Circular
38/2023
Barcelona, 17 October 2023
To the members of the World Council
To the Secretaries General
To the Vice-Presidents of United Cities and Local Governments
To the Chairs of UCLG Committees, Working Groups, Communities of Practice and Fora
For information: To the Presidency
A joint initiative by UCLG
Introducing the Global Observatory of Sustainable Proximities
Dear members,
We are pleased to introduce the Global Observatory of Sustainable Proximities (GOSP), a joint project by UCLG, the Entrepreneurship, Territory, Innovation (ETI) Chair of the Sorbonne Business School, C40 and UN-Habitat. The GOSP was officially launched at the second session of the United Nations Second Habitat Assembly in June 2023.
The proximity concept attracted renewed attention when the “15-minute”, an urban model conceived by Professor Carlos Moreno, received the 2022 UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour Award. In the post-COVID-19 recovery framework proximity has gained traction among policymakers worldwide, being adopted by several cities around the world as a blueprint that places people at the center of urban planning to ensure an equitable distribution of all essential social functions of the city.
Sustainable, urban and territorial proximity is embedded in a range of global policy frameworks, aiming at contributing to the implementation of the Paris Agreement, the New Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular SDG11 on sustainable cities and communities.
As such, the overall purpose of the Global Observatory of Sustainable Proximities is to put proximity at the heart of a new urban and territorial paradigm to preserve our quality of life while advancing the global goals from a local lens. It aims to drive large-scale change in urban strategies, gathering main global urban actors to provide a joint knowledge base, build global capacity, support and evaluate cities’ progress on proximity as a main accelerator for a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable urban development.
The Observatory will develop a globally applicable concept based on proximity; official measures and indicators; a global centre for knowledge sharing and capacity building; a global network to support cities in implementation. In addition, the Observatory will boost international scientific research in related fields.
We need your support: Please fill in the survey
Within its lines of work, the GOSP is developing a mapping of existing policy initiatives at the local and regional level worldwide as well as urban planning design models that are proximity-related or have been developed through a proximity lens. This is why we call on the support of local and regional governments, and their national associations that are advancing such initiatives and planning frameworks by filling up a short survey.
Grateful for the UCLG Sections to support dissemination and gathering information.
You can access this link to complete it online, before 15th November. Should you face any technical issues, please get in touch with us and we will provide an off-line version of the survey: policy@uclg.org.
Sincerely,
The UCLG World Secretariat
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