Executive bureau meeting (aspac and world secretariat)

Connecting Asia-Pacific through Local Leader Forum

Governors and Mayors and head of delegations expressed their commitment for the implementation of SDGs, NUA and Sendai Framework for Action.

HIGHLIGHTS Speaking of sustainability, communities, as the actors, are foundation and driver of every effort taken to reach the goal. Entering the implementation phase of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and New Urban Agenda (NUA), UCLG ASPAC in collaboration with Catbalogan City, the Philippines, invited members of cities and local authorities to discuss further through exchange knowledge forums in UCLG ASPAC Executive Bureau Meeting 2017, under the theme “Kauswagan Kalibutan: Creating Connections for Sustainable Societies,” from 4 to 7 April 2017.

UCLG ASPAC’s gathering in Catbalogan brought approximately 500 participants from more than 15 countries. Catbalogan, a small city with a total of 103,879 inhabitants, successfully hosted the international forum – a first for the city. The presence of 1,500 police, navy and army personnel during this gathering assured the security in the City.

Participants utilized the opportunity to share their local government’s or organization’s experiences on disaster management, localization of SDGs, implementation of NUA, promoting women in local governments, financing in local economic development and implementing several global agendas.

Adoption of Catbalogan Statement on Strengthening Connections for Sustainable Societies: Governors, mayors and head of delegations expressed their commitment to strengthening connections for sustainable societies and for implementing the SDGs, NUA and Sendai Framework for Action. The participants agreed to apply innovative solutions that would ensure participation and inclusiveness of people in development planning, implementation and monitoring, and ensuring development process is centered to the people’s interest and benefits the most for the people.

Moreover, they would support the adoption and continued improvement of Asia-Pacific Local Government Enabling Environment Rating deliberated at this conference, and to foster synergy with respective national governments in the use of this rating for supporting and improving local performance towards sustainable development.

Others were the importance of continuous effort in building together a repository of knowledge from the experiences of local governments across different countries in overcoming their respective development limitations through various inspiring innovations, policies and programs, and to utilize this pool of knowledge through peer-to-peer learning and exchange programs amongst cities and local authorities.

Lastly, UCLG ASPAC would continue strengthen local government associations and capacitate them for enabling greater society awareness and traction in support of the efforts to address local development challenges that we face together.

Pre-Conference Sessions

Secretary General of UCLG ASPAC delivered her remarks at the opening of the EE Workshop.

In line with the congress theme, UCLG ASPAC invited representatives of local government associations from 30 countries to present their assessment on Enabling Environment (EE) for local government of their respective country. Firstly introduced at the 6th Congress in Jeollabuk-do, South Korea, this assessment requires each LGA to conduct FGD in order to get the presented result. Included in the presentation is also an update of two additional criteria which was modified to fit the Asia-Pacific’s contexts. These are women participation in local government and environmental governance.

This EE project was conducted by UCLG ASPAC, Cities Alliance, and UNDP. Youth was also given space to speak on issues affecting their group during the Youth Conference. Hosted by Samar State University, the wellrepresented event saw participation of Mayor Emil Dardak, Co-President of UCLG ASPAC and Mayor of Trenggalek Regency, and Mayor Stephany UyTan of Catbalogan City, who themselves are young local leaders. The youth agenda and the future they want were highlighted at this conference. After hours of intensive discussions that left no critical issue for the youth unexamined, a Youth Declaration was proudly produced as the result of a collective effort. A summary of this was delivered by youth representatives at the closing dinner of the Executive Bureau Meeting as the foreign delegates listened intently.

As one of the efforts to advocate women leadership in public affair, UCLG ASPAC once again organized a Women Mayor’s Forum session that featured women’s contribution in public affairs. Together with women mayors from the Philippines, Mayor Illiza Sa’aduddin Djamal of Banda Aceh and Dato’ Maimunah of Seberang Perai took the stage to share their city’s policies on building gender responsive communities in relation to peace and security, disaster risk reduction, participatory budgeting, and also the important role of men in women’s empowerment. Shedding light on SDG 5, on achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls, was the specific target of the Forum. A symbolic display of commitment to SDG 5 was made with the signing of a statement, led by the women mayors.

