Dear friends and colleagues,

Thank you for all your support and contributions to the Local2030 Spotlight Series. 

Last week´s discussion has been inspiring. In case you missed it, you can view some of the messages that were shared by Penny Abeywardena, Commissionaire for International Affairs of New York City (USA) and Georgie Davis, Head Communications &  External Affairs at Reall here and here. 

For the second edition of the Local2030 Spotlight Series, we would like to invite you to share the experiences, challenges faced and solutions designed with regards to Urban Basic Services provision—including energy, water, sanitation, transportation and waste management—during the outbreak and its aftermath. 

How cities and communities are planned and their capacity to deliver quality services influence their resilience and the living standards of their inhabitants. However, the current COVID-19 pandemic and the response and recovery measures are endangering local governments’ capacities to deliver basic services—not least due to the severe impact on their budgets and the necessary restrictions on the movement of people, goods and services. 

This is even more true for poor and densely populated urban areas where access to energy, solid waste management, transport and water and sanitation are often already limited. For example, preventive measures such as physical distancing and frequent handwashing are harder for slum dwellers to respect, as they are more likely to lack in-house access to running water. 

Meanwhile, a lack of reliable access to electricity constrains the ability of affected households to earn a living—or for students to continue their education. Nevertheless, innovative and inspiring solutions are emerging and being developed—by local governments, utilities and service providers, civil society, businesses, and other local actors. By sharing these experiences and solutions, we can help each other—we invite you to let us know how you are addressing challenges related to urban basic services during the outbreak. 

• How is the pandemic affecting urban basic service delivery in your community? Which are the most affected areas?
• What main challenges has your community been facing and which are the most promising solutions that have been adopted?
• How are local governments working together with civil society and the community at large to ensure that services are being delivered?
• How to ensure that all have access to adequate sanitation, water, energy transportation and waste management, including those living in poor and crowded conditions such as slums and informal settlements.

How can you participate?

Record your video using your phone or camera and share it directly with us via Twitter or Dropbox!

• Local2030 Dropbox: Record your video and upload it by simply clicking on this link. Videos will be shared on the Local2030 YouTube channel and some also on the Local2030 twitter account.

NB: by uploading your video on Drobpox you are giving us your consent to republish it on our social media channels and use it as part of our advocacy efforts.

• Twitter: Record your video and share it on twitter using our hashtags! For this week’s Spotlight the hashtags are #Local2030 #SpotlightServices. Local2030 will retweet the most relevant videos and make your voice heard within the global community.

Should you want to participate to this week’s debate on Urban Basic Services, please upload your video by Thursday 14 May 2020.

When recording and uploading the video, please bear in mind the following requirements:

• Tell us your name, position and institution (include them in the video title or description if you are uploading the video on Dropbox)
• Length: Videos must be maximum 2 minutes length. 
• Resolution: maximum resolution is 1920 x 1200 or 1200 x 1900 
• Format: MP4 or MOV 
• Size: maximum file size is 512MB 

For any question related to your participation and technical support please contact martino.miraglia@un.org and maritza.formisano@un.org.

Should you want to know more about the work of Local2030, please visit our website and the dedicated page to Local2030 response to COVID-19.

Looking forward to receiving your videos and to your contribution to the Local2030 global debate!

Kind regards,

The Local2030 Team