APLA concluded its participation in the international conference titled “Associations of Local Authorities and their Role in Localizing the Sustainable Development Goals 2030”, which was held virtually through “Zoom” platform and was organized by “ The Service Agency Communities in One World” (SKEW/Engagement Global). APLA Executive Director Abdallah Anati, and Policy Coordinator Wala’ Hasarmeh represented APLA in this conference.

In this regard, APLA Executive Director Anati raised the importance of APLA’s participation in this conference to exchange knowledge and expertise with the counterpart international institutions, as well as to learn about the successful experiences and challenges that face associations of Local Authorities around the world with regard to the localization of the Sustainable Development Goals and their adoption at the local level. He pointed out that APLA’s strategic plan (2019-2022) is characterized by its relevance and alignment with the SDGs, in a way that confirms the attainment of these goals through ensuring the effective participation of local authorities.

APLA’s Policy Coordinator, Ms. Wala’ Hasarmeh, presented the association’s most important achievements and activities relevant to the localization process of the SDGs, the challenges facing its achievement in Palestine and the roles of local authorities and their preparedness to meet these goals. She pointed out that the role of APLA in this regard is to align the association’s programs with the SDGs Agenda, in order to raise the awareness and knowledge of local authorities and support them by all possible means to particularly gain familiarity with the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, thus enhance their role in achieving these goals while taking into account the integration of this process with the efforts made at the national level.

The conference’s program, which lasted for three days, presented a review of the experiences of different local authorities about the approaches and practical solutions that are being implemented and adopted. It also presented a review of the most prominent key challenges which projects encounter during the implementation process in order to localize the 2030 Agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals in the different regions. In addition, an intensive session was conducted on the development of practical frameworks for APLA’s use as they see fit regarding the implementation of projects. At the end of this session, templates for action plans were developed after the participatory discussion held with regard to the ideas shared by the participants.