Localizing the SDGs: Does the SDG Implementation Require a Reform of the Way the United Nations works? (3/4 posts)

Ulrich Graute • 12 January 2021

3. Local actors call for a seat at the table of international decision-makers to improve SDG implementation

Local authorities are key to SDG implementation but struggle with their low visibility in inter-governmental dialogues and decision-making

Where is the main work to be expected for implementing the SDG? Cities will have to carry a major if not the main load considering that most of the pollution is generated in urban areas. Not even the life in our oceans can be protected (SDG14) without cities stopping to flush their plastic and other pollutants into the oceans. At the same time, and as described in the first post of this series, local and regional authorities have at the level of the United Nations only an observer role without any decision-making competence.

In 2014 and 2015, I accompanied the Governing Mayor of the Berlin, Michael Müller to attend Habitat III PrepComs in New York and Nairobi and then Habitat III in Quito in 2016. In Germany, the Mayor of Berlin is a high-ranking representative. He has a seat and voting right at the Upper House (Bundesrat). Due to the ranking of the city as a region its Governing Mayor is involved in law making at the national and regional level. In addition, in New York, Nairobi and Quito he acted as Vice President of Metropolis - the global network of major cities and metropolitan areas. In this function he represented more than 140 metropolitan cities or approximately 10 % of the world population. That sounds impressive. However, at the level of UN intergovernmental bodies he was acknowledged just as a non-state actor without diplomatic rank. His slots to speak weren't confirmed until 30 minutes before the meetings began but to keep the chance of speaking on behalf of the cities he had to take the risk of travelling around the world without any guarantee of a speaking right at official meetings.[1]

And the speaking assignments were carefully minced. The first picture below shows in 2014 in New York the overall attendance at the plenary of the first preparatory conference (PrepCom) for Habitat III, the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development to be organized in 2016 in Quito. That's where you got visibility. The two following pictures show that the Governing Mayor of Berlin and Vice President of Metropolis got only a small speaking slot at a side event downstairs in a small conference room with less than 25 attendees. There you didn't get much visibility.

... Oh, I can't continue writing this without astonishment....

Hidden as the event on 16 September 2014 was in the basement of the UN Headquarters it was called "High-Visibility Event". Somebody definitely showed humour.

[1] Ulrich Graute (2016) Local Authorities Acting Globally for Sustainable Development, Regional Studies, 50:11, 1931-1942, DOI: 10.1080/00343404.2016.1161740

Picture 1: PrepCom1 Plenary with approximately 300 participants; picture 2: Berlin's Mayor and other local representatives; picture 3: UN officials including Joan Clos (USG, UN-Habitat) plus Emilia Saiz of UCLG at the 'High visibility' event for mayors-

Ok, but side-lined and hardly visible as the mayor was as a non-state representative he used his speech to propose a strengthening of the role of cities:

"As a representative of METROPOLIS and as Mayor of Berlin, I am convinced that decentralisation and subsidiarity are important principles of governance. Therefore, I agree with the decision to develop these new global goals at an international level and to leave sufficient flexibility for member states to develop their own implementation mechanisms.

But, I am also convinced of the need to recognise local authorities. Decentralisation should go hand in hand with an acknowledgement by the international community of local authorities and their democratically elected representatives.

It is a good tradition that mayors of major cities and other local leaders have a voice at a national level, where urban development and local governance are concerned. And there is no reason to limit their voice to the national level, if urban development is also an international issue - as is the case with the Sustainable Development Goals and Habitat III."

The immediate impact of his speech was limited but the voice of local authorities was slowly getting more attention. When the Governing Mayor attended the second PrepCom for Habitat III in spring 2015 in Nairobi he gave his presentation not in a small room but at a plenary session. This growing recognition was not achieved by him alone but it was an element in the tireless soft but constant advocacy by the Global Taskforce GTF, UCLG, Metropolis, ICLEI and other networks. And now after a few years of slow progress in SDG localizing and implementing it is them again who stimulate the discussion on a stronger role for local authorities within the UN system.

