Opening Remarks by 2M Indranee Rajah at the Virtual MOU Signing Ceremony between UN-Habitat and the Government of Singapore

Nov 6, 2020

We are here today to celebrate the strong partnership between the Government of Singapore and UN-Habitat in providing capacity building support and technical assistance to emerging cities in developing regions. 

Singapore and UN-Habitat have been working closely together to curate development programmes for leaders and planners from emerging cities in developing countries. With these programmes, participants are able to meet experienced practitioners from Singapore and the United Nations, pick up ideas and knowledge on sustainable urban solutions and governance strategies, and tailor them for implementation in cities. This would support cities in working towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 and United Nation’s New Urban Agenda, to rethink the way cities are built, managed, and experienced.

We have received good feedback from participants since our MOU was signed in 2016.  Participants from more than 40 cities across Africa and South America were able to bring the urbanisation strategies developed in consultation with experts, back to their cities to address various urban developmental issues, including affordable housing, public transportation, and land management.

Our collaboration is reaching the five-year mark, and it is timely for us to reaffirm our commitment with the renewed MOU, and formalise a strengthening of our partnership with a broader scope of cooperation. 

Today, Singapore is refreshing our partnership with UN-Habitat to work with up to a hundred cities and support them in their journey to reach their urban development and sustainability goals by 2030. This will not only involve delivering capacity building to support cities in their planning, innovation, and implementation of projects to catalyse change. We will also work with UN-Habitat to provide clarity on the SDGs and how to achieve them. At the same time, we will assist cities to understand possible financing sources and models to execute projects, and monitor and evaluate progress of activities related to the capacity-building programmes for continuous improvement. 

With the renewed MOU, our support for developing cities will not be limited to the curation of capacity-building courses – we will go further to now include knowledge-sharing on international platforms such as the World Urban Forum in 2022, and our upcoming World Cities Summit in June 2021. The renewal will also extend the reach for our joint development programmes to other parts of the world, beyond Africa and South America.

With the renewal of this MOU, our strong and growing partnership with UN-Habitat will continue to cater to the pressing need of ensuring sustainable urbanisation in developing cities. 

We look forward to our continued collaboration with UN-Habitat in supporting the sustainable development of unfolding urban futures around the world. 

Thank you.