City2City
Sao Paulo's trials of potential Chinese COVID-19 vaccine to begin on July 20
09 July 2024 - João Doria, governor of Brazil’s richest and most populous state São Paulo, said on Monday that trials of a new potential vaccine against COVID-19, developed by China’s SinoVac, will start on July 20.
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The trials, to be done in partnership with the Instituto Butantan, will involve 9,000 volunteers spread across 12 research centers located in Sao Paulo and four other states as well as the federal district Brasília.

The announcement comes as Brazil’s federal government announced over the weekend that it had signed an agreement to produce another potential vaccine, developed by pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca with researchers at Oxford University.

Source Articles:

  • https://in.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-brazil-vaccine-tests/brazil-trials-of-potential-chinese-covid-19-vaccine-to-begin-july-20-idINS0N2DG014
  • https://in.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-brazil/brazils-sao-paulo-expects-approval-this-week-to-trial-chinese-coronavirus-vaccine-idINL1N2E617X

Image by Joel santana Joelfotos from Pixabay 

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Creating Safe Public Spaces amidst COVID-19
09 July 2024 - Parks could provide a way to reduce communicable diseases and address other societal ills, argues Justin Hollander, professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at the School of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University.
HLPF 2024 Side-Event: Imagine a post-COVID-19 city—with women's human rights
08 July 2024 - This panel discussion will challenge us to imagine the post COVID-19 city that respects women’s human rights, builds resilience and prevents crises, and puts feminist and women’s movements’ aspirations into local action. Panelists will include representatives from the feminist and women’s movement, UN agencies and mayors. The event will open up to a Town Hall meeting using Zoom and will have simultaneous interpretation.
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08 July 2024 - This panel discussion will challenge us to imagine the post-COVID-19 city that respects women’s human rights, builds resilience and prevents crises, and puts feminist and women’s movements’ aspirations into local action. Panelists will include representatives from the feminist and women’s movement, UN agencies, and mayors. The event will open up to a Town Hall meeting using Zoom and will have simultaneous interpretation.

This side-event to the High-Level Political Forum 2024 is being organized by the International Alliance of Women, Feminist and Women's Movement Action Plan, NGO CSW/NY, Habitat (To Be Confirmed) and UN Women (To Be Confirmed).

Event Details:

  • Date: Thursday, 9 July 2024
  • Time: 12:00 PM - 01:30 PM EST
  • Registration Link: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_VMQq2MCtQjmmKcZxZ1e2aA
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UCLG and UN Habitat: Voluntary Local Review (VLR) Series Launch (HLPF 2024)
07 July 2024 - This launch event session will be presenting the first volume of Guidelines for VLRs of the VLR Series jointly developed by UCLG and UN-Habitat and will showcase the importance that VLRs play not only in monitoring and evaluating progress towards the SDGs but also in contributing towards multilevel governance and the transformation necessary to achieve just, resilient, and sustainable cities, territories, and societies that guarantee protection to all citizens during and beyond times of crisis
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07 July 2024 - Local and regional governments, as the closest level of government to the people, are well aware of the unique characteristics, expectations, and needs of citizens and territories and can effectively support the development of policies which directly respond to the risks and vulnerabilities that society face on a daily basis. Furthermore, public service delivery is indispensable as a means to support citizens, especially during crises, and is the basis upon which structural inequalities will be mitigated and the achievement of the global goals will happen.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic which has quickly and deeply affected our world, it is clear that our towns, cities, regions, and territories will never be the same in the aftermath and that no sole level of government can overcome this crisis alone. The efforts shared among local and regional governments, supported by their associations and networks, through decentralized cooperation will prove to be key to solve the interconnected challenges we face today caused by the most pressing global trends such as climate change and biodiversity loss, changing demographics and rising inequality, among others.

