In this newsletter, we’re excited to provide you with a brief snapshot of our collective achievements in 2023, organized around three core areas of focus:

🌱climate justice
🌟commoning and diverse and inclusive economies
🌐global agendas and civil society engagement

From its inception, the GPR2C has kept committed to addressing the growing socio-economic inequalities and democracy crisis. Since 2020, with the development of a thematic paper on climate justice, the GPR2C has also started to work more consistently on the interlinkages of the right to the city with the climate crisis.

For this reason, and in collaboration with Kota Kita (Indonesia), Development Workshop (Angola) and Polis Institute (Brazil), the GPR2C  has embarked on an exploratory project supported by Misereor. During 2023 we held two webinars that provided conceptual and practical resources for project partners and other allies to foster a common understanding of climate justice through a territorial and human rights-sensitive approach. As a result, key components of a shared action plan were also identified.

This short project worked as a preparatory process helping to set the bases for long-term interconnected projects of the before-mentioned partners, starting in 2024. The upcoming initiatives will focus on advancing mobilization, civil society capacity building and public policy advocacy on climate justice through a right to the city approach at local and global levels.

During Urban October 2023, on the occasion of the International Day of Care and Support and the World Day for the Right to the City,  GPR2C members RIPESS, Streetnet, WIEGO and Urgenci called for the promotion and support of diverse and inclusive economies, to fulfill just, inclusive, safe and sustainable cities, villages and human settlements, defined as commons essential to a full and decent life.

The campaign aimed to shed light on the contributions from the social and solidarity economy, the popular economy and the care economy to decent livelihoods and work for all, while at the same time strengthening community ties and care for the environment. The thematic paper “Cities and human settlements with diverse and inclusive economies” was presented and discussed during an online event.

This line of work will be further continued and enhanced in 2024, in synergy with the efforts being led by the GPR2C in partnership with United Cities and Local Governments around strengthening capacities and enabling actions for supporting the collective protection and management of the commons at local level. Following the publication of a policy paper in 2022, next year will see the development of global and regional learning processes related to commoning and the right to the city.

Throughout the year, the GPR2C advocated at global fora to call for UN agencies and States to act on their New Urban Agenda (NUA) and Sustainable Develoipment Goals (SDGs) commitments, through the realization of the Right to the City. At these events, we championed a human rights and socio-spatial justice approach, amplifying the voices and initiatives of civil society organizations and local communities.

Highlights include our participation in the second session of the UN-Habitat Assembly (June 2023), the International Social Housing Festival (ISHF) 2023 (Barcelona, 7-9 June 2023) and the SDG Summit (New York, September 2023).

At the Second UN-Habitat Assembly, the GPR2C delivered the collective statement and launched the campaign: Walk the talk: a complete realization of the NUA commitments for structural change,  to call on UN Member States and UN-Habitat to commit to an accelerated implementation of NUA and SDGs, leveraging the Right to the City as a driver for its realization; and to recognize and support local governments and civil society and community-based organizations as key stakeholders for monitoring and effective implementation.

At the  International Social Housing Festival (ISHF), the GPR2C co- organized the workshop “Housing policies from below: local co-production strategies for housing justice”. The objective of the session was to address how housing policy is shaped by local actors inside and outside public institutions and how these practices respond to the housing emergency with short and long-term actions across the globe, with a particular focus on the alliances that are driving such initiatives, particularly between local governments and civil society.

In a year marked by the review of progress regarding SDG 11 on sustainable cities and communities, the GPR2C participated at the SDG Summit, delivering a collective statement and launching the campaign: Unlocking people’s power to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda, to call on Member States and UN agencies to commit to concrete actions guided by a human rights-based approach and through the inclusion of civil society and local government actors, engaging  with locally -led initiatives such as the social and solidarity economy, the right to the city, the social production of habitat and the collective defense and protection of the commons.

The urgency for a paradigm shift is evident. The convergence of environmental crises, socio-economic inequalities, armed conflict, shrinking civic space and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic underscores the need for economic models rooted in a rights-based solidarity approach, which leverage the social and economic function of common goods, putting the care for the people and the planet at the center.

We extend our heartfelt gratitude for your renewed support. As we gear up for 2024, we invite all GPR2C members and allies to join us in another year of collaborative work and mobilization. Let’s continue our commitment to political action and social change by promoting, defending, and fulfilling the Right to the City at global, regional, and local levels, amplifying  the voices of those affected by exclusion and marginalization.

🤝 Thank you for making all of this possible. We look forward to your continued involvement in the exciting activities planned for 2024!

Stay tuned and engaged!

 

Henrique, Kelly, Isabel, Lorena, Nelson and Sophia

GPR2C Support Team

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