ICLEI's blueprint to enhance UN collaboration with local and regional governments

ICLEI is the association representing 1750 local governments for sustainability. The association is member of the Global Taskforce for Sustainable Development GTF mentioned in the first blog post. Frustrated by the slow progress of SDG localization and the limited role of local authorities therein ICLEI presented in September 2020 the draft of "A blueprint to enhance United Nations collaboration with local and regional governments".[1] With the document the network is calling for an inclusive new generation of multilateralism that addresses COVID-19 pandemic, responds to climate emergency and adopts a new deal for nature:

Local and regional governments must be at the heart of this new United Nations. Multilateralism is only as strong as the sum of its parts, and the participation of cities and regions in global processes – true multilevel participation – ensures that the voices of diverse communities around the world can be heard. A new generation of inclusive multilateralism that fosters and incorporates multilevel collaboration has the potential to strengthen collective global action at a time when it is greatly needed.

The blueprint is composed of four cornerstones for multilateral collaboration. The cornerstones are presented as a holistic approach to an inclusive multilateralism and each cornerstone is one level of interaction under this approach:

1. Global engagement through annual high level consultations with the Chief Executives of the UN System

2. Regional engagement through increased collaboration between the UN Regional Commissions and UN Host Cities

3. National engagement with the UN Country Coordinators through national associations and Local2030 hubs

4. Local engagement, by mobilizing additional resources to champion local and regional governments engaged in the work of the UN

The approach is pragmatically aiming at intensifying communication between the UN system, local governments and their associations including the above mentioned Global Taskforce. The blueprint asks for structural amendments and additional financing for increased collaboration but aims for the near future more at a gradual reform of the existing UN. ICLEI presented this proposal in September 2020 as work in progress. A full proposal is scheduled to be presented for adoption at the ICLEI World Congress on 14-17 April 2021 as well as to the Global Task Force of Local and Regional Governments.

[1] https://talkofthecities.iclei.org/a-blueprint-to-enhance-united-nations-collaboration-with-local-and-regional-governments/

GTF and UCLG: Leapfrogging into the age of a transformative sustainability by making territories and local communities central players in decision-making

The Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments (GTF) and United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) acting as secretariat to the Taskforce took in fall 2020 an extraordinary step: Although involved since years in the nitty-gritty work of UN committees they took a step aside, ignored the current UN system for a moment and envisioned "The Role of Local and Regional Governments in the Future Global Governance of the International System"[1]. The result is refreshing, forward-looking and bold at the same time.

In the introductory chapter Making the Case the authors of the report point to the fact that the current pandemic has shown that our world can change in only a few months and how difficult it is to imagine a world in 5 months from now. And they use this unpredictable future to envision a scenario on their own:

The post COVID-19 pandemic recovery processes will be third and most important moment to determine whether the UN will be able to unite the people once again in harmony with the places and the planet they live on. Our choices will define whether cities and nations will be able to minimize social and economic damages and, at the same time, leapfrog into the age of a transformative sustainability for human societies and the planetary ecosystems that have been striving to nourish over the past couple of decades. (page 7)

The above paragraph is immediately followed by describing what the GTF and UCLG aim at:

We call for a more comprehensive system, one that acknowledges the realities of an urbanized and decentralized world, that puts service provision at the forefront and that takes care of those who take care of us. This can only be done by recognizing cities, territories and local communities as central players in decision-making. The question we are tackling here is the kind of system with the capacity to bring about the transformation that our communities are calling for. (page 7)

The authors imagine a future in which the seat at the global table for cities and regions is guaranteed, securing and enabling an impactful and permanent link between our communities and the world's global institutions. This would put an end to waiting of mayors for a speaking slot. In addition, the authors imagine a shift from an internationally dominated system to one that has cities and territories at the core. All this would reflect a new era of bottom-up and locally appropriate approaches and responses to global challenges. And multilateral organizations would look directly at local and regional governments for appropriate guidance (p. 18). This indeed would put the current UN system upside down.

Bold as the vision is it is envisioned for 2045 only. Thus, it is not a call for an immediate change which would not immediately impact the current Agenda 2030. Taking more time may be a wise decision because the vision is not a blueprint for implementation. It is modern vision as it addresses most of the current economic, social, environmental and political challenges but it also raises new questions, as will be discussed later in this paper.

