On 17 and 18 May, an Expert Group Meeting (EGM) was held in the city of Belém, Brazil, for debating the implementation of the New Urban Agenda in the Amazon Region. Organized by UN-Habitat with the support of the State Government of Pará and Dialog Institute, the event put emphasis on two themes: “Funding System for Sustainable Urban/Territorial Development in the State of Pará” and “Towards Sustainability of Cities and Human Settlements in the Amazon Region”.

On the first day, the idea of an Ecosystem of Regional Funds to be applied to the Amazonian context as an innovative financial tool for public and private investments towards sustainable projects was debated, taking into account the perspectives and experiences from relevant stakeholders and technical experts.

Following the Finance debate, the environmental and urban challenges of the Amazon region were also discussed by addressing the specificities of environmental, social and public policies with a sustainable urban development approach. The understanding of the New Urban Agenda and the SDGs, urban planning, multi-stakeholder governance and the importance of a proper data management and monitoring system of the area were mainly debated.

The event gathered experts from different thematic areas, including actors from the public and private sectors, academia, civil society, United Nations international bodies including Unicef, UNDP, SDSN Amazonia and UN Environment and representatives from Peru, Colombia and French Guiana.