The Road from Guangzhou: What’s Next for the Global Vision | Urban Action Program
By: Alexandra Hiniker, Program Director, Global Vision | Urban Action
As we enter the fourth year of our Global Vision | Urban Action platform, the Mayor’s Office for International Affairs continues to demonstrate what the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be — a common language for cities to exchange and develop strategies for a more just and sustainable world.
The SDGs are a collection of 17 goals affirmed by world leaders at the United Nations in September 2015. They address a range of challenges, including poverty, inequality, climate, environmental protection, prosperity, and peace and justice. All countries seek to achieve these goals by 2030.
By demonstrating parallels between the SDGs and the OneNYC strategy, the Mayor’s Office for International Affairs uses the SDGs as a framework to discuss shared challenges and opportunities with people across the globe. We’ve conducted site visits, hosted events, and even became the first city in the world to report to the UN on our local progress towards these global commitments.
In recognition of our efforts, NYC was presented the Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation in December 2018. Out of 213 cities in 70 countries that applied, 15 finalists were invited to Guangzhou to present projects. Together with my colleague Dan Steinberg from the NYC Mayor’s Office of Operations, I was honored to present Global Vision | Urban Action on behalf of NYC. Dan helps oversee NYC’s performance data management and is a key collaborator on this program.
The discussions in Guangzhou showed how cities, regardless of size or location, can use the SDGs to connect. Representatives came from six continents, with city population ranging from 57,000 to nearly 11 million people. Despite these differences, we identified concrete ways that we could learn from each other.
Though the conference was technically a competition, there was a spirit of camaraderie and a genuine commitment to collaboration. While presenting their participatory approach to informal settlement upgrading, the representatives of eThekwini (Durban), South Africa, reminded us of a proverb that quickly became an informal theme of the conference: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
Using the framework of the SDGs, the 15 cities connected seemingly disparate issues such as transportation, immigration, and waste management. Dan and I welcomed the opportunity to learn from the other cities, asking many questions and taking copious notes throughout the presentations.
There were a few examples that stood out to me. Representatives from Santa Ana, Costa Rica, explained their strategies for strengthening communities by empowering women to ride bicycles. The Mayor of Repentigny, Canada, shared ways she’s making Repentigny a “City for All” by establishing a multimedia lab for youth in libraries. The Mayor of Surabaya, Indonesia, presented her administration’s engagement with constituents on waste management: Residents use plastic bottles for public transit fare and the city repurposes old flip flops to make running tracks.
In 2019, we look forward to strengthening NYC’s engagement with cities that share our commitment to finding equitable solutions to some of the world’s toughest challenges. The SDGs are an unprecedented opportunity to learn how we can better serve our own constituents.
If you are a city representative interested in joining the conversation, please e-mail us at globalurban@cityhall.nyc.gov.
If you’re a New Yorker, we encourage you to share suggestions for addressing our city’s greatest challenges by filling out this survey. Your input will inform efforts to update and expand OneNYC, our city’s blueprint for creating a stronger, fairer, and more resilient city.