The authors imagine a future in which the seat at the global table for cities and regions is guaranteed, securing and enabling an impactful and permanent link between our communities and the world's global institutions. This would put an end to endless waiting of mayors for a speaking slot. In addition, the authors imagine a shift from an internationally dominated system to one that has cities and territories at the core. All this would reflect a new era of bottom-up and locally appropriate approaches and responses to global challenges. And multilateral organizations would look directly at local and regional governments for appropriate guidance (p. 18). This indeed would put the current UN system upside down.

Bold as the vision is it is envisioned for 2045 only. Thus, it is not a call for an immediate change which would not heavily impact the current Agenda 2030. But let's learn from the past. As mentioned in the second post of this series, the fact that the successes and failures of the 6400 Local Agenda 21 initiatives in 183 countries have not been evaluated makes it under Agenda 2030 more difficult to choose the most promising path to localize SDGs. This mistake should not be repeated and therefore the current Agenda 2030 should be continuously monitored, it should be improved wherever possible and the future should be prepared.

In the next and final blog post of the series on 'localizing SDG' to be published later this week and based on the first three posts I want to reflect on what should and could be done within the next years.

[1] https://www.global-taskforce.org/sites/default/files/2020-09/LRGs_Visioning_UN75_Report.pdf - accessed on 24 September 2020

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Policies and Governance for Resilient and Sustainable Cities and Regions

The UN making itself redundant – the case of the United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat)

by Ulrich Graute • 20 May 2025

The UN is in a deep financial and political crises. UN chiefs in the UN Secretariat have been instructed to cut jobs on the regular budget by 20 percent. That will have major impacts also on UN-Habitat as it is a programme in the Secretariat. What would you do in this situation? UN-Habitat will present its Draft Strategic Plan for the period 2026-2029 for approval by the UN Habitat Assembly on 29 and 30 May 2025. (see attached document). Knowing that the UN is not in charge to build new cites and houses in member states, what would you put into the plan? In front of the financial and political crises it probably would make sense to describe a real strategy beginning with a problem description, analysis of own potentials to achieve goals and end with a result-based plan on how to achieve specified goals by 2029. As part of this you probably would draw conclusions from foresight trend studies on urban and territorial planning and consider new technology developments like artificial intelligence. UN-Habitat should reflect on potential impacts of eg AI on city development, urban economy and social cohesions in a transforming cities. The attached UN-document is in traditional UN style. It begins by referring to UN resolutions and mandates related to the Programme as. Then it discusses global challenges and -don’t be surprised- picks housing out of the many challenges and calls it a focus for the work until 2029. That seems to be a smart choice because already in 1976 governments recognised the need for sustainable human settlements and the consequences of rapid urbanisation and mandated the new UN Programme to focus on this subject. Unfortunately, the new strategic plan for 2026-2029 is still just process-oriented and not a result-based policy document. For friends of the toolbox, paragraphs 23-26 provide a tour de table of the subjects UN-Habitat will address. After that the document tries to describe how all this will be addressed with the strategic focus on housing. Followed by a lengthy discussion of means of implementation the document describes what is the difference between impacts, outputs and results, but here it stops: the text falls short in providing any checkable result indicators. No regional specification of the plan is provided as if the world would be everywhere the same. Strategic goals even in the field of housing remain blurry and show no strategy to achieve them. UN-Habitat doesn’t argue what value the programme will deliver for money. They could do this for different scenarios, depending on the level of funding by member states. But they don’t even try. In conclusion, The Programme basically promises more of the same but calls it focused and strategic. And Artificial Intelligence? According to the Strategic Plan AI will be a non-issue for cities and other human settlements in 2025-2029. It’s not even mentioned.

