Conference on International Cooperation on Urban SDGs in the Post-Covid Society held in Shanghai

The International Cooperation on Urban SDGs in the Post-Covid Society conference was held on Oct 29 as part of the third SDG Cities Global Conference at the School of Economics & Management, Tongji University from Oct 28 to 29. The event brought together officials, researchers, experts and scholars from around the globe.

Guo Huadong, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS)and director General of the International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals (CBAS), delivered the opening speech. He showed the participants a video about the role of big data in accelerating the realization of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and emphasized the importance of international cooperation in improving the availability of sufficient, scientific data.

Guo said that despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the disputes and geopolitical issues that were going on, SDGs could be realized by virtue of data and science.

Robert Ndugwa, Head of Data and Analytics Section at UN-Habitat, who oversees the global monitoring and reporting on the SDGs and the New Urban Agenda, said the SDGs were now off-track to some extent and the pandemic had made it worse. To reach the goals by 2030, he said, efforts should be enhanced to accelerate the development of innovative partnerships for the implementation of existing solutions and for financing. He believed there were still a lot of opportunities, but also challengesthatcould be only overcomewith cooperation between different departments, communities and countries.

Su Xiaojun, director general of China Centre for International Science and Technology Exchange (CISTE), gave the guests an introduction to the CISTE, which has been committed to facilitating international science and technology exchanges to promote solutionstodifficulties and problems faced by mankind.

Su said that the post-pandemic world had entered a new period of turbulence and changes, and cities were playing a main role in advancing sustainable development of human society. Su said the overlap of urban environmental, economic and social problems had made urban issues a common challenge for human beings, which required scientific and technological innovation and open cooperation more than ever before.

In the keynote speech, Robert Ndugwa said UN-Habitat had provided lots of standards to a number of countries and cities, with the aim of facilitating the collection of data as guidance for policy-making and driving innovations in international cooperation.

Robert said the UN-Habitat had gained inspiration from the SDGs for data collection and analysis, especially the 11th goal, which covered housing, transportation, transport, and culture, as well as reduction of the risk of natural disasters, improvement ofair quality and treatment ofwaste.

He shared the UN-Habitat analysis on financing for sustainable development, saying that UN-Habitat was working with many big data centers and other organizations worldwide in collecting and analyzing data about the living conditions of people in different places.

Sun Zhongchang, professor and head of Cooperation & Development Office at CBAS, a Chinese organization which aims to facilitate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and unite global efforts to adopt science, technology and innovation towards achieving the SDGs,and explained in detail CBAS’s solutions designed to promote the fulfillment of the SDGs.

Tim Stonor, managing director of Space Syntax, an urban planning and design firm created at the Bartlett, University College London in 1989, shared with the participants the company’s experience in collaborating with state and city governments in using big data modeling to assist in urban planning.

The event also included a roundtable where the guests discussed paths for sustainable development, availability of free data, adaptive policy-making, solutions for data gap among other issues.