Update on the OECD Roundtable on Cities and Regions for the SDGs

In July 2018, the UN High-Level Political Forum launched the OECD Programme on “A Territorial Approach to the SDGs”. In this context the 2nd OECD Roundtable on Cities and Regions for SDGs convened on the 9th of December 2019 at the World Conference Center Bonn, Germany.

Over 130+ representatives from a wide range of cities, regions, national governments, and from the European Commission (DG REGIO, DG DEVCO, JRC) attended the Roundtable, alongside international organisations (UNFCCC, UN SDG Action Campaign), networks of cities and regions (Committee of the Regions, ICLEI, C40, CEMR) and other stakeholders such as the German Development Institute, the Nordic Council of Ministers, ASviS, the Bertelsmann Foundation, among others. Hundreds more joined in via the online webcast of the Roundtable, and over 260 people downloaded the issue notes summarising the key messages from the nine pilots (Agenda, List of participants, Presentations, Pilots issue notes).

The conference highlighted how several cities and regions are starting to use the SDGs to rethink their local and regional policies from the ground up, manage trade-offs between sectoral policies, better assess their performance and engage with a broader range of stakeholders.

The 3rd OECD Roundtable on Cities and Regions for the SDGs will be held on 22 September 2020 in Viken, Norway (tbc depending on the evolution of the Covid-19 pandemic).

The highlights of the 2nd OECD Roundtable on Cities and Regions for the SDGs can now be accessed online here.