Urban 20: Creating cities for a galvanised international order

By Express News Service

The inaugural occasion of the Urban 20 Engagement Group was held in Ahmedabad on February 9-10, 2023. Urban 20, or U20, is among the many annual most influential city-level diplomacy initiatives. Receiving participation from Mayors and designated ‘City Sherpas’ from the G20 cohort, the deliberations at U20 inform G20 negotiations and are integral to the broader discourse round city improvement. 

The inaugural assembly was attended by greater than 70 delegates from 42 cities – the biggest recorded attendance for the reason that inception of U20!

It is becoming that India is anchoring the discourse on urbanisation and concrete dynamics this yr. Under the Modi authorities, India has more and more led motion on points of world governance. One such success story has been the transformation of our city areas which has now change into a blueprint for different nations to be taught from, notably within the Global South. 

This yr’s U20 goals to make clear the highly effective implications of insurance policies and practices adopted by cities on international improvement agendas. The inaugural assembly constructed on these themes by foregrounding the position of cities in financial prosperity and ecological concord. Significant progress was made on creating a consensus across the six precedence areas recognized.

The highest emphasis was given to the urgency of adopting environmentally accountable behaviours to cut back our carbon footprint. Secondly, conserving water assets and offering equitable entry to water assumed larger salience. Thirdly, there was an acceptance that local weather financing wanted to be accelerated as we sought to retrofit legacy infrastructure. Fourth, it grew to become crucial that we rethink regulatory and governance frameworks with a purpose to obtain strategic targets. Fifth, the favored demand to advertise native identities of cities to animate civic society was recognised. Lastly, it was deemed important to democratise processes that champion the usage of know-how and knowledge.

City representatives expressed their solidarity in taking ahead this collaborative agenda. This sixth version of the U20 has morphed right into a platform that goals to equip metropolis governments to shut the hole between coverage and apply by translating deliberations on city governance into on-ground options. As ‘Chair City’ of the U20, Ahmedabad led by instance because it expounded on the improvements adopted in creating the Sabarmati riverfront and the important thing options of its reasonably priced housing coverage and heritage administration plan, amongst different reforms.

Ahmedabad encapsulates the spirit of citizen-oriented rejuvenation that India has embarked upon. In the final 9 years, the Modi authorities has undertaken the biggest deliberate urbanisation programme on the planet, based mostly on cooperative and aggressive federalism; universalisation and saturation of primary companies; technological innovation; financial alternative; and a rural-urban continuum. Our city transport insurance policies are designed to fulfil the commitments of the Paris Agreement by including inexperienced mobility choices to India’s city panorama. Various transformative city missions have resulted in Indian cities poised to assist the nation obtain its financial and SDG targets.

It is broadly acknowledged that the onus of attaining SDG targets will lie with cities. In the case of India — which can have greater than 600 million individuals residing in its cities by 2030 I’ve usually mentioned, “if India succeeds, the SDGs will succeed; and for the SDGs to succeed, India must succeed.” I don’t doubt that India will succeed and can present the remainder of the world how creating economies can sort out international challenges. The proof of our city capabilities lies in how we overcame the pandemic regardless of our populous cities being severely affected. Through measures resembling decentralised healthcare, direct money transfers, common service supply and reasonably priced rental housing, India demonstrated a governance strategy that acquired international adulation and led to current requires replication. 

At a time when the world is beset with geopolitical battle, monetary uncertainty and climatic stress, we should coordinate and calibrate coverage responses from the bottom native stage to the very best international gathering. As the oldest and largest democracy, it’s within the Indian DNA to realize consensus amongst various opinions. From this ethos, the theme of this yr’s G20 summit emanates: ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – One Earth. One Family. One Future.’

G20 2023 has the potential to be the crucible from which a framework for mutually helpful and sustainable worldwide financial cooperation will emerge. I imagine U20 Ahmedabad would be the vanguard for this spirit of collective motion to take form in our cities. With steady steering from the G20 Secretariat, the National Institute of Urban Affairs, which is the U20 Technical Secretariat, and data companions from throughout the globe, I’m satisfied that Ahmedabad’s stewardship will improve the impression of this sixth version of U20.

I commend the City Sherpas who contributed meaningfully to the inaugural U20 occasion. I hope Mayors, Sherpas and representatives from cities will proceed to take part within the 2023 U20 cycle main as much as the Mayoral Summit in July. 

As we pursue the shared purpose of a affluent and sustainable world, this sixth version of the U20 has the distinctive alternative to construct a roadmap that may inform city insurance policies for years to return.