In this sense, local and regional governments, and their associations and networks, are working towards providing comprehensive systems-based strategies to the implementation of the universal agendas via the effective localization of the global goals and the development of Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs). This with the aim to foster the transformative diplomacy necessary to achieve sustainable development, help take stock of progress made, and contribute towards transparency and accountability towards citizens. This global ‘localization’ movement of the universal agendas is a testimony of support towards territorial cohesion, multilevel governance, and leaving no one and no place behind.

United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), as the world organization of local and regional governments, and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN Habitat) are committed to supporting the development of VLRs and will be launching a VLR Series which aims to provide guidance, definitions and technical support to any local and regional government aiming to engage in the VLR process. This VLR Series will act as an integral part of the work that will be undertaken by the UCLG Community of Practice on VLRs which reflects the advocacy movement of UCLG and the members of the Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments with regard to increasing awareness of local and regional governments’ co-ownership of the 2030 Agenda and providing them with an institutional harbor to share knowledge, experiences and learn mutually.

This launch event session will be presenting the first volume of Guidelines for VLRs of the VLR Series jointly developed by UCLG and UN-Habitat and will showcase the importance that VLRs play not only in monitoring and evaluating progress towards the SDGs but also in contributing towards multilevel governance and the transformation necessary to achieve just, resilient, and sustainable cities, territories, and societies that guarantee protection to all citizens during and beyond times of crisis.

It will aim at bringing out the intrinsic value of VLRs as a political process that can enhance coordination between different spheres of government. The localization of the universal development agendas that are being driven by our communities offer the only viable way of ensuring that no-one and no place is left behind in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis.

Speakers: 

  • Emilia Saiz, UCLG Secretary General
  • Maimunah Mohd Sharif, UN-Habitat Executive Director
  • Penny Abeywardena, Commissioner of NYC for International Affairs
  • Santiago Saura, Councillor of Madrid for International Affairs
  • Nikita Rumyantsev, Head of Moscow Urban Forum Research Centre
  • Miquel Rodriguez, Commissioner for the 2030 Agenda of Barcelona
  • Yolanda Martínez, Secretary of Social Development of Oaxaca
  • Luiz Alvaro Salles, Secretary of International Affairs of Sao Paulo
  • Francisco Resnicoff, Under-Secretary for International Affairs of Buenos Aires
  • Marilia Sorrini Peres Ortiz, Deputy Secretary of Planning of Niteroi
  • Amson Sibanda, Chief, Division for Sustainable Development Goals of UN DESA

Session Details:

  • Date: Wednesday 8 July, 2024
  • Time: 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM EST
  • The session will be in zoom. No advance registration is required.
  • Session Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81803089876?pwd=VGJVOUpGamsyUEE0aTNIS2dPb UJGUT09
  • ID: 818 0308 9876
  • Password: 766543
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HLPF 2024 Side-Event: Thinking Through Issues of Density, Overcrowding, Public Space and Health
07 July 2024 - This High-Level Political Forum 2024 side event which is led by UN-Habitat and co-organized with the World Health Organization, seeks to contribute to bolstering local action to accelerate the implementation of Agenda 2030. 
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07 July 2024 - As part of the United Nations High-Level Political Forum (HLPF), the side-event on “Urban Form and COVID-19: Thinking Through Issues of Density, Overcrowding, Public Space, and Health”, will be held on July 9, 2024 from 12:00 - 13:15 (USA Eastern Standard Time). 

As Member States review strategies to bolster local action to "Accelerated action and transformative pathways: realizing the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development" in an era of COVID19, there is no choice but to consider the relationship between urban form and health. While cities are severely hit by the pandemic, prior public health crises have brought about improved sanitation, and better housing, streets and public spaces in many cities. At the moment, the outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic is uncertain, with some envisaging a retraction from cities, and others expecting that cities will continue to adapt and thrive. Underlying such thinking are assumptions about density and disease. Research has started to show that this relationship is not direct, and to stress the importance of housing conditions, income, health care, public space, and sanitation.

The side event which is led by UN-Habitat and co-organized with the World Health Organization, seeks to contribute to bolstering local action to accelerate the implementation of Agenda 2030. It will help develop a greater understanding among policymakers, practitioners, and research institutions about the relationship between urban form and disease prevention. The side event will provide an opportunity to consider available evidence and experiences from member states and to strengthen cooperation across health and urban development sectors in the era of COVID-19 and beyond.

