Hakka Identure Museum in Shicana Village, Songyang County, China

Although Abu Dhabi Declared Actions and participants’ commitments during WUF10 mainly focused on the urban, they reflect the cross-cutting nature of the Urban-Rural Linkages: Guiding Principles and Framework for Action (URL-GP). Below are some of the reflected principles.

The importance of multi-stakeholder approaches, partnerships and improved cooperation among government tiers to promote sustainable development was present in the acquired commitments by all participants, reflecting the principle of integrated governance and balanced partnerships. International organizations also committed to inclusion of persons with disabilities, and local and regional government and civil society committed to integrated and accessible cities and women empowerment.

On the theme of “Connecting Culture and Innovation”, national governments committed to “support the implementation of the NUA, particularly with regard to innovation and culture.” Culture was recognized in the Declared Actions as “a core component of local identity including heritage,” uplifting, therefore, the role of local government tiers and also highlighting the importance of the principle of locally grounded interventions. Local and regional governments committed to “developing a sustainable development model that is strongly anchored in culture and human rights” and stated that “the promotion of culture as the fourth pillar of sustainable development needs to be pursued.”

Furthermore, all participants emphasised innovation as “critical for implementing the NUA, achieving the SDGs, and other global development frameworks relevant to sustainable urbanization,” drawing attention to the importance of data for the formulation of evidence-based policy and encouraged the development of data platforms. Data-driven and evidence-based decision-making and functional and spatial systems-based approaches also are two of the principles towards strengthened urban-rural linkages.

The private sector committed to explore different types of financing (land-based finance, land-value capture) and to better adjust to local contexts and risk profiles of low-income groups. This commitment highlights the importance of financially inclusive politics and policies as stated in URL-GP. Private sector further committed to accessible technology and evidence-based policy.

Civil society, grassroots communities and youth associations committed to investing in “stronger accountability mechanisms for local grassroots communities that rely on innovation to track project implementation”, in “grassroots data and knowledge systems” and “in retaining the practices, knowledge and culture of Indigenous peoples.” Reflecting thus the importance of grassroots and local communities to achieve the Principle of participatory engagement.

By having culture as a central theme and reference made to most of the Urban-Rural Linkages: Guiding Principles in the Declared Action, the Tenth Session of the World Urban Forum (WUF10) thus contributed to the implementation and mainstreaming of URL-GP into current global policy dialogues and actions towards achieving sustainable development.