The High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in search for the future of the 2030 Agenda and SDGs

Ulrich Graute • 16 July 2021

Aim of this blog post is to demonstrate some of the efforts the UN is paying to turn current crises into an opportunity to progress its sustainability agenda. It reports on main sessions and the side event of Local2030.

Gutierrez: Rather than progress we are moving away from our goals

The Secretary General has mentioned already several times since early 2020 that the 2030 Agenda with its Sustainable development Goals (SDG) is off-track. Now, in July 2021, this acknowledgement was reflected in most speeches at the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), which is the subsidiary body of the United Nations responsible for the entire organization's policy on sustainable development.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres noted the dramatic situation in his opening address to the Ministerial Segment of the HLPF on Tuesday, 13 July 2021:

“While the High-level Political Forum (HLPF) is intended to assess progress on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, we must face facts. Rather than progress we are moving away from our goals.”

Many speakers noted how the pandemic has exposed and exacerbated systemic inequalities and rolled back decades of progress, pushing more than 100 million people back into poverty. The IISD Earth Negotiations Bulletin report of main proceedings for 13 July 2021 summarizes how the ECOSOC President Munir Akram (Pakistan), UN General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir, the President of Indonesia Joko Widodo or Marta Lucía Ramírez Blanco, Vice President of Colombia described with their own words the dramatic situation which is exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.[1] The impact of COVID-19 on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda) and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), loomed large over the 2021 HLPF.[2]

Six years after adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, key questions remain on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). How do we get on track to end poverty and hunger, and transform towards inclusive and sustainable economies? How do we revamp and transform consumption and production and address and mitigate climate change? And what should we do about the 21 SDG targets that matured in 2020 and have not been fully achieved? These were some of the topics the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development addressed.[3]

Understanding the SDGs not only as challenge but as a way to cope with other challenges?

In spite of the sober assessment of the current situation politicians and experts used the HLPF right from the beginning to search for opportunities to overcomes crisis and bring the 2030 Agenda back on track. The message soon became clear: The 2030 Agenda is not only a challenge for Member States but it can be a tool helping to overcome current challenges.

For instance, UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) President Munir Akram (Pakistan) who opened the session, said that Member States must be guided by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on financing for development to face current challenges and use the HLPF to demonstrate our unwavering commitment to the 2030 Agenda. ECOSOC Vice President Juan Sandoval Mendiolea presented key messages from the ECOSOC Integration Segment, including restoring trust in institutions and rebuilding the social compact; leaving no one behind; eliminating inequalities; economic recovery guided by satisfying human needs and the environment; a new more equitable and sustainable model of development; global digital connectivity; high-quality reliable data; finance; and an improved ECOSOC.

One approach to search for better implementation was to ask how local authorities can be better supported. An entire special session of the HLPF was dedicated on the role of cities and local authorities in SDG implementation because many SDG targets can only be achieved through extensive local action. The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Council of Europe, emphasized that cities, towns, and regions need to have “the authority to act, the skills to implement, and the voice to share their experience.”

Speakers presented cases from several countries and they explained the value of conducting and supporting voluntary local reviews (VLRs), noting that:

they have advanced SDG implementation by translating the Global Goals into concrete community actions and solutions;
they enable direct engagement between the UN and cities, which are the best positioned level of government to inform policy on building back better from COVID-19;
they help a community reflect on efforts and identify challenges and areas that need attention; and
they can help dissolve “local silos.”[4]

Localization and mainstreaming SDGs to achieve goals

As it happens often at major conferences the more interesting discussions take place during side events. That's the way it was also at the online 2021 HLPF. While the official sessions were filled with formal reports and political statements some side events gave a glimpse on what needs to be done more concretely. One of these side events was the session “Accelerate Post-Pandemic Recovery and SDG Localization through joined up local action” organized by Local2030[5]. To accelerate SDG implementation at the local level, Local2030 brings together leaders from national, regional, and local governments, the United Nations, private sector, civil society, philanthropy and academia to collaboratively develop and implement solutions that advance the SDGs at the local level. The side event at the HLPF was co-organized with UN-Habitat and UNDP.

Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations underscored the importance of joint commitments at national and local level for localizing the SDGs and an inclusive, resilient and sustainable recovery. Maimunah Mohd Sharif, UN-Habitat Executive Director looked at the many challenges and said that it needs champions which lead the way and serve as inspiration and role model for others. Emilia Saiz of UCLG added in her statement that there is a need for a focus on service delivery. The impact of the work must become visible and it needs to be achieved in a multistakeholder partnership. Lara Blanco, Deputy Director of the Sustainable Development Unit in the Executive Office of the Secretary General talked about capitalizing on Covid 19. She set the tone by underscoring that goal achievement is not only a technical and financial challenges but that it has a human dimension: It needs compassion, empathy and solidarity to succeed.

