The Global Agenda of Local and Regional Governments

What is our global Agenda?

Local and regional governments demonstrate on a daily basis the potential that action based on proximity has to contribute to solving major global challenges. This is why UCLG believes that development and improvement of people's living conditions should be undertaken primarily at the local level.  We strive to achieve decentralization as a way to democratize public governance at all levels.

United Cities and Local Governments is the voice of Local and Regional Governments from all over the world. We aim to ensure that our values are shared among our members, and this strength is the driver of our aim to secure a more permanent seat at the global table, to ensure the local perspectives and points of view of local and regional governments play a part in the global decision-making processes, and in the implementation on the ground of the global agendas.

Our organization is also wholly committed to the full realization and renewal of local democracy, so as to empower local and regional governments to play their role in the future of humanity. Only if we equip local governments with the powers and necessary resources -human and financial- will we be able to guarantee that the basic services that they provide -such as access to housing, basic services, and human rights- are fully carried out.

A network committed to the achievement of the Global Agendas

The major global development agendas can only be achieved if they are integrated into all planning, policy-making and action. Global solutions need to be built upon these local experiences and approaches to ensure a future for our community. This is what we call localization: the achievement of the global agendas from the bottom-up. The only way to achieve the Paris Agreement is through the achievement of the SDGs, which will only be possible through the acceleration potential of the New Urban Agenda.

Local democracy, local leadership, and local service provision are vital tools to drive development in a way that is rooted in the cultural, social, environmental and economic realities of each territory. That’s why UCLG advocates for a greater role of local and regional governments in international policy development, implementation and reporting to localize the global goals.

The Next Frontier of the Municipal Movement

The 2030 Agenda represents an opportunity to renew the social contract, to rethink relationships as we enter the so-called implementation decade. Our movement has worked to own this agenda through localization, which allows the constituency to innovate and places us at the heart of international development policy, and is the only guarantee for its accomplishment.

The international municipal movement has an immense task in its hands, but it is one that we will overcome if we are attached to our origins as a movement that protects and fosters local democracy, being loyal to our values and principles of decentralization, subsidiarity and accountability.

The next frontier of the municipal movement will work to develop intergenerational dialogues to ensure peace, will endeavour to build a true ecological transition by shifting our patterns of production and consumption and will be guardians of local democracy and the dreams of our communities.

Our next frontier will endeavour to build resilient communities by promoting our role in managing natural resources, will ensure that the voices of women and girls are heard in the creation of the localization process, and put gender equality at the heart of development processes and will place Culture in highest regard, as the fourth pillar of development.