On 30 March and 2 April, CLGF and its Commonwealth Sustainable Cities Initiative (CSCI) partners convened a Wilton Park dialogue on Advancing sustainable urbanisation: working with Commonwealth countries to build a transformative coalition, with support from both Wilton Park and the FCDO.  

Partnerships to address rapid urbanisation and climate change

The CSCI brings together CLGF, the Commonwealth Association of Planners, the Commonwealth Association of Architects, the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the Commonwealth Engineers Council and the King’s Foundation to explore ways to better leverage the skills, resources and capacities within the Commonwealth to address the twin challenges of rapid urbanisation and climate change. The dialogue was an important step in CSCI’s collective efforts to elevate action on sustainable urbanisation across the Commonwealth.  

Partnership dialogue to develop strategies

The dialogue at Wilton Park brought together city and local government leaders, including CLGF’s Chairperson Mayor Bernard Wagner, Belize City; relevant ministers and ministries; built environment professionals; development partners; multilateral organisations; the Commonwealth Secretariat; academics; innovators; and sector experts from across the Commonwealth and beyond. Discussions focused on strategies to implement the Commonwealth Declaration on Sustainable Urbanisation which was adopted by Heads of Government in 2022. CSCI are working towards a mechanism to support multidisciplinary, multi sectoral collaboration and shared learning, including a way to ensure that sustainable urbanisation is linked to the Commonwealth’s ministerial processes and policy making.

Rich discussions and debate

The meeting positively endorsed this approach and provided a platform for debate around key themes namely; the context and urbanisation patterns in the Commonwealth; integrated development planning; multi-level governance and leadership; finance and access to resources including from the private sector; and the role of research and data for evidence-based policy making. The rich discussions and debate highlighted the potential that a mechanism to capture existing knowledge and good practice to support the implementation of the Declaration would bring. It also demonstrated the power of the Commonwealth as a network to convene around shared interests. 

Building on the outcomes

It is clear that there is strong commitment from participants to continue to be part of a coalition to support the implementation of the Declaration and a number of urgent themes including affordable housing; economic development, financing, and rapid planning. The CSCI partners are already working up some proposals for next steps building on the session outcomes. CLGF is also prioritising the design of a new city to city partnerships programme, building on the successes of its Commonwealth Sustainable Cities Network (CSCN) to respond to the call for more city to city learning and collaboration which was a clear recommendation of the meeting.

After the sessions finished at Wilton Park many of the participants were joined by High Commissioners and other guests at a reception at Marlborough House, the Headquarters of the Commonwealth Secretariat. We were honoured to receive an address by the new Commonwealth Secretary General HE Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, on just her second day in office. She recalled that Commonwealth cities drive 80% of global GDP, emit 70% of carbon and will be home to 2bn citizens by 2050, and called for coordinated action to build resilient, inclusive and sustainable cities to transform human lives. CLGF is looking forward to working with our partners and members to respond to this call.