There is no alternative to keep building a world community 80 years after World War II

by Ulrich Graute • 8 May 2025

The UN will be put on life support for a while to keep from drowning and gain time for reform. It is likely that In face of the financial and general support crises of the United Nations member states will put the UN on a life support system to keep core functions running. That may gain time but the real UN reform requires nothing less than building a new boat while being on an open and stormy sea. There is much talk about UN reform. Out of panic, there are plans to shrink the UN, cut salaries and shuffle staff around to duty stations which are assumed to be cost-saving. And this in a time of multiple crises, with every day emerging issues and conflicts. Have you every tried to build a new boat on open sea while you sit in an old boat in danger of sinking? That’s the kind of situation the UN and its members are in. The elephant in the room is the future of the world as a community At a conference in Toronto, I learned that the natives in North America are used to plan seven generations ahead. Imagine our politicians would do that! Automatically, they would be forced to think beyond their own lifetime. All of a sudden, the future of the community would be more important and this community would have multiple identities: the identity of the smallest entities (family), neighbourhood, city, region, country and the even the identity of a world community because we humans share all resources in the world and depend on it. Unfortunately, people are also afraid of it because building this community takes time and it is not without risks and possible setbacks. Instead, there is a growing trend to scramble as many resources and power as possible under one leader to bring the own group in the best starting position for a possibly upcoming final fight for survival. Could we survive that? Probably not and certainly, the world would be in a worse condition after that. Some super-rich may survive in a space station on Mars for a while before they realise that they manoeuvred themselves into a dead-end. Germany demonstrated to the world what happens if the world retreats from global community building. My uncles and grandfathers fought in two World Wars that killed a total of about 50 million people in an effort to make Germany great again. Thanks to the Allied Forces this ended 80 years ago on 8 May 1945. Japan went on fighting for a while and gave up after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The slaughtering was so massive that it convinced the countries of the world to establish the United Nations. Today we take this world community (with all the flaws it has) for granted as a stabilisation anchor of the world. But it is an illusion. Without putting skin into the game and investing in its reform, the slaughtering may return. Thus, there is no alternative to jointly building the world community for future generations. SO, LET'S KEEP BUILDING A PEACEFUL AND JUST WORLD COMMUNITY THAT LEAVES NOBODY BEHIND.

Urban Sprawl as part of the solution for the affordable housing crisis in the USA?!

by Ulrich Graute • 14 April 2025

None of the following supports the idea that urban sprawl is required or even helpful to build sustainable cities. However, it is argued that it may be part of the solution for the crisis of affordable housing in many countries of the world. With this post, I would like to encourage a debate, eg, at the 61st ISOCARP World Planning Congress #WPC61 on 1-4 December 2025 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In 1976 and alarmed by rapid and uncontrolled urban growth, particularly in the developing world, the UN General Assembly called for the First United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat I) addressing the challenges and future of human settlements. Housing remained at the focus of the United Nations Human Settlement Programme UN-Habitat ever since, and this was reconfirmed at Habitat III in Quito 2016. The New Urban Agenda recognizes and promotes a "right to the city," meaning the right of all inhabitants to have equal access to the benefits and opportunities that cities offer. It emphasizes a vision where urban spaces are designed and used collectively for the benefit of all, including those in informal settlements. Yes a vision, but overall, the Agenda is not very strategic and invites more to raising picking instead of integrated problem solving. Meanwhile, cities keep struggling to cope with fast urbanization, migration and growing demand for larger apartments. Urban sprawl is criticized since the 1950s and 60s because of its large demand for land. No densely populated urban areas have higher costs for the water, energy and transportation grid. In addition, developers often focus on profitable housing development while they don’t care for urban infrastructure, public spaces, schools etc. The New Urban Agenda promotes urban density as a key strategy for sustainable and efficient urban development but that doesn’t help those who a looking for housing now. Conor Dougherty is the author of the book Golden Gates: The Housing Crisis and a Reckoning for the American Dream published on 10 April 2025 in the New York Times the article “Why America Should Sprawl. The word has become an epithet for garish, reckless growth — but to fix the housing crisis, the country needs more of it.” He doesn’t make any effort to paint urban sprawl in rosy colors. Instead, he describes how eg in Princeton, Texas, the nation’s third-fastest-growing city, infrastructure has struggled to keep up with growth. He analyzes how difficult and slow-moving densification efforts in cities are and states, “Even if all the regulatory restraints were removed tomorrow, developers couldn’t find enough land to satisfy America’s housing needs inside established areas. Consequently, much of the nation’s housing growth has moved to states in the South and Southwest, where a surplus of open land and willingness to sprawl has turned the Sun Belt into a kind of national sponge that sops up housing demand from higher-cost cities. The largest metro areas there have about 20 percent of the nation’s population, but over the past five years they have built 42 percent of the nation’s new single-family homes, according to a recent report by Cullum Clark, an economist at the George W. Bush Institute, a research center in Dallas.” For instance, Celina, Texas (picture), has 54,000 residents, compared with 8,000 just a decade ago, and the population is projected to hit 110,000 by 2030. The lack of urbane infrastructure, employment, greenery, and community is striking, but people keep coming because of affordability. While planners and others prefer denser and walkable neighbourhoods like 15-minute-cities, the money to build related infrastructure in addition to houses is often missing or would reduce affordability. A dilemma. There are good reasons to criticize the trend described for the US by Conor Dougherty, but it provides a chance to attain affordable housing for people who cannot find it elsewhere. And the history of these satellite towns has demonstrated that the missing infrastructure, employment and community can be added lateron. It seems, urban sprawl is not the solution, but it might be part of the solution, isn’t it? Let's discuss this here or later on other occasions, like eg the 61st ISOCARP World Planning Congress 'Cities & Regions in Action: Planning Pathways to Resilience and Quality of Life 1-4 December 2025, in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia #WPC61. Reference: Why America Should Sprawl. The word has become an epithet for garish, reckless growth — but to fix the housing crisis, the country needs more of it. By Conor Dougherty. The New York Times, April 10, 2025 https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/10/magazine/suburban-sprawl-texas.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