More Event Details: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/index.php?page=view&type=20000&nr=7020&menu=2993

Join the Event Link Here (on July 9, 2024 from 12:00 - 1:15 PM EST)

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Chairman of Indonesia's Waste Pickers Union (IPI) on COVID-19
03 July 2024 - This video message was created by IPI and shared during the NPAP Indonesia Digital Conference on 22 April 2024.
UN Women Webinar: Is this time different? COVID-19, inequalities and the prospects for structural transformation
02 July 2024 - Join UN Women for a webinar that will set the stage for a series of in-depth conversations and consultations to produce a Feminist Plan for Sustainability and Social Justice to influence policy debates on how to shape a more equal and sustainable post-COVID world.
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Speakers will include:

  • Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India
  • Ruth Nyambura, Founding member and the convener of the African Ecofeminists Collective
  • Corina Rodriguez, Centro Interdisciplinario para Estudio de Politicas Publicas and Executive Committee Member of Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN)

Moderator:

  • Hakima Abbas, Co-Executive Director of the Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID).

Event Date:

  • Thursday, 9 July 2024 

Event Time:

  • San José: 6.30 – 8.00 am
  • New York: 8.30 – 10.00 am
  • Buenos Aires: 9.30 – 11.00 am
  • Accra: 12.30-2.00 pm
  • London: 1.30 – 3.00 pm
  • Nairobi: 3.30 – 5.00 pm
  • Delhi: 6.00 – 7.30 pm
  • Sydney: 10.30 pm – 12:00 am

Registration deadline: 8 July, 12.00pm EDT. Zoom details for event will follow RSVP.

Registration Link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1St0dORTyrrj5k8B0iUfYXq71L3qdPxso_Icrl8dO6DE/viewform?edit_requested=true

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Basics of a Circular Economy
02 July 2024 - The Smart Cities first webinar held on 21 May 2024, organised by the UNDP Global Centre for Technology, Innovation, and Sustainable Development and in partnership with Metabolic with featuring speakers from UNDP Kenya.
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About the speakers:

Tamara Streefland leads Metabolic’s Cities Program, connecting urban professionals around the world with high-impact circular economy strategies. Tamara has worked on a wide range of urban resilience projects, focused on integrating biodiversity in cities, community health, and water- and waste systems, in cities including Amsterdam, Warsaw, and New York City. Her background as an earth scientist, coupled with experience in collaborative design and systems thinking, allows her to integrate knowledge on ecological impacts with creative solutions that engage novel technologies and are sensitive to social issues. She also enjoys teaching on the topic of complex contemporary urban challenges.

Mr. Geoffrey Omedo is a Portfolio Analyst within the Environment and Resilience Unit of the UNDP Kenya Country Office. He is a climate change expert with over 15 years of experience within the Government of Kenya and the United Nations system (United Nations Development Program - UNDP, United Nations Industrial Development Organization-UNIDO, United Nations Office for Project Services – UNOPS, United Nations Volunteers Program – UNV). Mr. Omedo’s professional career has covered 4 UN Agencies (UNV, UNOPS, UNIDO, and UNIDO) where he has coordinated and technically supported programs in natural resource management, climate change, energy, water, agriculture among others. His current area of specialty is in climate change programs (mitigation, adaptation) and specifically sustainable and innovative financing models.

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  • Or subscribe to our newsletter: www.bit.ly/GCTISDnews
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COVID-19 and Human Development: Assessing the Crisis, Envisioning the Recovery
02 July 2024 - This note takes a capabilities approach to document the severity of the unfolding human development crisis. Such an approach implies an evaluative framework to assess the crisis and shape the policy response that emphasizes the potential for people to be and do what they aspire in life as opposed to material resources or economic activity.
…

02 July 2024 - The COVID-19 pandemic is unleashing a human development crisis. On some dimensions of human development, conditions today are equivalent to levels of deprivation last seen in the mid-1980s.