HARDEEP SINGH PURI
Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs, and Petroleum and 
Natural Gas

The inaugural occasion of the Urban 20 Engagement Group was held in Ahmedabad on February 9-10, 2023. Urban 20, or U20, is among the many annual most influential city-level diplomacy initiatives. Receiving participation from Mayors and designated ‘City Sherpas’ from the G20 cohort, the deliberations at U20 inform G20 negotiations and are integral to the broader discourse round city improvement. 

The inaugural assembly was attended by greater than 70 delegates from 42 cities – the biggest recorded attendance for the reason that inception of U20!

It is becoming that India is anchoring the discourse on urbanisation and concrete dynamics this yr. Under the Modi authorities, India has more and more led motion on points of world governance. One such success story has been the transformation of our city areas which has now change into a blueprint for different nations to be taught from, notably within the Global South. 

This yr’s U20 goals to make clear the highly effective implications of insurance policies and practices adopted by cities on international improvement agendas. The inaugural assembly constructed on these themes by foregrounding the position of cities in financial prosperity and ecological concord. Significant progress was made on creating a consensus across the six precedence areas recognized.

The highest emphasis was given to the urgency of adopting environmentally accountable behaviours to cut back our carbon footprint. Secondly, conserving water assets and offering equitable entry to water assumed larger salience. Thirdly, there was an acceptance that local weather financing wanted to be accelerated as we sought to retrofit legacy infrastructure. Fourth, it grew to become crucial that we rethink regulatory and governance frameworks with a purpose to obtain strategic targets. Fifth, the favored demand to advertise native identities of cities to animate civic society was recognised. Lastly, it was deemed important to democratise processes that champion the usage of know-how and knowledge.

City representatives expressed their solidarity in taking ahead this collaborative agenda. This sixth version of the U20 has morphed right into a platform that goals to equip metropolis governments to shut the hole between coverage and apply by translating deliberations on city governance into on-ground options. As ‘Chair City’ of the U20, Ahmedabad led by instance because it expounded on the improvements adopted in creating the Sabarmati riverfront and the important thing options of its reasonably priced housing coverage and heritage administration plan, amongst different reforms.

Ahmedabad encapsulates the spirit of citizen-oriented rejuvenation that India has embarked upon. In the final 9 years, the Modi authorities has undertaken the biggest deliberate urbanisation programme on the planet, based mostly on cooperative and aggressive federalism; universalisation and saturation of primary companies; technological innovation; financial alternative; and a rural-urban continuum. Our city transport insurance policies are designed to fulfil the commitments of the Paris Agreement by including inexperienced mobility choices to India’s city panorama. Various transformative city missions have resulted in Indian cities poised to assist the nation obtain its financial and SDG targets.

It is broadly acknowledged that the onus of attaining SDG targets will lie with cities. In the case of India — which can have greater than 600 million individuals residing in its cities by 2030 I’ve usually mentioned, “if India succeeds, the SDGs will succeed; and for the SDGs to succeed, India must succeed.” I don’t doubt that India will succeed and can present the remainder of the world how creating economies can sort out international challenges. The proof of our city capabilities lies in how we overcame the pandemic regardless of our populous cities being severely affected. Through measures resembling decentralised healthcare, direct money transfers, common service supply and reasonably priced rental housing, India demonstrated a governance strategy that acquired international adulation and led to current requires replication. 

At a time when the world is beset with geopolitical battle, monetary uncertainty and climatic stress, we should coordinate and calibrate coverage responses from the bottom native stage to the very best international gathering. As the oldest and largest democracy, it’s within the Indian DNA to realize consensus amongst various opinions. From this ethos, the theme of this yr’s G20 summit emanates: ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – One Earth. One Family. One Future.’

G20 2023 has the potential to be the crucible from which a framework for mutually helpful and sustainable worldwide financial cooperation will emerge. I imagine U20 Ahmedabad would be the vanguard for this spirit of collective motion to take form in our cities. With steady steering from the G20 Secretariat, the National Institute of Urban Affairs, which is the U20 Technical Secretariat, and data companions from throughout the globe, I’m satisfied that Ahmedabad’s stewardship will improve the impression of this sixth version of U20.

I commend the City Sherpas who contributed meaningfully to the inaugural U20 occasion. I hope Mayors, Sherpas and representatives from cities will proceed to take part within the 2023 U20 cycle main as much as the Mayoral Summit in July. 

As we pursue the shared purpose of a affluent and sustainable world, this sixth version of the U20 has the distinctive alternative to construct a roadmap that may inform city insurance policies for years to return.

HARDEEP SINGH PURI
Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs, and Petroleum and 
Natural Gas