ORU will present the regions’ positioning in Habitat III
ORU Fogar promotes the regional governments’ own positioning in the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development
With the intention of bringing the voice of intermediate governments to the Habitat III Conference, which will take place from the 17th to the 20th of October in Quito, Ecuador, ORU Fogar has promoted the adoption of the document “Regional Governments in Habitat III”, a territorial positioning which tackles topics such as the New Urban Agenda, the Sustainable Development Goals or the 2030 Agenda. The initiative, which will be adopted and presented during the UN-Habitat meeting, emerges from the need to demonstrate that regions also have a fundamental role in addressing sustainable development challenges; consequently, they deserve to be heard in this international debate which has a mainly urban approach.
ORU Fogar’s position paper claims that, in an increasingly globalised world, the debate on sustainable urban development also encompass the non-urban domain: “Today the urban world must take into consideration the territory where it is built, it feeds and it develops.. […] Regions, as intermediate territorial units between the central and the local power, offer the adequate dimension to define efficient and smart strategies to ensure balanced, inclusive and sustainable development”. The text argues that cities are inescapably associated with a territorial system –productive, alimentary, infrastructures, etc.- which goes beyond their urban demarcation. In the words of ORU Fogar’s President, Paúl Carrasco, “cities need the territory to be sustainable” and the government of reference is the regional government.
In this sense, the paper claims that regions play a key role in the New Urban Agenda. The text also raises the commitments that intermediate governments need to make towards the cities, like ensuring that the infrastructures and equipment provide structure to the whole territory, in a balance including from large cities to small rural villages, or like taking measures to compensate the differences and overcome the rural-urban division.
The position document will be submitted for approval to ORU Fogar’s General Assembly, which will meet on the 16th October in Quito, within the framework of Habitat III, hosted by the Consortium of Ecuadorian Provincial Governments (CONGOPE). After the adoption of the document, it will be officially presented in a press conference in the site of the Habitat III Exposition, in the stand of the Catalan Government and the Diputació de Barcelona. The event will take place on the 17th October at 13 h with the presence of authorities from ORU Fogar, the Catalan Government, the Diputació de Barcelona and CONGOPE.
Open to the public upon registration, all intermediate governments –regions, provinces and federal states– and regional network worldwide are invited to ORU Fogar’s General Assembly. Registration is now open at https://orugeneralassembly-quito2016.eventbrite.es
Related content:
The regions call for recognition in Habitat III. Press release by ORU Fogar 05/10/2016
Presentation of ORU Fogar and the regional governments' position paper in Habitat III. Press call by ORU Fogar, 05/10/2016
Regional Governments in Habitat III. ORU Fogar’s position. Position on Regional Governments by ORU Fogar, September 2016
The new Agenda 2030 takes effect. Article published by ORU Fogar, 22/01/2016
The UN approves a wide local and regional participation in Habitat III. Article published by ORU FOGAR, 25/01/2016
Habitat III: Estado de México presents the Toluca Declaration before the UN. Article published by ORU Fogar, 12/05/16
Regions have a message for Habitat III. Article by Paúl Carrasco, President of ORU Fogar. 25/05/2016
Registration for Habitat III is now open. Article published by ORU Fogar.29/06/2016
The presence of regions in Habitat III. Article by Abdelkébir Berkia, ORU Fogar’s Vice-President . 27/09/2016
