The UfM launches the First Platform on Sustainable Urban Development

Brussels, 9 November 2017. In efforts to take concrete steps towards implementing the UfM Urban Agenda, the UfM Secretariat organised the First UfM Regional Platform on Sustainable Urban Development in Brussels on 9 November 2017. Gathering high-level government  representatives of the 43  UfM Member States as well as key institutional and financial partners, the Platform provided a good opportunity to discuss innovative and sustainable solutions, promote better knowledge and best practices on common urban development priorities, and identify new projects that would be replicated in the region.

The UfM Regional Platform on Sustainable Urban Development will be followed on 10 November 2017 by the kick-off Meeting of the UfM-IFIs Project Committee, which will bring together key financial partners to exchange views on the funding of priority projects and initiatives in the region.

Earlier this year in Cairo, at the Second UfM Ministerial Conference on Sustainable Urban Development, Ministers in charge of housing, municipal affairs and urban development from the 43 UfM Member States adopted a comprehensive and operational UfM Urban Agenda for the Euro-Mediterranean region. The UfM Urban Agenda represents an action-oriented roadmap for the future. It is aimed at addressing the multi-faceted challenges of the region, both at local and regional levels, through an integrated and holistic approach, as well as at ensuring urban sustainability and resilience with a greater socio-economic impact on the ground, thus improving the quality of life of the peoples of the Mediterranean region.

STATEMENTS

UfM Deputy Secretary General Ihab Fahmy: “Today’s meeting is the first concrete step towards implementing the UfM Urban Agenda through a well-structured multi-stakeholder framework for dialogue and technical cooperation, which will take Euro-Mediterranean cooperation in urban sector a leap forward.  The UfM Secretariat will continue its active contribution to strengthening regional cooperation and to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly but not limited to SDG 11, towards a more sustainable Urbanization in the Euro-Mediterranean region and a better future for its peoples“.

MORE INFORMATION

Second UfM Ministerial Conference on Sustainable Urban Development (Cairo, 22 May 2017) – Declaration