Geneva, 15 August 2016 – The Greener Cities Partnership (GCP) is to develop a list of recommended indicators that shall be added to the extended City Prosperity Initiative (CPI)  framework to enhance the quality and depth of monitoring in the city.

Representatives from the GCP, the CPI, International City Leaders (ICL), the World Assembly of Islamic Cities (WAIC) and the Municipality of Qazvin, Iran, met at the Palais des Nations in Geneva to discuss the implementation modalities of the new International Pilot Programme launched on July 23 in Tehran under the supervision of the Deputy President of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Head of the Department of Environment, Mrs Massoumeh Ebtekar.

Following the meetings held in Tehran, this Pilot Programme was recognized as an important milestone for SDG monitoring for the country.

During the meeting, participants reviewed and analyzed the operational aspects of the Programme, including data collection, data management, environmental and urban issues specific to the City of Qazvin and how to include the indicator assessment in the Pilot Programme. Other operational aspects were discussed related to the role that the involved parties play, and the potential risks that the Pilot Programme may face.

It was agreed that the GCP will develop a list of recommended indicators that shall be added to the extended CPI framework to enhance the quality and depth of monitoring in the city. These additional indicators will be monitored by the GCP, with the expertise of both UN-Habitat and UNEP – the UN’s environment programme.

New indicators

The new indicators tackle the issues of water quality, water usage efficiency, more specifically reducing the use of potable water for non-drinking purposes, wastewater management, public transport and preservation of natural heritage.

Some of these indicators can be aligned with already existing SDG indicators. In other cases, the GCP and CPI teams will develop new indicators representing best the monitoring interests of the city. The data will be made available by the city, with the help of the National Statistics Organization and academic institutions, as appropriate.

The parties furthermore agreed to organize a ministerial conference to further the discussions on the institutionalization of urban environmental SDG indicators using the CPI framework.

Concluding the meeting, a Letter of Intent (LoI) was signed by the four parties, where they agreed that the CPI, with the addition of selected SDG indicators, will constitute the platform for the monitoring and reporting on the urban SDG indicators in the city of Qazvin.

The Qazvin Pilot will be the first global project on Urban Environmental Indicators Monitoring, with the aim to collect long-term data and analyze these for more sustainable policies and results.