A high-level meeting convened mayors and deputy mayors from around the world with senior representatives from key UN agencies: UN-Habitat, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) to discuss areas of collaboration.
The GCH took part in an OECD–German workshop in Berlin on “The impact of decentralized development cooperation (DDC) on local governance and SDG outcomes.” The meeting aimed to better understand how cities and regions engage in decentralized development cooperation, what benefits it brings, the obstacles they face, and how to assess its impact. Participants included cities and regions, city networks, national governments, and international organizations.
The 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly starts on Thursday, 18 September. A record number of heads of states and governments are expected to speak on this Anniversary. The Secretary-General has presented a report providing recommendations to enhance engagement with local and regional governments in advancing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular the localization of the SDGs. The dialogue with States “identified existing mechanisms that were concrete, practical and cost-effective for enhancing the participation of local and regional governments in United Nations processes.”
Local and regional governments play a crucial role in offering a decent quality of life to their citizens and are key contributors to the common efforts of a people-centered sustainable development. The GCH in collaboration with UN-Habitat and the Quality of Life Initiative organized the Geneva Urban Debate “Measuring Quality of Life in Cities: Connecting Local Action and Global Agendas”. We introduced the Initiative and explored how it can contribute to the different global agendas of international organizations.
On 15 September 2025, the Global Cities Hub moderated the session on “Scaling People-centred Smart City Solutions” at the Forum on Connected by Design: Building Inclusive Digital Infrastructure for Future-Ready Cities, in partnership with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The event gathered local and regional governments (LRGs) representatives and international organizations to explore how Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) can drive inclusion, resilience, and sustainability in cities worldwide.
The resumed session of the fifth meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5.2) was adjourned in the morning of 15 August. Described by many as the last good chance to conclude negotiations on a global plastic pollution treaty, it opened on 5 August. The GCH remains confident the treaty will be adopted and will continue working to ensure LRGs are fully recognised in the final text.
The GCH participated to the second edition of the Arab Mayors’ Academy, which took place on 6–7 August 2025 at the UN House in Beirut, Lebanon. This year the central topic was institutionalizing SDG Localization. Aligning cities’ actions with global and regional agendas is increasingly important.
On 23 July, the Global Cities Hub, UNOHCHR, the Geneva Human Rights Platform, and UCLG co-organized a full-day workshop, under the theme “Enhancing national reporting and implementation of human rights through coordinated engagement at the local and regional levels: the role of NMIRFs.” The event brought together a wide range of actors to exchange on how to better integrate LRGs into the international human rights system, which has historically been centred on State actors.
At the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) in New York the 2025 Local and Regional Governments Forum (LRGF) and the Special Event of the Local2030 Coalition take place today.
Created in April 2024, the Local and Subnational Governments (LSNG) Coalition unites local and subnational governments, city networks and other organizations to push for urgent collective action at all levels of government and society to address the environmental and health hazards posed by plastic pollution.
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