Local Leaders Dialogue

Panelists of the Local Leaders Dialogue, Deputy Governor of Jakarta, Mayor of Seberang Perai, Mayor of Catbalogan and Mayor of Male, with Secretary General moderating the session.

Line-up of Asia-Pacific local leaders inspired participants in Asia-Pacific Conference. Mayor Tri Rismaharini of Surabaya disclosed her approach in embracing community, improving local infrastructure, and encouraging local innovation to support prominent business. Representing Jakarta, Oswar Mungkasa, Deputy Governor for Spatial Planning and Environment shared challenges faced by Jakarta and efforts taken to make the populous city

resilient, adaptive, and sustainable. He also showed RPTRA (Ruang Terbuka Terpadu Ramah Anak or Child-Friendly Integrated Public Space) video project developed by UCLG ASPAC and Jakarta, as one of the success stories of Jakarta in developing public space. Stephany Uy-Tan, Mayor of Catbalogan, also presented her success story in managing disaster; and Dato’ Maimunah, Mayor of Seberang Perai shared the importance of participatory budget planning to make her municipality cleaner, greener, safer, healthier and happier.

SDGs and New Urban Agenda Forum

Mayor of Taoaba of KiLGA (right), and Mayor of Tagum (left) highlighted challenges and opportunities in localizing SDGs and NUA.

In this event, Ajay Suri from Cities Alliance shared result of EE Rating. He showed how institutional environment of local government can contribute to achieve SDGs in Asia-Pacific. Mayor Taoaba Kaiea, Chairman of KiLGA, shared how Kiribati faced the challenge to implement SDGs. He highlighted the fact that as one of small islands country in Pacific Ocean, Kiribati is facing direct impact of climate change. Sea level rise is imminent. Allan L. Rellon, Mayor of Tagum, also presented their efforts in localizing SDGs and how to put it to city development agenda. The main conclusion of this session is to understand that SDGs and NUA are big commitments; however

it is not legally binding. Local governments impose this for the sake of ensuring future sustainability. Some local governments formulated programme based on their local development issues, then SDGs and NUA came to provide development corridor to further inform the process. There are also local governments making the SDGs and NUA as the orientations in writing their development plans and policies.

Financing and Local Economic Development Forum

Panelists of the Session shared how innovative financing could be instrumental in local development.

Emil Dardak, Mayor of Trenggalek, shared the economic and geographic condition of Trenggalek and how the regency focuses on maritime economy.

Bima Arya, Mayor of Bogor, presented how his office made great effort to transform his city’s image from traffic congested to green city and now become a city most visited in Indonesia. He said that local government of Bogor focused on changing the city and building many attractive tourism spots while supporting local economic empowerment. Asst. Secretary Mercedita A. Sombilla from National Economic and Development Authority of Samar Province, emphasized regional cooperation and presented The Philippine Long-Term Vision to help Samar Economic Authority guiding financing and local economic development for all cities in Samar Province.

The case in India was presented by Ravi Ranjan Guru, Senior Executive Director of AIILSG.

Motorcade, Exhibition and Thematic Field Visits

Foreign delegates joined the motorcade led by Mayor Stepany Uy-Tan of Catbalogan.

Catbalogan exhibition opening ceremony began with a motorcade. Followed by all participants, the convoy started from Samar Provincial Office, close to city hall, and moved around the town and passed several Catbalogan landmarks. Under the rain, all members felt excited and local people also enjoyed welcoming foreign delegates and the alternative music performance.

Together with Mayor Stephany, Secretary General and Co-President UCLGASPAC cut the ribbon at the Trade Fair Exhibition opening.

City of Catbalogan hosted two exhibitions at the same time in different locations. Trade Fair Exhibition was held near Catbalogan City Hall where participants could also learn and see 16 booths showing Catbalogan innovation and creative local market through information provided in their exhibition booths. Trade Fair Exhibition showcased many products, goods, and services in promoting food and the uniqueness of Catbalogan tourism.

