President of ECOSOC,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,
Governors, and Mayors,
Welcome to the 2025 Local and Regional Governments Forum of the High-Level Political Forum.
In a world facing complex, interconnected crises, your role in driving sustainable development has never been more critical. This forum is our essential platform to review and amplify the local and regional efforts in driving the 2030 Agenda forward.
I extend profound appreciation to our partners — the Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments, UN-Habitat, UNDP, and the Local2030 Coalition.
This year 2025 is a crucial year for multilateralism, marked by cascading challenges and crises. Yet, we witness powerful examples of multilateral cooperation stepping up, demonstrating its continued relevance and impact.
The 2025 UN Ocean Conference in Nice brought together over 12,000 participants, mobilizing global actions to protect marine ecosystems and fostering transformative commitments and partnerships for a more sustainable ocean. The wave of commitments by national and sub-national governments, alongside diverse stakeholders, emphasizes a vital truth: no ecosystem can thrive without strong local stewardship.
Similarly, at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in Sevilla, Member States made significant commitments to strengthening subnational finance, including enhancing local and regional authorities’ technical, technological and human resource capacities, to allow for improved accounting systems and reporting mechanisms, as well as supporting local governments in infrastructure asset management.
The 'Sevilla Commitment' introduced bold and innovative measures, such as developing municipal bond markets and promoting stable and transparent intergovernmental financial transfer systems and equalization mechanisms. These are not abstract policies—they are concrete tools to help close the over 4 trillion US dollars SDG financing gap.
Both conferences proved that global goals can be achieved through local action and inclusive engagement across all levels, affirming the strength and adaptability of multilateralism.
Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,
The urgency is clear. With only 5 years remaining and just 35% of SDG targets on track or showing moderate progress, we must accelerate our efforts.
Leveraging the direct proximity to the people, cities and regions have the power to drive change across food, energy, digital access, education, social protection, and climate resilience.
My Department, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, is honoured to work alongside Member States and local governments to advance the localization of the 2030 Agenda.
Our support spans a range of areas - including cooperation and capacity building for the preparation of Voluntary Local Reviews; enhanced infrastructure asset management; strengthened national-to-local public governance for SDG implementation; digital transformation and the application of DESA’s Local Online Service Index; and improved availability of disaggregated data, including geospatial data.
Together with UN partners, DESA has led a series of policy briefs on SDG localization, covering service delivery, data, climate action, and local government finance.
Looking ahead, the Second World Summit for Social Development in Doha in November offers a key opportunity for local and regional governments to share solutions that advance poverty eradication, decent work, and social inclusion. We hope to see a strong representation from this sector in Doha.
I wish you a productive and inspiring meeting. The outcomes of your discussions are essential for shaping a sustainable and equitable future for all.
Thank you!