Welcome

This gathering is becoming a true corner stone of our movement and organization. I am most pleased to be able to share with you this space for candid discussion where our aspirations and hopes are blended into concrete actions. As African and South African I am most pleased to have this big celebration in Durban.

The UCLG Congress needs to be relevant to the membership, to the movement and to the world. It needs to be relevant to all stakeholders. I sincerely hope this gathering will reflect our full strength, the diversity of our organization, and our capacity to work with others. We need to strike the right balance between what matters to the world and the day to day business of our communities and our neighborhoods.

Local and regional governments are used to a different type of governance to share responsibilities and this is why we should no longer await for multilateral spaces to be open to us in order to interact with our internationally organized communities Our 6th World Congress is the consolidation of our strategy, as well as the beginning of a new era for our World Organization. Building the Congress needs to allow us to develop new ways of thinking, new formats of debate and, of course, new solutions for our communities.

We are ready to deliver on a Congress that builds strong links among citizens and the civil society and that leaves no-one and no place behind; a Congress that can promote local democracy and lay the groundwork for a true multi-level governance system.

I look forward to welcoming you to this gathering of our Organization in Africa.

Mpho Parks Tau
President of UCLG