In the side event’s segment on SDG monitoring and reporting for long-term development planning Shipra Narang Suri, Chief of the Urban Practices Branch at UN-Habitat and moderator of the segment explained that for excellent planning of action it needs data and information broken down to the neighborhood level. Amson Sibanda, Chief of the National Strategies and Capacity Building Branch UNDESA seconded but pointed to the fact that many Member States have insufficient capacities in their statistical offices and that the pandemic has put additional challenges to their work. Therefore, he called for building better statistical capacities. Of course, statistical offices can only monitor activities which happen and therefore, he also called for scaling up support for Member States to mainstream SDG in policies and to strengthen partnership at all levels.

In a nutshell the HLPF and especially its side event by Local2030 in an inspiring way made clear what it needs: Appropriate statistical, financial and human capacities at all levels and it needs compassion, empathy and solidarity because joined up partnership and action at the local and all other levels are the (only) chance to implement the 2030 Agenda and SDGs.

[1] This blog post is based on own observations by the author during online transmissions of sessions and on the reporting “2021 High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF 2021)” by the IISD Earth Negotiations Bulletin ENB. It includes report on each day of the HLPF.

https://enb.iisd.org/sdgs/HLPF2021

[2] IISD ENB report for 8 July 2021

[3] IISD ENB report for 6 July 2021

[4] http://sdg.iisd.org/news/local-sdg-action-reporting-get-higher-profile-at-hlpf/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=SDG%20Weekly%20Update%20-%2016%20July%202021&utm_content=SDG%20Weekly%20Update%20-%2016%20July%202021+CID_fbb6dc0aa9537099a6e0cd1cf6f9c677&utm_source=cm&utm_term=Read

[5] https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/partnerships/local2030

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Policies and Governance for Resilient and Sustainable Cities and Regions

Urban Sprawl as part of the solution for the affordable housing crisis in the USA?!

by Ulrich Graute • 14 April 2025

None of the following supports the idea that urban sprawl is required or even helpful to build sustainable cities. However, it is argued that it may be part of the solution for the crisis of affordable housing in many countries of the world. With this post, I would like to encourage a debate, eg, at the 61st ISOCARP World Planning Congress #WPC61 on 1-4 December 2025 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In 1976 and alarmed by rapid and uncontrolled urban growth, particularly in the developing world, the UN General Assembly called for the First United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat I) addressing the challenges and future of human settlements. Housing remained at the focus of the United Nations Human Settlement Programme UN-Habitat ever since, and this was reconfirmed at Habitat III in Quito 2016. The New Urban Agenda recognizes and promotes a "right to the city," meaning the right of all inhabitants to have equal access to the benefits and opportunities that cities offer. It emphasizes a vision where urban spaces are designed and used collectively for the benefit of all, including those in informal settlements. Yes a vision, but overall, the Agenda is not very strategic and invites more to raising picking instead of integrated problem solving. Meanwhile, cities keep struggling to cope with fast urbanization, migration and growing demand for larger apartments. Urban sprawl is criticized since the 1950s and 60s because of its large demand for land. No densely populated urban areas have higher costs for the water, energy and transportation grid. In addition, developers often focus on profitable housing development while they don’t care for urban infrastructure, public spaces, schools etc. The New Urban Agenda promotes urban density as a key strategy for sustainable and efficient urban development but that doesn’t help those who a looking for housing now. Conor Dougherty is the author of the book Golden Gates: The Housing Crisis and a Reckoning for the American Dream published on 10 April 2025 in the New York Times the article “Why America Should Sprawl. The word has become an epithet for garish, reckless growth — but to fix the housing crisis, the country needs more of it.” He doesn’t make any effort to paint urban sprawl in rosy colors. Instead, he describes how eg in Princeton, Texas, the nation’s third-fastest-growing city, infrastructure has struggled to keep up with growth. He analyzes how difficult and slow-moving densification efforts in cities are and states, “Even if all the regulatory restraints were removed tomorrow, developers couldn’t find enough land to satisfy America’s housing needs inside established areas. Consequently, much of the nation’s housing growth has moved to states in the South and Southwest, where a surplus of open land and willingness to sprawl has turned the Sun Belt into a kind of national sponge that sops up housing demand from higher-cost cities. The largest metro areas there have about 20 percent of the nation’s population, but over the past five years they have built 42 percent of the nation’s new single-family homes, according to a recent report by Cullum Clark, an economist at the George W. Bush Institute, a research center in Dallas.” For instance, Celina, Texas (picture), has 54,000 residents, compared with 8,000 just a decade ago, and the population is projected to hit 110,000 by 2030. The lack of urbane infrastructure, employment, greenery, and community is striking, but people keep coming because of affordability. While planners and others prefer denser and walkable neighbourhoods like 15-minute-cities, the money to build related infrastructure in addition to houses is often missing or would reduce affordability. A dilemma. There are good reasons to criticize the trend described for the US by Conor Dougherty, but it provides a chance to attain affordable housing for people who cannot find it elsewhere. And the history of these satellite towns has demonstrated that the missing infrastructure, employment and community can be added lateron. It seems, urban sprawl is not the solution, but it might be part of the solution, isn’t it? Let's discuss this here or later on other occasions, like eg the 61st ISOCARP World Planning Congress 'Cities & Regions in Action: Planning Pathways to Resilience and Quality of Life 1-4 December 2025, in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia #WPC61. Reference: Why America Should Sprawl. The word has become an epithet for garish, reckless growth — but to fix the housing crisis, the country needs more of it. By Conor Dougherty. The New York Times, April 10, 2025 https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/10/magazine/suburban-sprawl-texas.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