We need the United Nations to be part of the solution, not of the problem

by Ulrich Graute • 8 March 2025

Picture: UN photo

Anatomy of an AI System

by Ulrich Graute • 25 February 2025

Click to see the map in the full scale or download map in pdf format here https://anatomyof.ai/img/ai-anatomy-map.pdf.

About the challenge of providing advice on governance and development in times of disruption and transition

by Ulrich Graute • 22 February 2025

About the challenge of providing advice on governance and development in times of disruption and transition (English with German captatio ns) Deutsch: Ulrich spricht darüber, wie es ist, in Zeiten von Umbruch, Wandel und vielfachen Krisen als erfahrener Berater zu arbeiten. Obwohl die Situation nicht einfach ist, kann man daraus auch Chancen für effizientere Institutionen und Unternehmen sehen. Erfahrung und Flexibilität sind dabei wichtig, um neue Wege zu finden. English: Ulrich talks about working as an experienced consultant in times of upheaval, change, and multiple crises. Although the situation is not easy, we can also see opportunities for more efficient institutions and companies. Experience and flexibility are important to find new pathways.

Urban politics, planning and economy in the Global South in times of fast developing AI

by Ulrich Graute • 12 February 2025

"The development of highly capable AI is likely to be the biggest event in human history. The world must act decisively to ensure it is not the last event in human history. This conference, and the cooperative spirit of the AI Summit series, give me hope; but we must turn hope into action, soon, if there is to be a future we would want our children to live in." Professor Stuart Russell, IASEAI President and Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley Please join me on 13 February 2025 at ARCS 9.0 for my keynote on 'Urban politics, planning, and economy in the Global South in times of fast developing AI' The two weeks before my conference presentation were full of dynamics in the field of AI, its politics, and development. First came the launch of the 500 billion US$ Stargate Project in the USA, followed by the launch of the Chinese open-source large language model (LLM) DeepSeek. On 6 February the International Association for Safe & Ethical AI held its inaugural conference in Paris, France. Prominent AI scientists including Stuart Russel and the 2024 Physics Nobel Laureate Geoffrey Hinton called for international cooperation to ensure safe and ethical artificial intelligence. On 10 and 11 February 2025, France co-chaired by India hosted the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Summit in Paris. The speeches by Heads of State and Government including the President of France, the Prime Minister of India, the President of the EU Commission, and the US Vice President gave the impression of how different countries of the world try to position themselves in a race for AI leadership. Urban politics, planning, and economy, not only in the Global South, need longer-term frameworks. How should digital transformation and urban planning be approached in cities facing multiple crises and the new wave of AI technological innovation? The latter is according to the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others unprecedented in scale and speed but it is expected to affect all spheres of life. ARCS 9.0 schedule and Zoom link for Inaugural, plenaries and Valedictory. Date - 13th Feb to 15th Feb 2025 Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/95336599575?pwd=NExxgf8gBoubEfKRhhtbalM1ZYjQph.1 Meeting ID: 953 3659 9575

