Our #UCLGCongress

The process of co-creation of our World Summit of Local and Regional Leaders comes into full effect at the third day of the Summit. At the inaugural ceremony a representative from the municipality Durban welcomed the participants, and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs , Assistant-Secretary-General of the UN  Fabrizio Hochschild Drummond, accompanied President Mpho Parks Tau regarding the importance of the World Summit, the role of the municipal movement in development, and the importance of cooperation among spheres of government.

“Our Congress is key to promote local democracy, to lay the groundwork as a platform for a true multi-level governance system, and to underscore the importance of gender equality”. Parks Tau, Vice Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs

“The motto of the conference is that cities are listening, and the Secretary General wants to listen to cities, to your communities. All of us need to work together to develop a sustainable world” Mr Fabrizio Hochschild Drummond, Assistant-Secretary-General of the United Nations

“This Congress has responsibility of reimagining our future by finding new ways of providing for our citizens” Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs

The Plenaries of the Summit started today, with the inaugural session on Reinventing Local Democracy providing a key moment to showcase how a renewed local democracy, from the local level, and representing our communities, is a necessity in today’s world. Renewing local democracy is a key issue for our movement, and for the sustainability of our world, and has been coming back to the core of our world organization.

The Heart of the World Congress

The Local4ActionHub was inaugurated during the first day, and has been the space for interaction, for exchanges, and for participants to truly experience the scope, and strength of our movement. With spaces for joint work, Mayors for the Future sessions and networking hubs, the Local4Action.

Co-Creating the Policy of our World Organization

The Assembly aims at striking a balance between local and regional priorities, bridging the gap between local and regional challenges that are common to local and regional governments but are also region-specific. The first three sittings of the Assembly have been led by our African, European, and Eurasian and Asia Pacific Sections. The session led by UCLG-Africa has delved into decentralization, local finance, and how to reinforce the financial management of cities and regions.

The session led by Europe was based on aligning local priorities with the 2030 Agenda, and provide an opportunity to discover how European municipalities and regions are implementing the Sustainable Development Goals.

The EurAsian-Pacific-led session had Resilient and sustainable cities and the localization of the Sendai framework at the forefront, and also dealt with the relationship between resilience and the heritage of cities, in particular in view of the climate emergency.

The Assembly will continue throughout the Congress, providing our continental views through our Metropolitan, American, and Middle-East and West Africa.

The Town Hall is a participatory process in which UCLG has invited several global constituencies to produce papers aimed at action for local transformation: a space that showcases how Cities Are Listening.

The first sitting of the Town Hall on Accessible & Inclusive Cities had the goal of co-creating a narrative around human rights and accessibility, whereas the Town Hall on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment argued for equal access to basic services and inclusion for women in the decision-making process, as integral to democracy and ensuring prosperous cities.  

Three Town Hall Sessions on The Right to the City, Sustainable Urban Development, and Addressing Informalities, will drive recommendations and expectations from the civil society to the forefront.

The results of these processes of co-creation will be presented to the resulting leadership of UCLG, as well as to the World Assembly of Local and Regional Governments, that will take place at the end of our Summit.  

The Special Sessions, that started with the first day of the Congress, have aimed at envisioning the future of policy topics that are integral to our movement, and will deliver a Manifesto for the newly elected leadership of UCLG.

Shaping the governance of our future: Our statutory track in full force.

The Committee on Statutory Affairs paved the way to the last Executive Bureau of the World Organisation in its 2016-2019 mandate. The Executive Bureau updated on the membership key work areas and disseminated the policy recommendations of the GOLD V Report on the localization of the global agendas. The World Council and the General Assembly, set to take place during the last two days of the Summit, will elect the new members and leadership of UCLG for the 2019-2022 period.