The voices of local and regional governments across the world will be amplified during Indonesia’s G20 presidency through U20, Secretary General of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) World Emilia Saiz emphasized.
“We will ensure your voices are amplified,” Saiz remarked during the U20 international seminar on “Climate Change, The Pandemic and Economic Recovery” held online here on Thursday.
Urban 20, or U20, is a key instrument for the local and regional governments towards the international community and, in particular, the national governments that are designing how to link national priorities with the global objectives of worldwide agendas.
“Local and regional governments feel that we have a lot to say. We want to influence the priorities. We want to show what our views are to address our challenges that are affecting our world in these difficult times,” she explained.
U20 is an initiative chaired by the cities of Buenos Aires and Paris that feeds the global agenda of national governments with local perspectives during the discussion of G20, she added.
Saiz highlighted her intent to see how far the cities, representing countries that are active in the G20, also reach out to the world through the network of organized local and regional governments.
“It is very critical to ensure that the voices of local and regional governments are organized and how the international community can also understand how important service provision is to be prioritized,” she stated.
Saiz also expressed optimism that Jakarta Governor Anis Baswedan and West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil would demonstrate how critical the local and regional governments are for the global agenda.
“We hope that you would be able to inspire the conversation that we are going to have later this year,” she remarked.
Source: Antara News