Urban Economy Forum 2020

The Urban Economy Forum in collaboration with UN-Habitat is organizing the second “Urban Economy Forum 2020” on the occasion of World Habitat Day on October 5th and 6th, 2020 in Toronto, Canada. Dr. Eduardo Moreno, Head of Knowledge and Innovation of UN-Habitat is the Honourary Chair of UEF 2020.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030. 17 SDGs were adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015 with the general goal of their realization by 2030. Although the SDGs were adopted by national governments, the globally agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are fundamentally relevant to local actors. We only have 10 years left to realize these goals. We need to take action now.

Urban economy and finance play a crucial role in realizing SDGs, in particular the urban SGD. SDG 11: “Creating sustainable and resilient cities”. To achieve this, the Urban Economy Forum facilitates a professional dialogue between cities and municipalities, financial institutions and banks, and the private sector in order to increase the efficiency of urban economy and create sustainable markets for development.

Following the Geneva Conference held at the UN Headquarters in 2016 on Municipal Finance and Urban Economy, the International City Leaders Platform for Municipal Finance and Urban Economy with the support of UN-Habitat organized the first Urban Economy Forum on October 28 & 29 2019. Urban Economy Forum 2019 was honoured to be supported by the Prime Minster of Canada, Justin Trudeau, with an opening message, and a keynote speech from the Honourable Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, Elizabeth Dowdeswell. This forum presented its final resolution in collaboration with UEF participants and agreed on recommendations that can be piloted by commercial banks and local governments in cities across the world.

Urban Economy Forum in 2020 will bring together expertise from a number of leading partners to shed light on key principles and strategies for the most innovative sustainable urban development solutions.

Financing the inclusive growth of cities and the livelihoods of their inhabitants are among some of the major challenges facing the cities and their leaders around the world. Creative approaches are required to build awareness across finance and government sectors to better design, build, and finance our cities as agents of development, with reference to the SDGs and the urban SDG in particular.