UN-Habitat and UNOSSC commit to stepping up South-South cooperation on urban issue

https://unhabitat.org/sites/default/files/2020/07/final_press_release_on...

The MOU was signed virtually by the Executive Director of UN-Habitat, Maimunah Mohd Sharifand Director of UNOSSC and Envoy of the Secretary-General on South-South Cooperation, Jorge Chediek.

Building on their technical cooperation initiativesincludingpilot projects, UN-Habitat and UNOSSC have committed to increasing the mainstreaming of South-South cooperationinto the urban sector, involving governments, local authorities, the private sector and civil societyacross the Global South.

This will also include resource mobilization.

The MOU focuses on four interconnected areas:

(a) post-COVID-19 collaboration supporting cities in targeted developing countries;

(b) capacity development and horizontal learning;

(c) urban basic services focusing on water and sanitation; and

(d) advocacy and inter-agency collaboration in the promotion of the New Urban Agenda and urban-related dimensions of SDGs in the Global South.

UN-Habitat research shows that over 95 per cent of COVID-19 infections are in urban areas.

Over 1 billion people live in informal settlements and slums in overcrowded and inadequate housing,and 2.4 billion people lack adequate access to safe water and sanitation.

The effects of unplanned urbanization in different regions of the world have been exacerbated by the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, transforming the way in which cities operate and how citizens live, work, socialize and interact.

Cities and countries across the Global South have alsoseen a decline in international funding for development in recent years.

UN-Habitat’s Executive Director, Maimunah Mohd Sharifreiterated that the impactofCOVID-19 will be the most devastating in poor and densely populated urban areas.

“Urgent action is needed to help the most vulnerable urban populations to stay safe and healthy as measures to slow transmission such as physical distancing, self-quarantine or community-wide lockdowns are almost impossible in these overcrowded areas,” she said. 

Director of UNOSSC Jorge Chediekwelcomed thesigning of the MOU with UN-Habitat as a concrete follow-up to the outcome of the 2019 second High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation.

“We must seize this opportunity to scale up South-South and triangular sharing of policies, knowledge and solutions in participatory urban planning and management”, he said.

“Every local community, no matter its size, has valuable development knowledge to share.”

In light of the ongoing United Nations system-wide reform, South-South cooperation takes on greater significance, providing new means of achieving greater coherence as all stakeholders, including regional institutions and country teams learn from and work with one another across border