On the 2^nd day of City Sherpa meeting of the sixth Urban20 (U20) cycle, which is being held in Ahmedabad on 9-10 February 2023, close to 40 delegates visited the World Heritage walled city of Ahmedabad, where a heritage walk was organized for them early in the morning.

The City Sherpa Meeting was organsied in Ahmedabad yesterday i.e. on 9^th February, 2023. The event was attended by over 70 delegates from close to 40 cities and more than 200 participants from participant and observer cities, U20 Conveners, representatives from various working groups and engagement groups of the G20, senior officials from government, national and international organizations and other invited guests.

The formal sessions on the second day commenced with the deliberations that are central to any U20 cycle, namely the meeting of the City Sherpas. In this session, moderated by the U20 Conveners, over the course of the first half of the day, the Ahmedabad Sherpa presented the proposed six priority areas for the sixth U20 cycle followed by rounds of deliberations on each priority. The priority areas are (i) Encouraging environmentally responsible behaviors, (ii) Ensuring water security, (iii) Accelerating climate finance, (iv) Championing ‘local’ identity, (v) Reinventing frameworks for urban governance and planning, and (vi) Catalysing digital urban futures.

A number of participating and observer cities shared their views and expressed resonance with a number of the proposed priority areas. These were noted by the chair city and Shri Praveen Chaudhary, the Ahmedabad Sherpa invoked the support of the U20 cities in taking forward this collaboration and collectively draft the final Communique.

In the second session, under the guidance Mr. Sanjeev Sanyal, Member Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, the areas of convergence between other engagement groups of the G20 and the priorities of U20 were explored. The session included presentations by Mr. Chintan Vaishnav, Ms. Jhanvi Tripathi and Mr. Akash Jha from the Start-up 20 engagement group, Think 20 engagement group and Youth 20 engagement group, respectively. The session also included a presentation by Ms. Mona Khandhar the Principal Secretary, Economic Affairs, Government of Gujarat on Gujarat’s G20 engagement.

In the concluding session, Mayor of Ahmedabad, Shri Kiritkumar J Parmar invited all delegates for the farewell dinner hosted at Kankaria Lake. Mr. M. Thennarasan, Municipal Commissioner of Ahmedabad spoke about the urban initiatives being taken in Ahmedabad, following which he opened the floor to have an interactive session with the city delegates. City representatives highly appreciated the wonderful hospitality extended by Ahmedabad. Thereafter the session was closed by a Vote of Thanks by the Ahmedabad City Sherpa where he thanked all the delegates, the G20 leadership, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of Gujarat, the Mayor and Municipal Commissioner of Ahmedabad and all officers and staff of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation for making the event a success. He also acknowledged the role played by U20 conveners, the National Institute of Urban Affairs and other organisational partners.

The day concluded with a grand farewell dinner at Kankaria lake hosted for the U20 delegates by the Mayor of Ahmedabad. The dinner was accompanied by a special programme of traditional dances from Gujarat.

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RKJ/M

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