Policy Brief | Urban and metropolitan policies aligned with the 2030 Agenda

Metropolitan Management 27 September 2023

Barcelona, Spain, 26 and 27 September 2023

The course "Urban and metropolitan policies aligned with the 2030 Agenda" was held in Barcelona, organised jointly by IBEI, the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) and UN-Habitat. Through a series of sessions led by academic researchers, practitioners and specialized consultants, the aim was to familiarize participants with some of the main challenges and tools of policy, governance and financing in cities and metropolitan areas. The course as a whole offered attendees a space to learn and discuss the main challenges and dynamics of urban areas, as well as to build synergies between academic perspectives and practice on the ground, in order to generate better urban policies.

A report summarizing the main points addressed in the course sessions has been prepared by IBEI researchers and UN-Habitat specialists.

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The first session, led by Charles Roger, Ramón y Cajal Associate Professor at IBEI, focused on the emergence and consolidation of informal international governance schemes and the determining role played by domestic political dynamics in this process. In the second session, Ana Karla Perea, an affiliate professor at IBEI, discussed the key role of cities in adapting to climate change and the strategies available for this purpose. Then, Eloisa Isaza, expert consultant in Economics and Finance at UrbanPro and UN-Habitat, spoke about the main challenges, opportunities and mechanisms of financing metropolitan areas. To conclude the first day of the course, Antoni Novel, Director of General Services at the AMB, presented the axes of the financing strategy of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area.

The second day of the course began with a session given by Eloisa Isaza and Rafael H. Forero H., an expert in Politics, Governance and Metropolis at UN-Habitat, who focused on identifying concrete strategies to improve governance structures and planning for the economic and productive development of metropolitan areas. The last theoretical session was led by Jean Grugel —research professor at IBEI— and revolved around the persistent inequalities in development policies in terms of gender and their deepening since the Covid-19 crisis. The course concluded with a practical workshop by María Téllez, an expert in Metropolitan and Territorial Development at UN-Habitat, on the localization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the metropolitan level.

Source: Policy Brief | Urban and metropolitan policies aligned with the 2030 Agenda | IBEI