Circular
22/2023
Barcelona, 6 July 2023
To the members of the World Council
To the Secretaries General
To the Vice-Presidents of United Cities and Local Governments
To the Chairs of UCLG Committees, Working Groups, Communities of Practice and Fora
For information: To the Presidency
Latest up-dates on the High-Level Political Forum
10-19 July 2023, New York
Dear members,
We are writing to you to provide you with the final up-dates on the 2023 High-level Political Forum, to be held from Monday 10 July to Wednesday 19 July 2023 under the theme “Accelerating the Recovery from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at all levels”.
Five Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be in review this year: 6 on clean water and sanitation, 7 on affordable and clean energy, 9 on industry, innovation, and infrastructure, 11 on sustainable cities and communities, and 17 on partnerships for the Goals.
The HLPF and the preparations towards the SDG Summit
As you know, the HLPF in July will support the preparations of the SDG Summit in September, which will serve as a mid-term review of all 17 SDGs. With 2023 being a pivotal year for the organized constituency, local and regional governments are leading the localization movement worldwide through a wide range of high-impact policies contributing to accelerate the 2030 Agenda and all the global development agendas. These commitments are the blueprint of our constituency to achieve the SDGs and our contribution to close the gap in the implementation.
In this context, all the advocacy milestones of the constituency throughout the year have been oriented to build the case that local and regional governments are committed to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda and indispensable political actors, with localization at the center of transformative action, claiming SDG 11 as accelerator of all the SDGs. We are sending you here a full Policy Brief that develops this strategy.
With this in mind and as in previous years, UCLG, on behalf of the Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments (GTF), is facilitating the participation of our constituency at the HLPF and the reporting on the role of local and regional governments in SDG localization. We are also sharing with you the Statement of the Organized Constituency to the HLPF.
The key dates for the constituency during this HLPF will be July 12, in which the Local and Regional Governments’ Forum will take place; and July 13, in which we will host the Local and Regional Governments’ Day. July 17 and 18 will be the dates for the Voluntary Local Review and Voluntary Subnational Review Days.
During the HLPF, the Global Taskforce’s annual report “Towards the Localization of the SDGs” will be presented. This year’s report includes evidence grounded in the experiences shared through over 200 responses received to the survey this year from local and regional governments and their associations from all world regions. A thorough analysis of the existing 240+ VLRs and 37 VSRs has also been conducted as the basis for this report, as well as of the up-dated Country Profiles for SDG localization and the 39 VNRs expected for 2023. The yearly report will be accompanied by 5 thematic papers that analyze different dimensions of the localization of SDG 11 and provide bold recommendations at different levels.
Accreditation to access the United Nations
Please note that, at this stage, registrations to attend the United Nations during the High-Level Political Forum are closed. In order to attend, you will have to be registered beforehand and have received an email confirming your participation.
After receiving an email confirmation, all delegates have to personally collect their grounds pass in New York. Unfortunately, UCLG will not be able to collect grounds passes on behalf of any delegate. The collection of United Nations grounds passes takes place in the UN Pass & ID office which is located at 320 East 45th Street (between First and Second Avenue), outside of the UN premises. You will need to have your printed INDICO registration approval email and a passport issued by a Member State or an Observer State of the United Nations (or governmentissued photo ID if coming from within the U.S.) ready before entering the UN Pass & ID office located at 320 East 45th street. Without these documents, you will not be able to obtain your United Nations grounds pass for the HLPF. Each representative should have received a registration approval email when her/his HLPF registration was approved by the Conference Focal Point of the organization.
Calendar of Key Events for the Constituency
You will find here the calendar of key events of the constituency.
You will also find below a brief overview of the key dates for the delegation of local and regional governments at the 2023 HLPF:
- The Local and Regional Governments Forum will be organized on 12 July, 10-13:00 EST, in-person at the UNHQ, in CR3. You can read the concept note and agenda for reference.
- The Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments Reception will be hosted on 12 July, 19:00-21:00 EST, at the Millennium Hilton One UN Hotel. You will find the flyer here.
- The Local and Regional Governments Day will be organized on 13 July, 10:00-18:00 EST, at the Millennium Hilton One UN Hotel. You can find the concept note here. It will also launch the “Towards the Localization of the SDGs” Report and the Voluntary Local Review and Voluntary Subnational Review Days.
- Voluntary Local Reviews and Voluntary Subnational Review Days, organized on 17 and 18 July. They will be fully on-line and you can register for the sessions here (17 July) and here (18 July). You can visit the UCLGMeets webpage for more information about the different sessions.
FOR ACTION: Please inform the World Secretariat of your plans to travel to New York and participating within the UN High-Level Political Forum.
Do not hesitate writing to us at policy@uclg.org.
Sincerely,
The UCLG World Secretariat
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