Catalyzing Local Action: Advancing the Localization of the SDGs through Innovative Financing
Background
As the 2030 Agenda deadline approaches, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) demands more than national strategies — it requires bringing the SDGs to life with solutions emanating from the territorial level, where people’s needs, priorities, and ambitions take root and are best identified. Cities and territories are where sustainable development succeeds or fails.
The Government of Spain, host country of the FFD4 Conference, is championing multilateralism and the localization of SDGs both at the national and local levels and in global Fora. As such, it is hosting the Local2030 Coalition, the UN system-wide platform for the localization of the Agenda 2030, and supporting the Joint SDG Fund, which drives systemic transformation toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through integrated programming focused on identifying and supporting innovative policies and financing solutions. Spain is also supporting politically, technically, and financially efforts to localize development finance, through the elaboration and promotion of approaches and tools to support the localization of sustainable development at all levels.
Building on the principles of the Bilbao Blueprint— jointly developed by the UN Joint SDG Fund, Local2030 Coalition and Basque Government — this session, convened by the Spanish Cooperation, will showcase how a whole-of-UN work with innovative and inclusive financing approaches can be systematically channeled to empower local systems to deliver transformative, measurable impact.
The discussion will be situated within the global financing for development reform efforts under FfD4, and the growing call to facilitate and strengthen existing local capacities, governance, and access to finance to accelerate SDG implementation at the community level.
This session will also serve as a launching pad for continuing efforts on localization post a successful Local Finance Design Sprint, that brought together in May a diverse group of experts and stakeholders from eight countries to co-create financing solutions for subnational food systems and green economy transformation. It continues to build a roadmap of action for the co-creation of bankable and scalable financing solutions grounded in country needs and territorial multi-stakeholder participated ecosystems.
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Agenda:
Keynote Address:
Hon. Eva Granados Galiano, State Secretary for International Cooperation, Government of Spain
Opening Segment: Contextualizing Localization as Critical for SDG Financing
- Ms. Anaclaudia Rossbach, Executive Director of UN-Habitat
- Mr. Ander Caballero, Secretary General of Foreign Affairs, Basque Government
Presentation of the Bilbao Blueprint and Outcomes from the Design Sprint
- Mr. Sebastien Vauzelle, Head of the Local2030 Coalition Secretariat
- Mr. Steven Stone, Deputy Director of Industry and Economy Division of UNEP
Roundtable: Scaling Local Finance – Challenges, Innovations, and Next Steps
- Moderator: Javier Cortés Fernández, Director of eLankidetza, Basque Government
- Nepal - Ms. Hanaa Singer, United Nations Resident Coordinator
- Cabo Verde- Mr. Gilson Pina, National Director of Planning, Ministry of Finance
- Basque Country - Mr. Asier Aranbarri, Director of the 2030 Agenda of the Presidency Bureau
- Colombia – Ms. Eleonora Betancur González, Director of the Presidential Agency of International Cooperation
- Zanzibar – Mr. Aboud Hassan Mwinyi, Deputy Permanent Secretary, President’s Office Finance and Planning Closing Reflections Toward a Localized Financing Future
- Hon. Nialé Kaba, Minister of Economy, Planning, and Development of Ivory Coast
