It is our pleasure to welcome you to the 2018 ECOSOC e-Discussion, this year focusing on the 2018 ECOSOC theme “From global to local: supporting sustainable and resilient societies in urban and rural communities.”

To take this discussion forward, we propose the following two questions:

• What are the current and emerging challenges to building sustainable and resilient societies and what actions can be taken, especially at the local level to address these challenges?

• How are national and subnational institutions translating the sustainable development goals into concrete actions? What institutional frameworks for sustainable development are required, and how can they be built?

We encourage all participants to share concrete national and subnational examples, lessons learned and experiences to feed into policy recommendations and guidance for the 2018 ECOSOC substantive session and beyond.