Big Push for Sustainability and New Urban Agenda : opportunities and challenges of its articulation

Under the framework of the Fourth Meeting of the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development, the Sustainable Development and Human Settlements Division of ECLAC and UN-Habitat organized the side event Big Push for Sustainability and New Urban Agenda : opportunities and challenges of its articulation.

Held in virtual format on Wednesday, March 17, 2021, the main objective of this event was to identify the opportunities offered by the Big Push for Sustainability to accelerate the implementation of the New Urban Agenda (NUA), the achievements of the SDG 11 and discuss the actions required to articulate them: capacity building, Strengthening capacities, technical assistance, intraregional cooperation.

The event featured the participation of:

• Jose Luis Samaniego, Director of the Sustainable Development and Human Settlements Division, ECLAC.

• Diego Aulestia, Head of the Human Settlements Unit, ECLAC

• Elkin Velásquez, Regional Director of the Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, UN-Habitat.

• Irene Campos, Vice President of MINURVI, and Minister of Housing and Human Settlements of Costa Rica.

• Carolyn Trench, President of the National Assembly of Belize, and former President of the “Belize Planners Association”.

Context

The Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development was created as a regional mechanism to follow up and review the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the Sustainable Development Goals and targets, its means of implementation, and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda.

In the framework of the objectives of this forum, it is vitally important to identify challenges and windows of opportunity for the implementation of the Big Push for Sustainability through the combination of social and environmental policies hand in hand with reforms of economic, technological, and industrial policies to relaunching a new development model based on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development for Latin America and the Caribbean. Its implementation will depend largely on development and planning models of cities that allow concrete solutions and create a growth path with equality and emissions reduction.