We need the United Nations to be part of the solution, not of the problem

by Ulrich Graute • 8 March 2025

Picture: UN photo

Anatomy of an AI System

by Ulrich Graute • 25 February 2025

Click to see the map in the full scale or download map in pdf format here https://anatomyof.ai/img/ai-anatomy-map.pdf.

About the challenge of providing advice on governance and development in times of disruption and transition

by Ulrich Graute • 22 February 2025

About the challenge of providing advice on governance and development in times of disruption and transition (English with German captatio ns) Deutsch: Ulrich spricht darüber, wie es ist, in Zeiten von Umbruch, Wandel und vielfachen Krisen als erfahrener Berater zu arbeiten. Obwohl die Situation nicht einfach ist, kann man daraus auch Chancen für effizientere Institutionen und Unternehmen sehen. Erfahrung und Flexibilität sind dabei wichtig, um neue Wege zu finden. English: Ulrich talks about working as an experienced consultant in times of upheaval, change, and multiple crises. Although the situation is not easy, we can also see opportunities for more efficient institutions and companies. Experience and flexibility are important to find new pathways.

Urban politics, planning and economy in the Global South in times of fast developing AI

by Ulrich Graute • 12 February 2025

"The development of highly capable AI is likely to be the biggest event in human history. The world must act decisively to ensure it is not the last event in human history. This conference, and the cooperative spirit of the AI Summit series, give me hope; but we must turn hope into action, soon, if there is to be a future we would want our children to live in." Professor Stuart Russell, IASEAI President and Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley Please join me on 13 February 2025 at ARCS 9.0 for my keynote on 'Urban politics, planning, and economy in the Global South in times of fast developing AI' The two weeks before my conference presentation were full of dynamics in the field of AI, its politics, and development. First came the launch of the 500 billion US$ Stargate Project in the USA, followed by the launch of the Chinese open-source large language model (LLM) DeepSeek. On 6 February the International Association for Safe & Ethical AI held its inaugural conference in Paris, France. Prominent AI scientists including Stuart Russel and the 2024 Physics Nobel Laureate Geoffrey Hinton called for international cooperation to ensure safe and ethical artificial intelligence. On 10 and 11 February 2025, France co-chaired by India hosted the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Summit in Paris. The speeches by Heads of State and Government including the President of France, the Prime Minister of India, the President of the EU Commission, and the US Vice President gave the impression of how different countries of the world try to position themselves in a race for AI leadership. Urban politics, planning, and economy, not only in the Global South, need longer-term frameworks. How should digital transformation and urban planning be approached in cities facing multiple crises and the new wave of AI technological innovation? The latter is according to the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others unprecedented in scale and speed but it is expected to affect all spheres of life. ARCS 9.0 schedule and Zoom link for Inaugural, plenaries and Valedictory. Date - 13th Feb to 15th Feb 2025 Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/95336599575?pwd=NExxgf8gBoubEfKRhhtbalM1ZYjQph.1 Meeting ID: 953 3659 9575

The 500 bn US$ Stargate Project - Places seem to matter more, Urban Planning and AI governance less or not at all

by Ulrich Graute • 22 January 2025

Source of the picture OpenAI: https://openai.com/index/announcing-the-stargate-project/

