Urbanice Malaysia and UN-Habitat collaboration in support of commitment to SDGs

PUTRAJAYA, Aug 10 (Bernama) -- Collaboration between the Housing and Local Government Ministry (KPKT) and United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat) will make the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) commitment at the national level a success with implementation of the New Urban Agenda.

Its minister Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican said both parties supported the commitment towards sustainable urban development at all levels through the roles played by the local authorities.

"This could increase knowledge and result in sharing and the capacity to boost urban development and the local institutions as well as the implementation of the SDGs urban development action plans in line with the  'Decade of Action' by 2030," he said at the signing of a memorandum of cooperation (MoC) between Urbanice Malaysia and UN-Habitat, here, today.

It was held in conjunction with a courtesy visit made by UN-Habitat executive director, Datuk Seri Maimunah Sharif and her delegation to KPKT.

Urbanice Malaysia is the Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cities and Community Well-Being, established in 2016 under KPKT.

Reezal Merican said collaboration between Urbanice Malaysia and UN-Habitat followed their meeting at the World Urban Forum (WUF) 2022 in Poland last June towards fulfilling the SDGs commitment by, among others, boosting implementation of the cities programme at the national and global levels and in preparing the voluntary local review.

He said the cooperation was also towards increasing knowledge and building capacities through the platforms of training, sharing of information sources and organising of national city forums, and boosting technical support and implementation of livable and sustainable city programmes.

He added that KPKT would be launching the Malaysia Livable Index (iDAM) this Aug 18 as a gauging instrument towards adding value to the current efforts undertaken under the Malaysia Livable Cities agenda.

Last November, the ministry reportedly was evaluating and coming up with iDAM that would be focusing on the aspects of economic prosperity, socia well-being, environment, spirituality, and physical and mental health.

The index is towards achieving the Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 and objectives of the 12th Malaysia Plan with the theme of 'Keluarga Malaysia - Prosperous, Inclusive and Sustainable'.

Meanwhile, Maimunah said the MoC was to champion the sustainable urbanisation agenda in Malaysia whereby the UN-Habitat would be supporting in terms of training and providing digital diagnostic tools to the local governments to see whether a city is sustainable or not, based on the  indicators of the sustainable development goals and easing investment in the urban areas.

She said Urbanice Malaysia would assist eight to 12 cities per year in preparing their respective  sustainable development reports with the total target of 154 local authorities involved in stages by 2030.

-- BERNAMA