“High-Level Panel – Reviewing the State of Safety in Cities: Partnerships and Solutions for Localized Implementation”

Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning and welcome to this “High-level Panel - Reviewing the State of Safety in Cities: Partnership and Solutions for Localized Implementation”. This gathering is an opportunity to recognize the vital role of cities in forging a safer world and to nurture the partnerships and solutions needed to support implementation. As Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, it is my pleasure to represent and speak on behalf of International Geneva today. Director-General Michael Møller is away this morning and regrets he cannot be with us, but he looks forward to learning about the outcome of today’s discussion. I would like to thank UN-Habitat and the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform, as well as the Members of the Core Group, for making this event possible.

At the dawn of this century, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that humanity had entered an “Urban Millennium”, one in which cities would be at the forefront of peace, development and globalization. Sixteen years later, his words ring true: our collective future is urban. Today, over half of humanity – some 3.5 billion people – live in cities, making them hubs of commerce, culture, science, and so much more. The gravitational pull of cities will only grow in the decades to come, with nearly 60 percent of the world’s population expected to live in them by 2030.

While it offers many opportunities, urbanization also brings serious challenges as communities must find ways to foster prosperity without straining resources or the environment. This is particularly challenging in developing countries, where 95 percent of urban expansion is expected in the next decades. In these states, the frenetic pace of urbanization often overtakes the development of the infrastructure, institutions and norms that make it possible to tackle pollution, the provision of basic services and safety, just to name a few challenges. While these realities are particularly pronounced in developing countries, they are also at work in their developed counterparts. When left unaddressed, these factors exacerbate inequalities, foster marginalization and contribute to a general mistrust of public authorities. These developments in turn fuel urban crime, violence and insecurity.

Globally, one in five people has been a victim of violence and crime, with 60 percent of all urban residents in developing countries falling victim at some point. Women, young people and those without secure land rights are particularly at risk. Too many women feel unsafe in cities, with insecurity limiting their ability to work or reach their full potentials. Some marginalized youths, meanwhile, have been radicalized in urban settings, where many terror attacks have also taken place. Crime and insecurity have real impacts on urban economic development. The United States is estimated to lose 3.5 percent of its gross domestic product to criminal activity, while the regional estimate for Central America is eight percent.

Making sure that the cities of tomorrow are safe places of opportunity for all requires a holistic approach, one that places prevention front and centre by focusing on the drivers of criminality, marginalization and radicalization. In 1996, UN-Habitat established the Global Safer Cities Programme, recognizing that good governance, reducing urban vulnerabilities and safer cities are interdependent. Since then, the Programme has implemented safety and security efforts in 77 cities and towns in 24 countries. Lessons learned from this experience have been integrated into our collective roadmap for sustainable development: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Although one of its goals – number 11 – focuses squarely on sustainable urbanization, targets that are fundamental to urbanization can be found in nearly every goal. Building on the vision of the 2030 Agenda and the best practices drawn from the Safer Cities Programme, world leaders adopted in October 2016 at the Habitat III Conference in Quito the New Urban Agenda, which sets global standards for rethinking how we plan, manage and live in cities.

Now that we have the SDGs and the New Urban Agenda, the stage is set for implementation. And while national governments have a central role to play, “localized” implementation at the grassroots level is fundamental. The lessons learned from decades of development work are conclusive: solutions cannot be imposed top-down. Solutions must be based on the needs of local communities. They must be owned by local stakeholders. They must be open to bottom-up initiatives. They must not “leave anyone behind”. By their very nature, municipalities are well-suited to “localized” implementation and must be front-and-centre if sustainable development is to succeed. According to UN-Habitat, as much as 65 percent of the effectiveness of an intervention rests on action or inaction at the local level. One reason for this is accountability. Public pressure is often strongest felt at the local level. Another is accessibility. City officials are often the closest of any government officials to the grassroots. They are better placed to forge multi-sector partnerships inside and outside frontline government offices and to enrol civil society as co-producers of security.

That may be well and good, but why should municipalities care about the SDGs and the New Urban Agenda? For two reasons. First, they are ready-made policy frameworks that are universally endorsed and accompanied by a monitoring framework. Municipalities can now go straight to implementation. Second, they open doors to technical and financial assistance, as well as new partnerships, which are critical to tackle urban challenges holistically.

This is why today’s event is particularly important. This High-level Panel is the first of a biennial conference that aims to foster stronger partnerships between the various stakeholders in urban development: local and national governments, international organizations, academia, civil society, the private sector and many others. The eventual goal is to establish a Geneva Cities Forum that would ensure commitments to sustainable development and urbanization in the years to come.

The choice of Geneva is particularly well-suited as it is the natural home for multistakeholder, holistic approaches on a vast range of issues. The shores of Lake Geneva are home to over 100 UN and other international organizations, 178 representatives of Member States, some 400 NGOs, a dynamic private sector and prominent academic institutions.

Allow me here to elaborate on the contributions of UNECE to sustainable urban development. The ECE Committee on Housing and Land Management works to promote energy efficient and adequate housing; compact, inclusive, resilient, smart and sustainable cities; and transparent and efficient land use. The UNECE Housing and Land Management Unit provides the secretariat to the Committee and supports the activities it carries out as agreed in its programme of work. This work is based on key United Nations policy documents on housing and urban development, including the Geneva UN Charter on Sustainable Housing and, more recently, the New Urban Agenda, which is the outcome of the Habitat III Conference. The Committee's activities support the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the achievement of the sustainable development goals on topics of sustainable housing, urban development and land administration, namely SDGs 1, 5 and 11.

To support sustainable urban development at national and local levels, the United Smart Cities project was launched in 2014 to address the major urban issues of medium-sized cities in countries with economies in transition. The project supports the development of smart sustainable city profiles at the request of interested national and local authorities. I take this opportunity to announce that the Committee on Housing and Land Management is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year; you are all cordially invited to attend the Committee session, including its ministerial segment, on 8 and 9 November 2017.

But Geneva is more than the sum of the individual actions undertaken by any entity. It’s also home to a cooperative mentality. It is a veritable laboratory, where the proximity of actors fosters collaboration, deep institutional knowledge is shared and parties are willing to experiment, to sometimes fail, but ultimately to make breakthroughs. Relevant initiatives born in Geneva include the United for Smart Sustainability Cities, a partnership between UNECE and the International Telecommunications Union that promotes the use of information and communication technologies to build smart sustainable cities. Geneva is also a place where the links between seemingly unrelated topics are made. Take human rights and urban safety. In its latest session, the Human Rights Council has taken up the issue of human rights in urban settings, recognizing the unique challenges facing human rights and the links between the defence of human rights and sustainable urban development.

Finally, Geneva is unique for its convening power. Its ability to routinely bring together actors at the grassroots. Take the field of health. It is astonishing that no cases of Ebola transmission surfaced in Geneva during the devastating outbreak that ravaged parts of West Africa from 2014 to 2016. Astonishing when you consider the constant movement of experts, health workers and volunteers to and from the region to Geneva. In this way, Geneva offers a unique platform for both horizontal and vertical collaboration.

Seventeen years into the “urban millennium”, we now have a roadmap to urban sustainability – the 2030 Agenda – and mileposts – the New Urban Agenda. It is now time for us all to come together – as partners and collaborators – to travel down the road to implementation. As we do so, we must never forget that implementation will ultimately be carried out on the ground. That we have to be responsive to the lessons learned and wisdom of those who face these challenges at the grassroots every day. We cannot help others if we are not willing to listen and learn, if we are not willing to help empower local communities, to empower our cities.

Thank you.