Mr. Jan Van Zanen, Mayor of Utrecht
Statement of the Local and Regional Government Constituency
To be delivered by Mr. Jan Van Zanen, Mayor of Utrecht, and President of VNG, the
Association of Netherlands Municipalities; on behalf of the Global Taskforce
Excellencies,
Dear colleagues,
It is a pleasure and an honor to be here today to share with you, as Mayor of the city
of Utrecht and as president of the Association of Netherlands Municipalities, the
a •• • • •• C •
views and perspectives of the local and regional governments constituency on behalf
of United Cities and Local Govern·ments· and the Global Taskforce of Local and
Regional Governments.
Ladies and gentlemen, there are around 400.000 local and regional governments in
the countries presenting Voluntary National Reviews in this HLPF. With adequate
resowces, competencies and ownership, they have an enormous ability to reach the
5.2 billion people living in them.
In my city for example, we have made the SDGs a framework to work with our
citizens. We strongly involve civil society, knowledge institutions and the private
sector in working towards the SDGs, both locally and internationally. It is thus an
agenda of the entire city, not just of the municipality. We have also done an exercise
to check how our policies are already aligned with the SDGs and made a-benchmark
on SDG 11 to be able to measure our progress in the coming years. Municipalities
from all over the Netherlands and Europe come to learn from our approach. And as it
is learning by doing, we also learn a lot from our colleagues from other municipalities.
Our Association of Municipalities facilitates this exchange through a
Municipalities4GlobaIGoals campaign.
I am telling you this to underline that in order ~o achieve the SDGs, full ownership of
the agenda at local level is decisive; this ownership must be felt by local
governments, civil society and other actors.
All over the world Local and regional government networks are working on the
"localization" of the SOGs, through their day-to-day work, as the level of
government closest to citizens.
However, they do not often use the SDGs as explicit policy framework.
I therefore wish to stress that national governments and the international community
need to recognize this role and involve them in setting the priorities to achieving the
SDGs. This also includes the New Urban Agenda, as I, and almost a 1000 local
representatives of the World Assembly of Local and Regional Governments,
highlighted at Habitat Ill last year.
Our local, regional and global networks have drawn up a report to assess the level of
involvement of sub-national governments in the monitoring of the SDGs. At the
moment only. 37 of the· 63_ nati9nal re~orts mention suba:iational. govern merit
participation-in monitoring.mechanisms. (LAAT RAPPORT ZIEN) In the Netherlands.
my association of Netherlands Municipalities has been actively involved. in drawing
up the national report on the progress of the SDGs, and I know that other countries,
such as Sweden, Belgium, Denmark, Colombia, Brazil and others have done the
same .
. In our assessment, we noted that 19 of the Voluntary National Reviews submitted in
the past two years to the HLPF singled out decentralization as crucial to the
implementation of the SDGs. 11 more referred to the need to strengthen local
governance. This recognition is crucial, as local governments around the world need
to be strengthened and they need (legal and fiscal) space to address poverty,
inequality and other challenges in an integrated manner.
We recommend that the HLPF provide adequate space for local governments to
report both in the national reports, and in a separate voluntary assessment, of which
we present the first edition to you (LAA T RAPPORT NOGMAALS ZIEN) from a local
perspective and show-case what is being done. This would reward those that are
implementing the SDGs and encourage those who are not yet involved.
We are aware that the journey towards the achievement of the SDGs has just begun.
And we also know that the challenges faced by our communities in this fast changing
world are likely to grow. We are convinced that, whatever the challenge, local needs
must be at the heart of our work and complement national policies and global
visions, setting the scene for a new multi-level governance framework.
-
We hope our efforts can be acknowledged and harnessed. In the meantime, allow us
to reiterate the commitment of our organized constituency to the achievement of
the Global Goals.
To be delivered by Mr. Jan Van Zanen, Mayor of Utrecht, and President of VNG, the
Association of Netherlands Municipalities; on behalf of the Global Taskforce
Excellencies,
Dear colleagues,
It is a pleasure and an honor to be here today to share with you, as Mayor of the city
of Utrecht and as president of the Association of Netherlands Municipalities, the
a •• • • •• C •
views and perspectives of the local and regional governments constituency on behalf
of United Cities and Local Govern·ments· and the Global Taskforce of Local and
Regional Governments.
Ladies and gentlemen, there are around 400.000 local and regional governments in
the countries presenting Voluntary National Reviews in this HLPF. With adequate
resowces, competencies and ownership, they have an enormous ability to reach the
5.2 billion people living in them.
In my city for example, we have made the SDGs a framework to work with our
citizens. We strongly involve civil society, knowledge institutions and the private
sector in working towards the SDGs, both locally and internationally. It is thus an
agenda of the entire city, not just of the municipality. We have also done an exercise
to check how our policies are already aligned with the SDGs and made a-benchmark
on SDG 11 to be able to measure our progress in the coming years. Municipalities
from all over the Netherlands and Europe come to learn from our approach. And as it
is learning by doing, we also learn a lot from our colleagues from other municipalities.
Our Association of Municipalities facilitates this exchange through a
Municipalities4GlobaIGoals campaign.
I am telling you this to underline that in order ~o achieve the SDGs, full ownership of
the agenda at local level is decisive; this ownership must be felt by local
governments, civil society and other actors.
All over the world Local and regional government networks are working on the
"localization" of the SOGs, through their day-to-day work, as the level of
government closest to citizens.
However, they do not often use the SDGs as explicit policy framework.
I therefore wish to stress that national governments and the international community
need to recognize this role and involve them in setting the priorities to achieving the
SDGs. This also includes the New Urban Agenda, as I, and almost a 1000 local
representatives of the World Assembly of Local and Regional Governments,
highlighted at Habitat Ill last year.
Our local, regional and global networks have drawn up a report to assess the level of
involvement of sub-national governments in the monitoring of the SDGs. At the
moment only. 37 of the· 63_ nati9nal re~orts mention suba:iational. govern merit
participation-in monitoring.mechanisms. (LAAT RAPPORT ZIEN) In the Netherlands.
my association of Netherlands Municipalities has been actively involved. in drawing
up the national report on the progress of the SDGs, and I know that other countries,
such as Sweden, Belgium, Denmark, Colombia, Brazil and others have done the
same .
. In our assessment, we noted that 19 of the Voluntary National Reviews submitted in
the past two years to the HLPF singled out decentralization as crucial to the
implementation of the SDGs. 11 more referred to the need to strengthen local
governance. This recognition is crucial, as local governments around the world need
to be strengthened and they need (legal and fiscal) space to address poverty,
inequality and other challenges in an integrated manner.
We recommend that the HLPF provide adequate space for local governments to
report both in the national reports, and in a separate voluntary assessment, of which
we present the first edition to you (LAA T RAPPORT NOGMAALS ZIEN) from a local
perspective and show-case what is being done. This would reward those that are
implementing the SDGs and encourage those who are not yet involved.
We are aware that the journey towards the achievement of the SDGs has just begun.
And we also know that the challenges faced by our communities in this fast changing
world are likely to grow. We are convinced that, whatever the challenge, local needs
must be at the heart of our work and complement national policies and global
visions, setting the scene for a new multi-level governance framework.
-
We hope our efforts can be acknowledged and harnessed. In the meantime, allow us
to reiterate the commitment of our organized constituency to the achievement of
the Global Goals.