But the crisis is hitting hard on all of human development’s constitutive elements: income (with the largest contraction in economic activity since the Great Depression), health (directly causing a death toll over 300,000 and indirectly leading potentially to an additional 6,000 child deaths every day from preventable causes over the next 6 months) and education (with effective out-of-school rates – meaning, accounting for the inability to access the internet – in primary education expected to drop to the levels of actual rates of the mid-1980s levels). This, not counting less visible indirect effects, including increased domestic violence, yet to be fully documented.

The pandemic was superimposed on unresolved tensions between people and technology, between people and the planet, between the haves and the have-nots. These tensions were already shaping a new generation of inequalities—pertaining to enhanced capabilities, the new necessities of the 21st century, as defined in the 2019 Human Development Report. But the response to the crisis can shape how those tensions are addressed and whether inequalities in human development are reduced.

This note takes a capabilities approach to document the severity of the unfolding human development crisis. Such an approach implies an evaluative framework to assess the crisis and shape the policy response that emphasizes the potential for people to be and do what they aspire in life as opposed to material resources or economic activity. To assess the crisis, the note draws from original simulations that are based on an adjusted Human Development Index—with the education dimension modified to reflect the effects of school closures and mitigation measures—and that incorporate current projections of gross national income (GNI) per capita for 2024.

The simulations suggest conditions today would correspond to a steep and unprecedented decline in human development. With almost 9 in 10 students out of school and deep recessions in most economies (including a 4 percent drop in GNI per capita worldwide), the decline in the index –reflecting a narrowing in capabilities-- would be equivalent to erasing all the progress in human development of the past six years. Importantly, if conditions in school access are restored, capabilities related to education would immediately bounce back – while the income dimension would follow the path of the economic recovery post-crisis. The simulations also show the importance of promoting equity in capabilities. In a scenario with more equitable internet access—where each country closes the gap with the leaders in its human development category—the decline in human development would be more than halved. This would be eminently affordable. In 2018 it was estimated that $100 billion would be needed to close the gap in internet access in low- and middle-income countries—or about 1 percent of the extraordinary fiscal programmes announced around the world so far.

The note suggests three principles to shape the response to the crisis:

  • Look at the response through an equity lens.i Countries, communities and groups already lagging in enhanced capabilities will be particularly affected, and leaving them further behind will have long-term impacts on human development.
  • Focus on people’s enhanced capabilities. This could reconcile apparent tradeoffs between public health and economic activity (a means to the end of expanding capabilities) but would also help build resilience for future shocks.
  • Follow a coherent multidimensional approach. Since the crisis has multiple interconnected dimensions (health, economic, and several social aspects, decisions on the allocation of fiscal resources that can either further lock-in or break free from carbon-intensive production and consumption), a systemic approach—rather than a sector-by-sector sequential approach—is essential. A recent survey conducted in 14 countries found that 71 percent of adults globally consider that climate change is as serious a crisis as COVID-19, with two-thirds supporting government actions to prioritise climate change during the recovery. ii

The United Nations has proposed a framework for the immediate socioeconomic response,iii with which this note is fully consistent and meant to inform and further flesh out both the analysis of the crisis and possible responses.

Finally, the note also highlights the importance of collective action—at the community, country, and global levels. And the response to this crisis is showing how people around the world are responding collectively. The adoption of social distancing behaviour—which in some cases started before formal policies were put in place—could not possibly be fully enforced. It depended on the voluntary cooperation of billions of people. And it was done in response to a shared global risk that brought to the fore as a priority something other than having economies grow more rapidly. If we needed proof of concept that humanity can respond collectively to a shared global challenge, we are now living through it.

Read the full report here or download the attached PDF of the report.

