is built from the bottom up.
— Pilar Cancela Rodríguez, Secretary of State for International Cooperation, Spain
Speaking at the launch event on 6 October 2023, Guterrez underlined that the SDGs are “eminently local” and need to be achieved locally “before they become national.” He said the UN “has a firm determination to make the multilateral system have a strong connection to local and subnational authorities, independently of the intergovernmental nature of the system.”
The Secretary-General emphasized that decisions taken by countries at the Summit of the Future “will affect everyone [… and therefore] must reflect everyone.” He said the only path to the inclusive, networked multilateralism we need is through an extensive, open consultation process.
The Advisory Group is gender-balanced and geographically diverse and includes 15 representatives of local and regional governments and leaders from Colombia, India, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Spain. The Group’s 20 members will serve in their personal capacity over a one-year period, with Pilar Cancela Rodríguez, Secretary of State for International Cooperation, Spain, and Fatimetou Mint Abdel Malick, President of Nouakchott Region, Mauritania, as Co-Chairs. UN-Habitat will provide Secretariat services to the Group. UN Under-Secretary-General Guy Ryder will represent the Secretary-General throughout the process. [UN Press Release] [SDG Knowledge Hub Story on UN Secretary-General Briefing Member States on Progress on Our Common Agenda]