Agenda 2030

About the United Nations Forum of Mayors

The UN Forum of Mayors is a United Nations body that enhances coherence and complementarity between the local, regional and global levels in addressing common challenges related to sustainable urban development and governance, contributing to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals. Since 2020, the Forum’s annual meetings have facilitated collaboration and the exchange of good practices among mayors and fostered dialogue among cities, member States and relevant international organisations (see: https://land.unece.org/forumofmayors/).

Fifth meeting of the UN Forum of Mayors (2025)

The Forum is currently at its fifth edition. The meeting will extend over four plenary sessions of 3 hours each (10.00–13.00 and 15.00–18.00). During each of these sessions, mayors will have the opportunity to address the audience and provide insights into their city’s experience, good practices/success stories and strategic solutions (existing or planned actions, policies, strategies, projects, collaborative efforts, innovative approaches), as well as share any lessons learned or recommendations with respect to any of the issues on the agenda.

The meeting programme will cover the following topics: 

• In alignment with the 2025 session of the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (New York, 14–23 July 2025), mayors will be first invited to address some of the themes under in-depth review at the global level – that are of key relevance also to the local governments, namely:
  • Good health and well-being (SDG 3)          
  • Gender equality (SDG 5)
  • Decent work and economic growth (SDG 8).
• Mayors are then expected to discuss climate finance mechanisms –which are essential to cover the substantial funding cities and municipalities need for tackling the multiple climate change-related challenges that they are at the forefront to confront.
• Next, given the critical importance of accelerating the SDG localization to achieve the 2030 Agenda, a session will be dedicated to Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs) – as key tools for the local governments to monitor and report on their progress in implementing SDGs. Mayors will be invited to report on their cities’ VLRs. They may wish to highlight their approaches for: integrating the SDG implementation into urban planning and for aligning the VLRs with national and regional plans and voluntary reviews, fostering multilevel governance and stakeholder consultations.
• The last thematic discussion will focus on housing-related challenges faced by local authorities as regards affordability and sustainability. Mayors will have the possibility to present their related experience and good practice solutions as well as to agree on commitments and recommendations to be transmitted to the ministerial meeting on housing affordability and sustainability, which will be held on 8 October at the 86^th session of the UNECE Committee on Urban Development, Housing and Land Management.

Towards the end of the meeting, as an outcome, the Forum of Mayors is expected to collaboratively finalize and agree on an outcome document on its fifth meeting containing key principles, commitments and recommendations on each of the substantive themes discussed (ECE/HBP/2025/4). The draft document tabled for consideration of the mayors was prepared by the Bureau of the Forum, with support from United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) and the secretariat, in consultation with the mayors’ offices of the participating cities. In June and July 2025, the secretariat convened online consultations with the cities on the draft to facilitate consensus on the document. During the meeting in October, all participating mayors will have the opportunity to further contribute to and refine the document prior to its adoption.

Mayors are encouraged to actively participate throughout the meeting by requesting for the floor on any of the topics they would wish to intervene (by raising their city’s name plate placed before them). The Chairperson will give them the opportunity to speak. A mayor may choose to intervene either from his/her seat or from behind a lectern by the podium. To ensure that all participating mayors can speak, each intervention should be concise, not exceeding 2 minutes, and be directly related to the topics discussed, covering the key aspects outlined above. This approach will enable efficient and inclusive dialogue among all participants. Interventions can be delivered in one of the official languages of UNECE, namely English, French, or Russian. Simultaneous interpretation in two other UN languages, Arabic and Spanish, will be made available through extrabudgetary funding from the city of Geneva.

Continue to Part 4.