At the 2022 High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development at the United Nations Headquarters New York on 14 July 2022, the President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities stressed the need to give local and regional authorities the financial means and decision-making autonomy to carry out their missions in response to crisis situations.
“From the war in Ukraine, to the Covid-19 pandemic, to climate change, to economic slowdown, local and regional authorities are on the front line," he said at the session on "Regional action and leveraging regional frameworks to support countries on the road to recovery and rebuilding from the devastating impacts of the pandemic".
Underlining that it is the responsibility of local and regional decision-makers to implement policies in response to crises, the President stressed the importance of taking into account their practical experience in designing these policies. "Giving local decision-makers more responsibility and resources helps to increase the resilience of communities and thus of societies as a whole," he concluded.
The Congress calls for central governments to closely involve local authorities and their national associations, which contribute almost two-thirds of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, as illustrated by the examples of the presentations of the national voluntary reviews of Andorra, Switzerland, Greece and Italy. Municipalities and regions are also the place where SDGs 5 and 16 can be best combined by facilitating women's candidacy for local and regional councils and governments.
This event was preceded by a visit by the President of the Congress to Washington, accompanied by the Secretary General of the Congress, Andreas Kiefer, on July 11, during which he held meetings with representatives of the United States Conference of Mayors, the German Marshall Funds of the United States and of the National Democratic Institute.
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