Expand
COVID-19 and Human Development: Assessing the Crisis, Envisioning the Recovery
02 July 2024 - This note takes a capabilities approach to document the severity of the unfolding human development crisis. Such an approach implies an evaluative framework to assess the crisis and shape the policy response that emphasizes the potential for people to be and do what they aspire in life as opposed to material resources or economic activity. 
…

02 July 2024 - The COVID-19 pandemic is unleashing a human development crisis. On some dimensions of human development, conditions today are equivalent to levels of deprivation last seen in the mid-1980s.

But the crisis is hitting hard on all of human development’s constitutive elements: income (with the largest contraction in economic activity since the Great Depression), health (directly causing a death toll over 300,000 and indirectly leading potentially to an additional 6,000 child deaths every day from preventable causes over the next 6 months) and education (with effective out-of-school rates – meaning, accounting for the inability to access the internet – in primary education expected to drop to the levels of actual rates of the mid-1980s levels). This, not counting less visible indirect effects, including increased domestic violence, yet to be fully documented.

The pandemic was superimposed on unresolved tensions between people and technology, between people and the planet, between the haves and the have-nots. These tensions were already shaping a new generation of inequalities—pertaining to enhanced capabilities, the new necessities of the 21st century, as defined in the 2019 Human Development Report. But the response to the crisis can shape how those tensions are addressed and whether inequalities in human development are reduced.

This note takes a capabilities approach to document the severity of the unfolding human development crisis. Such an approach implies an evaluative framework to assess the crisis and shape the policy response that emphasizes the potential for people to be and do what they aspire in life as opposed to material resources or economic activity. To assess the crisis, the note draws from original simulations that are based on an adjusted Human Development Index—with the education dimension modified to reflect the effects of school closures and mitigation measures—and that incorporate current projections of gross national income (GNI) per capita for 2024.

The simulations suggest conditions today would correspond to a steep and unprecedented decline in human development. With almost 9 in 10 students out of school and deep recessions in most economies (including a 4 percent drop in GNI per capita worldwide), the decline in the index –reflecting a narrowing in capabilities-- would be equivalent to erasing all the progress in human development of the past six years. Importantly, if conditions in school access are restored, capabilities related to education would immediately bounce back – while the income dimension would follow the path of the economic recovery post-crisis. The simulations also show the importance of promoting equity in capabilities. In a scenario with more equitable internet access—where each country closes the gap with the leaders in its human development category—the decline in human development would be more than halved. This would be eminently affordable. In 2018 it was estimated that $100 billion would be needed to close the gap in internet access in low- and middle-income countries—or about 1 percent of the extraordinary fiscal programmes announced around the world so far.

The note suggests three principles to shape the response to the crisis:

  • Look at the response through an equity lens.i Countries, communities and groups already lagging in enhanced capabilities will be particularly affected, and leaving them further behind will have long-term impacts on human development.
  • Focus on people’s enhanced capabilities. This could reconcile apparent tradeoffs between public health and economic activity (a means to the end of expanding capabilities) but would also help build resilience for future shocks.
  • Follow a coherent multidimensional approach. Since the crisis has multiple interconnected dimensions (health, economic, and several social aspects, decisions on the allocation of fiscal resources that can either further lock-in or break free from carbon-intensive production and consumption), a systemic approach—rather than a sector-by-sector sequential approach—is essential. A recent survey conducted in 14 countries found that 71 percent of adults globally consider that climate change is as serious a crisis as COVID-19, with two-thirds supporting government actions to prioritise climate change during the recovery. ii

The United Nations has proposed a framework for the immediate socioeconomic response,iii with which this note is fully consistent and meant to inform and further flesh out both the analysis of the crisis and possible responses.

Finally, the note also highlights the importance of collective action—at the community, country, and global levels. And the response to this crisis is showing how people around the world are responding collectively. The adoption of social distancing behaviour—which in some cases started before formal policies were put in place—could not possibly be fully enforced. It depended on the voluntary cooperation of billions of people. And it was done in response to a shared global risk that brought to the fore as a priority something other than having economies grow more rapidly. If we needed proof of concept that humanity can respond collectively to a shared global challenge, we are now living through it.

Read the full report here or download the attached PDF of the report.

Expand