Keynote presentation - 4th OECD Roundtable on Cities and Regions for the SDGs

1. Smart Sustainable Cities
for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development in the UNECE Region
Keynote presentation
$th OECD Roundtable on Cities and Regions
for the SDGs
Ms. Paola Deda
Director Forest, Land and Housing Division
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

2. Photo UNECE/Pierre Albouy

3. UNECE support to building smart sustainable cities
Activities of the UNECE as part of the U4SSC Initiatives to promote use of the Key
Performance Indicators for Smart Sustainable Cities within the projects:
• “Improved sustainable urban development in 17 Norwegian cities”. Smart
sustainable city profiles developed for four cities - Alesund, Asker, Baerum, Rana and
Trondheim.
• “Smart Sustainable Cities for the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development and the
New Urban Agenda in the UNECE Region” support the transition of cities towards
becoming smart and sustainable. In 2021, the following cities undergo the KPI
evaluation: Almaty (Kazakhstan), Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), Tbilisi (Georgia) and
Podgorica (Montenegro).
• Guidelines and Compendium on Innovative Financing of City Projects.

4.  Key Performance Indicators for Smart Sustainable Cities (KPIs for SSC)
were developed by UNECE & ITU in 2015
 endorsed by the UNECE Committee on Housing and Land
Management in 2016 (ECE/HBP/2016/4); brought under the United for
Smart Sustainable Cities (U4SSC).
 KPIs for SSC provide cities with a consistent and standardized
method to collect data and measure performance and progress to:
 achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
 becoming a smarter city
 becoming a more sustainable city.
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Key Performance Indicators for Smart Sustainable Cities
(KPIs for SSC)

5. UNECE support to building urban economic resilience
during and after COVID-19
A field project “Post COVID-19 Recovery Action Plan for Informal Settlements in the
UNECE Region” (2020) provided project target cities (Tirana, Albania; Bishkek,
Kyrgyzstan; Podgorica, Montenegro; and Skopje, North Macedonia) with concrete
recommendations to enhance the integration of informal settlements into the urban
fabric of cities and to help cities to recover from the crisis caused by the COVID-19
pandemics.
Outcomes of the project were also integrated into the UNDA project “Building Urban
Economic Resilience during and after COVID-19” (2020-2021) which is aimed to
strengthen the capacity of city governments in 16 cities globally to design, implement,
and monitor sustainable, resilient, and inclusive COVID-19 economic and financial
responses, recovery, and rebuilding plans. In the UNECE region the following countries
are beneficiaries: Albania, Kyrgyzstan, and Ukraine.

6. Following the assessment of city's "sustainability" against 91 key performance
indicators, UNECE provides a list of recommendations on what could be done in the
city to further develop it as a sustainable and smart one. The city government
chooses the directions in which the city will develop based on the formulated
recommendations
UNECE and partners facilitate the formulation of a city
action plan, including
i. the list of specific actions on policy improvement
ii. the list of specific projects in order to attract
external investments (in addition to those available
on the government side or entirely external)
What happens after
smart sustainable city profiles are prepared?
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7. Draft Guidelines for the Development of SDG Volunteer Local
Reviews (VLRs) in the UNECE Region
VLR as a practical action-oriented document
Promotes ‘shared value creation’
Supports participatory approach
Leaving no one behind, focus on the most vulnerable
Based on evidence-based approach (KPIs for SSC)
Strong focus on innovative financing
Flexible and adaptable to respond to the COVID-19
emergency and recover better

8. From Sustainable Smart Cities Profiles to Volunteer
Local Reviews – the approach
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1. VLRs (SSC Profile)
Evidence-Based Data Collection and Data Analysis
(KPIs + Urban Economic Resilience Indicators)
Recommendations
for a City
2. Urban Economic Resilience Plan
Investment Plan using Innovative Financing for
Sustainable Smart Cities
Action Plan

9. Relevant Publications and Reports

11. Thank you!
Ms Paola Deda
Director Forest, Land and Housing Division
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe