Last month, Secretary-General Frank D’hondt was invited by the University of Antwerp in Belgium to give a lecture on his personal and ISOCARP experiences with Sustainable Development Goals applied to urban and territorial planning. The one-hour lecture was well attended by alumni and senior members of the Belgian National Delegation of ISOCARP.
The baseline of the lecture was a call for the Decade of Action, entering the final ten years to implement the SDGs approved by all UN member states in 2015. A series of cases including some of ISOCARP’s UPATs were presented to illustrate the merits of in-house, vision-driven participatory planning. A case was made to advocate more territorial-specific global goals to complement the current SDGs and New Urban Agenda. A lively discussion and reception concluded the evening – a great opportunity to explore future joint ISOCARP activities in this part of the world. Have a look at the presentation.