Consolidating comparative project in Buenos Aires

For the first time ever, cities were invited to have a voice in the G20 process leading up to the summit in Buenos Aires 30 November to 1 December 2018. Mistra Urban Futures took part in the events in the Argentinian capital, and reinforced the Centre’s SDG project in the city.

The Mayors of Buenos Aires and Paris, Horacio Rodriguez Larreta and Anne Hidalgo, had initiated the inaugural U20 (Urban 20) meeting a couple of weeks ahead of the G20 meeting. 

“U20 seeks to collaborate and enrich the agenda of the G20 with an urban perspective, for that we will work together with the big cities of the world”, Horacio Rodriguez Larreta said. 
 
Like Paris and many other major cities, the City of Buenos Aires is a member of the Rockefeller 100 Resilient Cities programme and fortuitously had just launched its comprehensive Resilience Strategy before the U20 meeting. This was timed ahead of the inaugural U20 (Urban 20) meeting of mayors and top officials from the new network of cities in G20 countries.
 
Enthusiasm for Mistra Urban Futures SDG project
“The final week of October proved very important for consolidating the work of the Centre’s comparative project ‘Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS) and the New Urban Agenda’ in Buenos Aires”, David Simon, the Centre’s Director said.

Buenos Aires is one of the 7 participating case study cities in the project. David Simon, Sandra Valencia, Lead Researcher on the project, with Professors Mike Cohen and Margarita Gutman of the New School’s Observatory on Latin America, joined the Buenos Aires project team, led by Ileana Versace, for meetings and site visits. The Buenos Aires partnership comprises three key institutions, the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Design of the University of Buenos Aires, the Foreign Relations Department of the City of Buenos Aires, and the world-renowned Centre of Legal and Social Studies, which works on human rights issues in Argentina and Latin America at large.
 
“Our meetings with the top officials in each institution obtained high-level buy-in and reinforced enthusiasm for the comparative project’s agenda and cross-city peer learning opportunities”, David Simon explained. 

The City of Buenos Aires has committed to work on the SDGs by signing an agreement with the National Government of Argentina. As part of this commitment, the City has taken significant steps to adapt the SDGs to the local level. One of these steps has been a communication and awareness raising campaign focussed on youth, which included the development of video games about the SDGs. 

Through the project’s partnership and together with the City’s Housing Institute, the City has also been working on adapting the SDGs’ indicators relevant to housing and habitat to the needs of Buenos Aires.  

Read more: SDG and Urban Agenda

Read more of G 20 Summit

Have a look at videogames (spanish)

Have a look at videoclip Mistra Urban Futures Director David Simon

Photo by: William Justen de Vasconcellos/Unsplash.