Photo credits: @AChMChile .
UCLG participated actively in the summer school organized by the Association of Local Governments of Chile (AChM) that took place from January 21 to 25 in Santiago, Chile. The event brought together 45 mayors and councilors for a week to work together on the location of the SDGs. The initiative was carried out with the support of ECLAC (Economic Commission for Latin America), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Chile, FLACMA, the Canadian Association of Municipalities (FCM) and United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG).
Local governments and their associations are precursors in the process of locating the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) throughout the world. Many local leaders are committed to achieving the 2030 Agenda and their policies are based on the principles of the SDGs. This implies the consideration of the SDGs in their strategic policies and the introduction of participatory processes to involve a wide variety of actors. This was the commitment that also emerged from the meeting of the summer school in Santiago de Chile.
The UCLG learning team was present at the event and helped guide the participants during two days of sharing methods and practices for the alignment of the SDGs with the planning of sustainable development according to each local reality. In these sessions, which involved the central government of Chile and local actors such as the city of Santiago, the strategic planning unit of Buenos Aires, the National Confederation of Municipalities of Brazil (CNM), the Local Government Associations of Bolivia and Canada, UNDP In Chile, Chilean and Bolivian advisors and technicians were also present, where a combination of knowledge, skills and political commitment has been guaranteed.
The different participants, in particular the UNDP Chile, demonstrated (according to the Human Development Index) that, despite being economically stable, inequality in Chile is still very high. To address this, summer school participants worked with the local participatory planning tool "Pladeco ", applied by many of the municipalities in Chile, thinking of a space where local action around the SDGs could be made visible.
The summer school had the active participation of the participants and was a perfect opportunity for the UCLG learning area to share for the first time in Latin America its new learning module " Territorial planning to achieve the SDGs ". In this module you can find interactive methodologies, exercises for the debate on the SDGs, the evaluation of local competencies and the alignment of the objectives in practical actions around the public space, which allowed participants to focus on local realities. Participants developed concrete ideas for specific messages around the instruments, improved governance mechanisms to overcome the sectoral focus of central government mandates and how to better involve all stakeholders in the participatory process
Through ACHM, the CNM and other national associations in Latin America, Latin American members are actively contributing to the global strategy of localization of the SDGs and have shared their concerns on other issues, such as water scarcity and exposure to water. Risk, as well as their experience in resilience or sustainable energy.
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