Sustainable cities and public spaces as “Temples of Understanding”
Grove Harris, the Temple of Understanding’s Representative to the United Nations, joined the Green Hope Foundation for their annual side event at the UN High Level Political Forum: Centering Health, Equity, and Lived Experience in Sustainable Urban Development. The side event took place July 6 at the United Nations headquarters.
The side event examined critical dimensions of urban sustainability – including health, safety, accessibility, inclusion, and wellbeing – that remain insufficiently integrated into policy and practice despite their profound impacts on quality of life and equitable development outcomes. Policymakers, practitioners, civil society representatives and other stakeholders discussed elements of sustainable cities including inclusive public spaces, safe and sustainable housing, and community-led solutions. Participants explored how to strengthen the implementation of SDG 11 – to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. SDG 11 is one of 17 sustainable development goals, adopted by UN member states in 2015, which create a roadmap to improve global peace, prosperity and sustainability by 2030.
“When you’re thinking about how we can achieve SDG 11…it can’t just focus on place, or only infrastructure, or only whether it’s green,” said panel moderator Kehkashan Basu, the founder-president of Green Hope, a non-profit that empowers youth across the globe to promote grassroots environmental and social action. “It has to take into account the lived realities and the experiences of all of the different denizens and residents of cities so that we can achieve agenda 2030.”
Basu, a youth leader, global influencer, environmentalist, and advocate who participated in the Temple of Understanding’s FORUM2020 panel “Intergenerational Wisdom and the Future of the Earth Community,” emphasized that many city residents still face multiple crises like housing and income inequality, lack of health care and not enough safe space.
Speaking at the event, Harris highlighted TOU ideas about civic spaces as “Temples of Understanding.” Libraries, schools, museums, cafes and pubs, and all places where people gather for community and mutual understanding are essential soft infrastructure for peace in our cities and our world, Harris said. Harris pointed to love as a unifying principle between people, neighbors, communities, and the environment, highlighting its presence as a central teaching of every religious tradition. Community events that bring people together – such as sporting events – show collective pride and enthusiasm for cities that unite people from diverse backgrounds and faiths, Harris said.
“How many people in this room love at least one city? How many people in this room two?” Harris asked, as each panel participant raised their hand. “Right? I mean, what’s not to love? These are vibrant places of identity and belonging.”
Watch the full video recording of the event.
Committee for Dignity upholds meaningful participation in bridging SDG implementation gaps
The role of dignity as central to global development was a key theme at the inaugural event of the Committee for Dignity, a newly-formed substantive committee of the Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CoNGO). The side event, Dignity and the SDG Implementation Gap: Structural Discrimination, Community Evidence, Nature and Meaningful Participation, was held July 7 at the Church Center for the United Nations alongside the 2026 High Level Political Forum, the UN’s main platform on sustainable development.
“At the heart of today’s conversation is a simple but urgent idea,” said committee chair Rebecca Irby. “Dignity is not an ornament. It’s not added to development after the fact. Dignity is the measure of whether development is working at all.”
The event, which brought together advocates, diplomats, and civil society leaders, highlighted the importance of meaningful participation of the communities most impacted by the yearly $4 trillion funding gap and progress shortfalls related to the UN’s 2030 sustainable development goals. The SDGs, the world’s shared blueprint for peace, prosperity and sustainability, have improved the lives of billions of people worldwide since 2015, according to a UN report – but only 36% of the 139 SDG targets are on track or making moderate progress. Major challenges remain, including record debt of low- and middle-income countries, surging violent conflict, massive increases in the number of global refugees, shortfalls in targets to end extreme global poverty, rising global temperatures and atmospheric carbon dioxide, and worsening extinction risks across all species groups.
The event highlighted structural discrimination as a key contributor to the SDG implementation gaps, and centered the dignity of those most affected as “authors of evidence, holders of wisdom, and builders of solutions.” Irby said it was crucial to listen to the voices of the people closest to the harm and allow them to be central in defining the repair.
“What is the SDG implementation gap really trying to tell us? It tells us that promises are not enough when structures that deliver them still exclude people,” Irby said. “It tells us that technical solutions are not enough when the people closest to the problems are kept further from power. It also tells us participation without influence is not participation – it is merely choreography.”
Grove Harris, the Temple of Understanding’s Representative to the UN, expanded on the concept of dignity to include the environment.
“We need to step into a less anthropocentric understanding so we are able to talk about the dignity of water, the dignity of air, the dignity of land, because we are all embedded in those, and that is the only way for us to sustain ourselves as a human race that is part of an entire ecosystem,” Harris said.
During the Committee’s formation, the Temple of Understanding participated in the earliest generative conversations towards ending colonialism, including ending racism and multiple other forms of systemic oppression. In the formation process, the Committee identified a core positive value to center the work – dignity. Membership of the Committee includes a diversity of leaders from around the globe, who share the passion, curiosity and values base for engaging in generative and inclusive work. One of Harris’s passions is to insist upon inclusion, particularly of those already engaged in related work, so the Committee can build respectfully and amplify its efforts.
“The time is now to move away from extractive systems to reweave a life-enhancing web that is regenerative and localized,” Harris said.
The event marked an important first step for the Committee for Dignity as it begins building “a shared space for civil society partners committed to dignity, justice, inclusion, peace, community evidence, and meaningful participation.” The group is committed to working collaboratively, leading with curiosity, and transforming individual stories of dignity into collective policy recommendations and community initiatives.
CoNGO president Peter Preziosi said that the SDGs are not just about targets, but about people – “whether an individual is seen, heard, respected, and empowered to shape their future.” That’s why, he said, the work of the Committee for Dignity is so important.
“These committees emerge because people recognize something essential that deserves greater attention, stronger advocacy, and deeper collaboration,” Preziosi said. “…Few issues are more important than dignity.”
Watch the video of the full event at the Committee for Dignity’s website.