The second thematic exhibition was Science Fair held in Samar State University. This exhibition opening was marked by ribbon cutting ceremony continued by touring to booths of several organizations. School and university also made use of this good opportunity to showcase their creativity and innovation. There were many souvenirs and giveaways for the participants who cheerfully visited the booths in between attending the exhibition sessions.

Executive Bureau 2017

President of UCLG ASPAC, Governor Won of Jeju chaired the ExBu Meeting.

The third day of the event was devoted to the Executive Bureau Meeting.

This meeting delivered fruitful decisions, such as establishment of two new committees (Belt and Road Local Cooperation and 21st Century Maritime Cooperation Committees), announcement of the next Chair of Standing Committee Women in Local Governments (Dato Maimunah of Seberang Perai), and approval of 5 new members (Iriga City, Malaysian Association of Local Authorities or MALA, Male City Council, Bogor City, and Vigan City).

Localization of Global Agenda In cooperation with partners, UCLG ASPAC organized side events focusing on localization of the Global Agenda that attracted huge number of participants, mostly local government officials from the Philippines. On localizing the Sendai Framework for Action adopted by the UN in March 2015, Sarah Wade-Apicella from UNISDR shared their current activity in developing simple reporting method to be applied by each country that has ratified Sendai Framework. This method is hoped to increase participation of countries in reporting on their progress on Sendai Framework implementation. UCLG ASPAC would be partnering with UNISDR to assist its members in reporting the implementation of Sendai Framework for Action.

Organized by League of the Cities of the Philippines (LCP), Bernadia Tjandradewi, Secretary General of UCLG-ASPAC, shared how UCLG ASPAC undertaking its roles in localizing SDGs, implementing NUA, and specifically responding to Climate Change. UCLG ASPAC developed various communication tools, the video on SDGs and the Road Map on the SDGs’ implementation. In addition, together with Jakarta City Province, UCLGASPAC has initiated to put 17 SDGs in Provincial’s Budget Planning 20182022. UCLG ASPAC has encouraged Local Governments Associations to raise awareness on these global agendas amongst its members and also supported them on learnings and capacity building programs for implementation.

Appreciation UCLG ASPAC would like to thank the City of Catbalogan, the people and apparatus under the leadership of Mayor Stephany Uy-Tan, for successfully hosting the Executive Bureau Meeting and various events, the first ever international forum hosted by the City, and all partners, Samar Provincial Government, the Central Government of the Philippines, the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP), Cities Alliance, UNISDR, CDIA, and many other international agencies for the support.

UCLG Executive Bureau Meeting

Members of the Executive Bureau of UCLG posed with Honorable King Felipe VI of Spain

ON world level, UCLG gathered its members, local and regional leaders from all sections, to jointly shape the future of this organization as worldwide local government representation. This is the first statutory meeting under Presidency of Parks Tau and was held on 18-19 April by invitation of Mayor Manuela Carmena of Madrid.

The meeting was preceded by discussion of UCLG’s role within global context. Its contribution to the international community is expected to be stronger as neither NUA nor SDGs can successfully be implemented without active participation of local government. One of the outputs is the extension of partnership between UCLG and European Union.

In the meeting, Parks Tau, clearly mentioned that now is the time for implementation. Points of discussion relating to SDGs, thus, shifted to updates and follow-up process. The discussion also addressed updates on the climate change and resilience agendas and policy statement on local governments and effective development.

Bernadia Irawati Tjandradewi, Secretary General of UCLG ASPAC, highlighted how local governments in the region may encounter limitations and challenges, in particular considering the fact that very few countries have national urban strategies. But the Section stressed its will to collaborate on the process and find synergies.

Deputy Governor Oswar Mungkasa expressed Jakarta's commitment on leading the Mobility's Community of Practice together with Strasbourg and in cooperation with Barcelona, Istanbul and Zhengzhou (China). It will be supported by three regional sections of UCLG, these are ASPAC, MEWA and Europe.

The meeting also covered issues on internal affair, including the recruitment of the Secretary General. It was also approved that the World Council 2017 would be held in Hangzhou; while the call for hosting the World Congress remains open until September.

At the end of the meeting, Madrid’s Commitment to Peaceful Cities was declared and covered 10 key commitments that encourage defense of human rights and confronting urban violence.