Press Release

February, 2021

Urban Economy Forum Launch Highlights the Importance of Urban Recovery, Practical Approaches and Local Communities in a Post COVID-19 World

February 2021 Toronto, Canada – The 3rd Urban Economy Forum (UEF), UEF 2021, was launched during the first Steering Committee Meeting. UEF 2021 is currently set to be held both physically and virtually on October 4 & 5, 2021 on occasion of World Habitat Day. 

The Forum will honour the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development, 2021 which is based on United Nation’s Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 19 December 2019. 

This annual forum is jointly organized with UN-Habitat and concentrates on advancing local and global understanding on sustainable urban resources. The forum works to create global dialogue on urban economy and municipal finance to identify innovative solutions and practical examples to achieve the 17 SDGs, with particular focus on SDG 11. UEF, as a global knowledge exchange hub aims to bring urban stakeholders under one platform to collectively work together toward sustainable urbanism. 

Frank D’hondt, Secretary General of ISOCARP emphasized the importance of UEF to continue to advance global agenda and bridging shared connections and priorities between UEF, ISOCARP and UN-Habitat. These organizations can work alongside each other to help implement solutions, exchange experiences and build up knowledge in a collaborative way. He said, “Global agendas can be implemented in a local contextualized way because while we embrace those global tools, global frameworks, the only sustainable way is the localized, contextualized application where people are at the center, where they are not the subject but they are leading, you don't plan for people but with the people”. 

Importantly, everyone must come back to the Global Agenda for Sustainable Development and integrate social conditions, health and just conditions in everything, the world will be better for it and UEF will help us move that direction, said Eduardo Moreno, Director of Knowledge and Innovation, UN-Habitat. 

This year, UEF 2021 will focus on leading dialogue about world urban recovery with particular emphasis on housing as one of the main mechanisms to achieve urban prosperity in this post-COVID-19 world. 

Throughout the meeting, housing was seen as an opportunity to facilitate urban recovery in the post COVID-19 world. However, the Steering Committee agreed that it’s important to not put aside other global challenges that exist at the local level. The pandemic has taught that the climate emergency is going to be graver than what has been predicted. We need to act as if there is such an emergency and tackle the issues of housing, said Lisa Helps, Mayor of Victoria, Canada. 

Soo Ing-Moody, President, Association of Washington Cities & Mayor of Town of Twisp, USA also pointed out that UEF 2021 is a great opportunity to rethink theories and implementation and think about them from the ground up and what are local solutions that can help us better imagine our current urban paradigm. Mayor Jan Vaapavouri, Helsinki provided practical insight on how cities can lead good practices to leading urban challenges through strong and collaborative policies. He Highlighted that Helsinki has a well-functioning housing system and one of a few cities in the world to have reduced long-term homelessness. This was larger a result of strong governance and commitment by local government to follow a path of affordable housing for the last 30 years. 

The committee also emphasized the annual forum’s importance to engage and involve communities in this dialogue. “The Forum should facilitate transformational change in the lives of people it is seeking to serve”, said Adam Vaughan, Parliamentary Secretary to Minster of Families, Children and Social Development. He highlighted the importance of starting the conversation from low-income communities and informal settlements where climate change and other inequalities have their biggest impact. 

However, while engaging communities it is also important it is not just a conversation but clear action as well, said Martina Otto, Head of Cities, UNEP. UEF is ready to lead this conversation as well. 

The UEF 2021 Steering Committee includes representation from across the global including Brazil, Canada, United States, UK, Mexico, Kenya, India, China, Australia among a number of other countries. The Steering committee was selected to include a diverse range of expertise, experiences and inclusivity. 

You can find more information about the 3rd Urban Economy Forum at www.ueforum.org/uef-2021