The 500 bn US$ Stargate Project - Places seem to matter more, Urban Planning and AI governance less or not at all

by Ulrich Graute • 22 January 2025

Source of the picture OpenAI: https://openai.com/index/announcing-the-stargate-project/

Learning to work hands-on for peace from former US-President Jimmy Carter

by Ulrich Graute • 1 January 2025

It was a tremendous privilege in my life to meet Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter for the first time in 1984 (picture) and then again in the summer of 1985 during my internship at Koinonia Farm near Americus, Georgia (USA). Jimmy Carter, who served as the 39th president of the U.S. from 1977 to 1981, died on December 29, 2024, at his home in Plains, Ga. Jimmy Carter was a lifelong farmer who worked with his hands building houses for the poor well into his 90s. I didn't agree with him on all issues (the early 1980s were the time of a new US missile deployment in Germany ordered by Jimmy Carter and a large peace movement against it) but he took the time to discuss it with me and others at Koinonia Farm. That alone was amazing. Even more mind-blowing was that he continued hands-on work on peacebuilding and house renovation for the poor around the world with Habitat for Humanity International well into his 90s. If in my career providing hands-on support became more important than climbing my own career path, this was also due to the example Jimmy Carter gave in the decades after his Presidency. I learned a lot from him about working for peace with humbleness, love, and perseverance. Read more in the New York Times about why Jimmy Carter was known as much for his charity and diplomatic work later in life as he was for his single presidential term, which ended in 1981. https://lnkd.in/d9qxSmTM *. *. *. *. * Note: This post was first published on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/posts/graute_learning-to-work-hands-on-for-peace-from-activity-7279396908270309376-BBjV?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

The United Nations risks drowning in its mandates, conferences and external expectations. Could Artificial Intelligence help the UN?

by Ulrich Graute • 2 December 2024

In 2024, for the first time since 2000, the Parties to the United Nations Rio Conventions on biodiversity, climate change, and desertification faced a very busy 3 months, moving from large Conferences of Parties (COP) in Cali (Colombia) for biodiversity in October to Baku (Azerbaijan) for climate in November to Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) for desertification in December. On top of this Triple-COP, there was the UN High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development and the UN Summit of the Future in September in New York (USA) while UN-Habitat held its World Urban Forum in Cairo (Egypt), and let’s not forget the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment (INC-5) which ended last weekend in Busan, South Korea. No real breakthroughs were reported but I noticed many promises to double future efforts. There is a lot that can be critically reviewed about the events, eg what’s the purpose of moving approximately 100.000+ delegates, UN staffers, and other participants worldwide if the necessary political will to agree and resources available are insufficient and the outcomes are limited accordingly? But such a critique would be a bit unfair since I don’t know how many new ideas and initiatives were born during those official meetings, side events, and informal chats that might bloom up in upcoming years despite of the multicrises we’re living in. What needs to be criticized is that the UN System is not progressing on its task to implement its many mandates more “synergistically” by targeting policies, programs, and initiatives to jointly address the goals of the Rio Conventions, SDGs, etc. Instead, the conferences referred to each other but worked mainly within their silos. This is not appropriate in a world full of interrelations and interdepensies. Well, no individual or group can follow up on every aspect, and swarm intelligence of conferences with thousands of participants each seems to be no functioning alternative. But what else could be done? To give an example: How about building an AI-based Large Language Model (LLM) trained with the UN Charter, all UN declarations, national and subnational resolutions, regulations, and programmes? AI Agents for the different conventions and agendas should then be asked to coordinate and propose “synergistic” proposals across policy levels. Of course, the use of artificial intelligence should be wisely supervised by a team of AI experts and professionals from all affected fields. I wouldn’t expect AI applications to solve all problems but to better inform decision-makers and UN agencies on integrated scenarios. This could help to increase efficiency, avoid duplicating efforts, and increase the overall problem-solving capacity of the UN. I would be happy to support such work with my governance and development experience across all policy levels. Picture source: https://www.iisd.org/articles/policy-analysis/cop-nature-climate-adaptation-mitigation