With global participation, the European Commission in Brussels organized the 10th Anniversary Meeting of the Policy Forum on Development (PFD) on September 27-29. Non-governmental organizations and local and regional government associations from all over the world attended the meeting. The PFD Task Team members, including UCLG-MEWA, met to evaluate the current agenda and discuss future steps.
During the event, PFD members and participants convened to exchange visionary ideas. Forum stakeholders, along with representatives from various European Union (EU) institutions and organizations, as well as local governments, seized the chance to assess and discuss the present state of their respective regions in the context of global agendas. The meeting encompassed discussions on various pertinent topics, including the contraction of civil space, the acquisition of equality, urban development, climate, migration, and the impacts of digitalization.
Another notable topic of the three-day meeting was the introduction of the Global Gateway Dialogue Platform, created within the scope of the Global Gateway Project, one of the European Union’s latest initiatives. It was noted that the platform, which will run parallel to the Policy Forum on Development, will proceed as a kind of working group that will allow feedback and evaluations on digital technology, climate and energy, transportation, health, education, and research infrastructures that the Global Gateway Project focuses on.