Ahmedabad U20 meet: City Sherpas discussed key urban challenges

Urban 20 (U20), an Engagement Group under the G20, which brings together city sherpas, mayors and representatives from cities in G20 countries, to collectively deliberate key urban challenges and inform the G20 negotiations. The inception meeting of the sixth U20 cycle is the City Sherpa held in Ahmedabad on 9-10 February 2023. Ahmedabad is the chair city for U20. According to information, the event is wqs attended by over 70 delegates from close to 40 cities and more than 200 participants from participant an observer  cities.India’s G20 Sherpa, Amitabh Kant urged to all delegates to act as brand ambassadors of India’s G20 presidency and carry the message of de-globalizing, de-carbonizing and digitizing cities.

U20inceptionmeeting started in Ahmedabad on February 9,2023. City Sherpas and 82 foreign delegates are participating. Addressing the gethring India:S Sherpa Amitabh Kant said that city must be run by good gernance. pic.twitter.com/ffrP0JkoZ5

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A special session was held to showcase the pioneering work being undertaken by Ahmedabad and other cities in Gujarat. The speakers, Mukesh Kumar, Principal Secretary, Urban Development Department,Gujarat, Keshav Varma, chairperson, HLC of urban planners, urban economists and institutions, and Prof. H.M.Shivanand Swamy - Professor Emeritus, CoE-UT spoke about successful examples of affordable housing, riverfront development and sustainable urban transport among others.

City Sherpas from around the world discussed the urban issues and opportunities that they want to discuss in priority with their G20 national government counterparts. Praveen Chaudhary, Sherpa for the city of Ahmedabad, presented the main issues that the city wants to address during their leadership. Sri Hayati, Sherpa for the city of Jakarta (U20 2022 Chair) shared evidence of the impact that U20 can have by demonstrating that during Jakarta’s cycle the U20 recommendations focused on infrastructure financing were reflected and endorsed by the G20 Leaders Bali Declaration. Over 20 international cities took part in the open floor discussion and responded to invitations issued by G20 dignitaries that morning, to  continue dialogue between the G20  workstreams and U20..