Mayor Josep Mayoral of Granollers, a Vice President of Mayors for Peace and the Lead City of the Catalan Charter, participated in the session ‘Pathways to Conflict Prevention for Local Governments’ held on 6 November 2019 at United Nations Office at Geneva to share experiences concerning the role of local governments in conflict prevention and peacebuilding. The session took place in the framework of Geneva Peace Week 2019 (GPW19) and brought together United Nations staff officers, academic researchers and civil society organizations among others.
The session was conducted by Samuel Rizk, Head of Conflict Prevention, Peacebuilding & Responsive Institutions (CPPRI) of UNDP, and involved the participation of Mayor Mayoral, representing UCLG and Mayors for Peace, Barbara Rosen Jacobsen from IMPACT Initiatives and Daan Stelder from VNG International and UCLG Peace Prize.
Mayor Mayoral explained during the session that “80% of violent deaths in the world take place outside conflict zones and due to interpersonal violence” and we cannot forget that “Peace is built from the local level in each neighbourhood, community and municipality”. Mayoral also put new light on the necessity to link the global discourse of, for instance, the SDG’s to the local level, particularly as regards SDG 11 (Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable) and SDG 16 (Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development) in order to ensure “no one will be left behind”. He stressed: “Local answers to global problems. Local governments are part of the solution”.
