The Basque Government presents International Organizations and the Diplomatic Corps, with the EUSKADI 2030 AGENDA FORUM and the NOW 2030 PROPOSAL

The meeting, which was held at the Delegation of the Basque Government in Madrid, was attended by Jonan Fernández, Secretary General of Social Transition and Agenda 2030, Conchi Quintana, Director of External Action, Asier Aranbarri, Director of Social Innovation, as well as the representatives of the following international organizations and United Nations entities based in Madrid: UN HABITAT, Global Compact, IOM-IOM, UNICEF, UNHCR, UNRWA and ILO; and the representatives of the Embassies of Colombia, France, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and the Dominican Republic.

The working meeting served to present to members of the diplomatic corps and international organizations the Basque Country's Now 2030 Proposal, inform them of the latest advances in the Basque Country in its contribution to the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda, particularly with regard to efforts to align budgets and to monitor and evaluate the SDGs between different institutional levels; the involvement of society in the Basque contribution to the SDGs, especially through the incorporation of the SDGs in the management of all types of organizations; and finally the location in Bilbao of the United Nations 2030 Local Secretariat, which has the global objective of localising the processes of implementation of the 2030 Agenda. 

The Euskadi Agenda 2030 Forum, an organ of shared governance of the 2030 Agenda between Basque institutions and social agents, approved on 15 March 2023 the fourth Declaration of that Forum, whose content has served to present the Now 2030 Proposal that Lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu has addressed to the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, Amina Mohammed. This proposal will also be sent to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen; the President of the European Council, Charles Michel; the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola; and the Secretary General of the OECD, Mathias Cormann. 

The Lehendakari noted that “the 2030 Agenda remains a necessity and an opportunity. As a planet, we urgently need to make progress towards its fulfilment and assume that this challenge is a train that we must not let pass us by. If we passively accept that the current inertia will continue its devaluation trajectory, unchanged until 2030, the final stocktaking will clearly be negative. The Decade of Action now needs 7.5 years of reaction. It is a turning point”. On 19-20 September 2023, the United Nations will hold the SDG Summit. The Now 2030 Proposal proposes to broaden its format and effects. It calls for a process “that goes beyond a new formal summit of Heads of State and Government”.

Today’s meeting is part of the regular schedule of meetings that have been held for the past 10 years at the Basque Country Delegation in Madrid between Basque Government officials and representatives of the diplomatic corps, in order to publicise Basque strategic plans and initiatives in each term of office.