Three years after its creation, the Local2030 Coalition convened its first UN Directors Group Retreat at the Local2030 Secretariat Office in the city of Bilbao, Spain, from 6 to 9 February 2024 with the participation of the Local2030 Coalition co-chairs, EOSG and 8 UN entities from the UN Directors Group. The retreat aimed at bringing UN entities together in order to engage in collective dialogue and strategic planning, focusing on harnessing the power of localization as an SDG accelerator.

Discussions covered different topics, including the Local2030 Coalition's 2024 priorities and roadmap, resource mobilization and strategic partnerships, financing catalytic initiatives for localization, and the Coalition’s governance structure, among others. The Retreat also included workshop sessions for the joint construction of the 2024 Local2030 Coalition Work Plan, a strategic discussion on SDG localization trends with invited guests (USAID, UCLG, Spanish Government, Fundacion Avina, European Commission, European Committee of the Regions, Belgium government, etc.), and a seminar organized by Spanish partners to share their localization experiences.