Opening of the United Nations Local2030 Coalition Secretariat in Bilbao

The Lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu has welcomed, on behalf of the Basque institutions and entities represented in the Multi-Agency Forum on Social Transition and Agenda 2030, the Secretariat of the Local Coalition 2030 and thanked the United Nations for choosing Bilbao to host this headquarters. The sixth floor of the Basque Historical Archive building in Bilbao will house the permanent headquarters of the Secretariat of the United Nations Local Coalition 2030. 

The presentation was held on 31 October, coinciding with World Cities Day (WCD), with the participation of Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary General of the UN Local2030 Coalition. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations and Chair of the United Nations Panel for Sustainable Development, Maimunah Mohd Sharif, Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) José Manuel Albares, Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, Juan Mari Aburto, Mayor of Bilbao, and Xabier Segrades, President of BBK, among other authorities and institutional representatives.

The Local2030 Coalition is the United Nations system-wide platform and network to support and accelerate the localisation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It brings together the UN system, local and regional governments and their networks, national governments, the private sector and community-based organisations to foster collaboration, incubate innovation, share solutions and implement strategies to help local actors achieve the goals of the 2030 Development Agenda. It is co-chaired by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), lead agency of the Secretariat, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), rotating co-chair for the period 2022-2023. You can read more about it here (available in Spanish).

The Local2030 Coalition Secretariat will energise the work of the Local2030 Coalition and advance the localisation of the SDGs within the UN and across territories and communities. Its partnership with the Government of Spain, the Basque Government, Bilbao City Council and BBK will maximise the Coalition’s transformative impact and strengthen its strategic and catalytic capacity. The aim is to jointly help local actors to build on existing localisation efforts and nurture partnerships that will generate innovative solutions for local action and impact. 

The opportunity to contribute to this initiative is strategic for Arantzazulab. By fostering partnerships  with other local stakeholders, the lab will promote new alliances between agents and strengthen multilevel governance networks to bring about change and impact in achieving the SDGs. Arantzazulab, in line with its mission as a centre for innovation in governance, will propose innovative tools for the involvement of citizens in the promotion of the 2030 Agenda, and will develop specific methodologies to open up the dialogue on the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda. In short, it will carry out actions to promote the involvment of civil society to accelerate achievement of the global goals and it will generate innovative solutions for local actions and impact in collaboration with other local agents (Kutxa Fundazioa, BBK Kuna, Unesco Etxea, etc.).