Regions claim for more space in the New Urban Agenda

ORU Fogar promotes the regional governments’ own positioning and organizes a Side Event in Habitat III 

With the aim of introducing the intermediate governments’ voices in Habitat III, a debate that was mainly urban, ORU Fogar promoted the adoption of the document “Regional Governments in Habitat III”. That was one of the main initiatives, intended as a vindication, regions brought to Quito with the objective of really being taken into consideration within the framing of the New Urban Agenda.

The position document argues that cities, in order to be sustainable, inescapably depend on a territorial system, beyond their urban delimitation. It was adopted by ORU Fogar’s members in the Extraordinary General Assembly held on the 16th of October 2016 in Quito, one day before the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development. Hereafter it was officially presented in the Habitat III Exhibition, through a press conference convened at the Catalonia’s stand by the new President of ORU, Abdessamad Sekkal, together with the attending authorities from CONGOPE, the Government of Catalonia and Barcelona’s Provincial Government. 

Side Event in Habitat III

Those same institutions participated in the Side Event that ORU and the Government of Catalonia organized on the 17th of October in Habitat III. Untitled “Integrated and Balanced Territorial Development. The added value of regional governments towards the New Urban Agenda”, it included the participation of ORU’s new President Abdessamad Sekkal; the Deputy Prefect of Azuay’s Province, María Cecilia Alvarado; the President of Barcelona’s Provincial Government, Mercè Conesa; the Territory and Sustainability councilor from the Catalan Government, Josep Rull; Roberto San Salvador, Director of the Chair “Cities Lab” at the University of Deusto in representation of the Environmental and Territorial Policy Councilor at the Basque Government, Ana Oregi; and Jordi Solé, Secretary of Foreign and European Union Affairs at the Catalan Government.

All of them presented concrete cases on “good practices” within their corresponding administrations, linked to housing and sustainable development, such as the new territorial law that is being developed in Catalonia in order to recycle soil or the mission program `Connectem´ implemented by Barcelona’s Provincial Government, which foresees a sustainable and balanced territorial model.

Alternative agenda

Besides its own activities, ORU Fogar participated in a variety of parallel events such as the seminar “Intermediate Governments: between local and national” within the so called Alternative Habitat 3 organised by CONGOPE, or the first meeting of Intermediate Governments Associations from the Union of South American Nations (USAN). All of ORU’s events in Habitat III and the pressure exerted to have the regional governments taken into consideration were a success, although the Conference concluded with a clear regional message: regions have not yet reached the deserved recognition in the New Urban Agenda and they will keep on working towards that goal.

Related content:

Photo album of ORU Fogar's participation in Habitat III

ORU Fogar renews the Presidency. Article published by ORU Fogar, 21/10/2016

ORU Fogar's Agenda in Habitat III. Article published by ORU Fogar, 10/10/2016

ORU Fogar and Catalonia organize a Side Event in Habitat III. Article published by ORU Fogar, 07/10/2016

ORU will present the regions' positioning in Habitat III. Article published by ORU Fogar, 27/09/2016