Learning to work hands-on for peace from former US-President Jimmy Carter

by Ulrich Graute • 1 January 2025

It was a tremendous privilege in my life to meet Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter for the first time in 1984 (picture) and then again in the summer of 1985 during my internship at Koinonia Farm near Americus, Georgia (USA). Jimmy Carter, who served as the 39th president of the U.S. from 1977 to 1981, died on December 29, 2024, at his home in Plains, Ga. Jimmy Carter was a lifelong farmer who worked with his hands building houses for the poor well into his 90s. I didn't agree with him on all issues (the early 1980s were the time of a new US missile deployment in Germany ordered by Jimmy Carter and a large peace movement against it) but he took the time to discuss it with me and others at Koinonia Farm. That alone was amazing. Even more mind-blowing was that he continued hands-on work on peacebuilding and house renovation for the poor around the world with Habitat for Humanity International well into his 90s. If in my career providing hands-on support became more important than climbing my own career path, this was also due to the example Jimmy Carter gave in the decades after his Presidency. I learned a lot from him about working for peace with humbleness, love, and perseverance. Read more in the New York Times about why Jimmy Carter was known as much for his charity and diplomatic work later in life as he was for his single presidential term, which ended in 1981. https://lnkd.in/d9qxSmTM *. *. *. *. * Note: This post was first published on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/posts/graute_learning-to-work-hands-on-for-peace-from-activity-7279396908270309376-BBjV?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

The United Nations risks drowning in its mandates, conferences and external expectations. Could Artificial Intelligence help the UN?

by Ulrich Graute • 2 December 2024

In 2024, for the first time since 2000, the Parties to the United Nations Rio Conventions on biodiversity, climate change, and desertification faced a very busy 3 months, moving from large Conferences of Parties (COP) in Cali (Colombia) for biodiversity in October to Baku (Azerbaijan) for climate in November to Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) for desertification in December. On top of this Triple-COP, there was the UN High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development and the UN Summit of the Future in September in New York (USA) while UN-Habitat held its World Urban Forum in Cairo (Egypt), and let’s not forget the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment (INC-5) which ended last weekend in Busan, South Korea. No real breakthroughs were reported but I noticed many promises to double future efforts. There is a lot that can be critically reviewed about the events, eg what’s the purpose of moving approximately 100.000+ delegates, UN staffers, and other participants worldwide if the necessary political will to agree and resources available are insufficient and the outcomes are limited accordingly? But such a critique would be a bit unfair since I don’t know how many new ideas and initiatives were born during those official meetings, side events, and informal chats that might bloom up in upcoming years despite of the multicrises we’re living in. What needs to be criticized is that the UN System is not progressing on its task to implement its many mandates more “synergistically” by targeting policies, programs, and initiatives to jointly address the goals of the Rio Conventions, SDGs, etc. Instead, the conferences referred to each other but worked mainly within their silos. This is not appropriate in a world full of interrelations and interdepensies. Well, no individual or group can follow up on every aspect, and swarm intelligence of conferences with thousands of participants each seems to be no functioning alternative. But what else could be done? To give an example: How about building an AI-based Large Language Model (LLM) trained with the UN Charter, all UN declarations, national and subnational resolutions, regulations, and programmes? AI Agents for the different conventions and agendas should then be asked to coordinate and propose “synergistic” proposals across policy levels. Of course, the use of artificial intelligence should be wisely supervised by a team of AI experts and professionals from all affected fields. I wouldn’t expect AI applications to solve all problems but to better inform decision-makers and UN agencies on integrated scenarios. This could help to increase efficiency, avoid duplicating efforts, and increase the overall problem-solving capacity of the UN. I would be happy to support such work with my governance and development experience across all policy levels. Picture source: https://www.iisd.org/articles/policy-analysis/cop-nature-climate-adaptation-mitigation

THE GLOBAL STAGE FOR CITIES AND REGIONS AT THE UN CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE BAKU (COP29), NOVEMBER 2024

by Ulrich Graute • 14 November 2024

Since the first climate COP in 1995, the Local Governments and Municipal Authorities (LGMA) Constituency has been representing local and regional governments at the processes under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The LGMA also represents ISOCARP - International Society of City and Regional Planners and Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments. ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability acts as the Focal Point of LGMA. The 2015 Paris Agreement marked a turning point, recognizing the essential role of these governments in enhancing Nationally Determined Contributions NDSs and driving transformative climate action. The LGMA is atively present in Baku with a robust agenda, numerous partners, and an esteemed delegation of political leaders representing local and subnational governments. At the center of the presence is the Multilevel Action & Urbanization Pavilion as the global stage for the city and region climate agenda during COP29. The Pavilion brings into focus not only the challenges and needs, but also the accomplishments and commitments of local and subnational actors on climate action. The Pavilion is open from 12 to 22 November in the Blue Zone, Area E, Pavilion I15. We are looking forward to welcoming you at the High-Level Opening on 12 November at 10:00 AM. Please find the agenda of LGMA attached. Please visit also the Youtube channel of ICLEI Global for daily updates https://lnkd.in/dddDCKtA Ulrich Graute - ISOCARP Online Delegate at COP29 and Chair of the ISOCARP Scientific Committee

Planning New Inclusive Cities using Smart Tech and Artificial Intelligence

by Ulrich Graute • 19 October 2024

Report on the Urban Conversation on Ethical Use of AI in Urban Planning at the 60th World Planning Congress in Siena, Italy on 11 OCTOBER 2024