Venice City Solutions 2030 HUB of Local4Action HUBs

This concludes the third edition of Venice City Solutions 2030 which, as always, leaves us with many stimuli and ideas to reflect on. Listening to the innovative experiences of the Local4action Hubs, it is clear that local governments have perceived the challenge they face: they feel the full responsibility not to waste what has already been achieved in cities around the world and has proved valuable in terms of achieving the SDGs. As a community of local authorities, we need to transform every single precious drop of water into a refreshing spring, to fertilize our planet, which is drying up, and not only in a technical sense. Therefore, the experiences of the local Hubs dedicated to the SDGs must be perfected and we must all strive to multiply their effects. We are faced with a challenge that is both political and technical in nature: political in terms of our role as local authorities, which requires us to be recognized as key players in the forums where decisions affecting territories and communities are made. We are always present in international initiatives, but we are not always seated at the tables of decision-makers: at the HLPF we are heard and we participate, but I think of the COP on environmental issues, or in ministerial fora where local authorities have no decisionmaking power, and I think that these local workshops on the SDGs can also help us to make visible and make known what we already know how to do. The technical aspect, which is related to the political one, concerns the obvious need, which emerged during these two days, to be able to communicate in a more effective way, to tell about all the successful initiatives. This helps to gain accreditation with central governments, but also to infect other cities and regions of the world in replicating the best actions. Why has Venice City Solutions 2030 become the hub of the world’s SDGs hubs? The motivation does not lie in the fact that our lab was born before the others; but the reason goes back to the motivation of our hub: a craft lab, a place of knowledge where everyone works concretely for the good of the global community and where everyone is welcome, whatever kind of actor they represent, from whatever sector they come from, because the strength that unites us comes from the ideas shared among people with different cultural backgrounds. Our strength lies above all in having understood that we can work together, with a common language, which is the 2030 Agenda, in a shared laboratory that is confronted not only in the two days of events in Venice but throughout the year, and that represents an open and unconditioned place, recognized by the institutions, but at the same time autonomous in the expression of the results that are produced, which are mostly the sum of the achievements of our partners. What can Venice City Solutions 2030 do for all the other Hubs? Create a platform for the exchange of best practices among the Hubs, giving them the necessary visibility, but above all the possibility to replicate the virtuous actions and ensure the continuity of the laboratory work. To conclude, Venice City Solutions 2030 will continue to work as in an orchestra, where the symphony requires the perfect synchrony of all musicians, where all instruments are equally important in their role, and whose outcome depends on the ability to coordinate efforts so that no sound can prevail over the others. As Agenda 2030 teaches, Venice will support the synchronization of local Hubs without leaving anyone behind. The world is sound, is vibration, according to Hinduism. So let’s use this symphony to try to change the world starting from our cities and our local government workshops on the SDGs. A Burkina Faso proverb says: “If ants work in full accord, they can move even an elephant.” Let’s move elephants together!

Carla Rey Secretary General AICCRE