Int’l workshop features Surigao City’s SDG localization initiatives
By Susil D. Ragas
SURIGAO CITY, Surigao del Norte (PIA) — The city of Surigao is among the selected participants, and the only representative from the Philippines, to the Inter-Regional Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Localisation Workshop for Arab States, Asia-Pacific, and Africa.
The event was organised by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, held on November 10-12 in Amman, Jordan.
The city is represented by Uriel Eugenio Correos, the urban development and housing consultant to the Office of the City Mayor and SDG localisation consultant of UN-Habitat Philippines.
Selected as among the presenters in the workshop, Correos shared the city’s SDG Localisation Projects, consisting of the SDG Voluntary Local Review (VLR), the Localise to Realise (L2R) Project for Sama Bajau families and informal settlers in Sitio Panubigon, Barangay Lipata, and highlighted the resettlement project dubbed Huy-anan nan Bajau sa Surigao.
He said, “These initiatives, especially the resettlement project, are among the trailblazing pioneering projects undertaken for the Sama Bajau indigenous people, done in partnership with UN-Habitat Philippines, and now gaining the attention of international networks.”
City Mayor Pablo Yves L. Dumlao II had attended high-level international conferences and presented the city’s SDG localisation projects during the UN-Habitat General Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 28 and the International Mayors’ Forum in Tokyo, Japan, on October 14-16.
The international gathering strengthened the capacities of national and local actors to localize the SDGs, facilitated a multilevel and multi-stakeholder dialogue focusing on solutions and impact-oriented innovation, and discussed the relevance and practices of multilevel governance as a contribution to the modeling of the National SDG Localization Framework.
It also tackled and advanced Jordan’s leadership in SDG localization, and contributed to a shared understanding of systemic change as the overarching outcome of integrated local action.
The participants include technical representatives from local and regional governments with experience in SDG localisation, experts and practitioners from national governments, international networks and agencies, academia, PhD students, and civil society organisations. (SDR, PIA Surigao del Norte with a report from Surigao City PIO)
