From the 1st to the 4th of October, the city of Rabat will be at the forefront of the international scene as thousands of local and regional leaders come from all corners of the world for the World Congress of United Cities and Local Governments. This major event for towns, cities and regions of the world will be characterized by the celebrations of the centenary of the international municipal movement.
As part of this centennial celebration, UCLG has decided to pay homage to the movement by publishing a collection of original testimonies that has been the joint work of some key figures who have kindly accepted to share their experiences.
In the words of Pierre Yves Saunier & Renaud Payre, specialists on the municipal movement, “Celebrating a centenary can misleadingly give the appearance of a short, quiet and seamless history.” This publication therefore aims to avoid the ‘misleading appearance’ by provide a behind the scenes look and real account of the recent history of the international municipal movement that led to the creation of UCLG.
Through these testimonies, we can better understand how during the 1990s, the international institutions called upon local and regional authorities to better coordinate in order to increase their impact on the international sphere. Coordination bodies like the G4, G4+, WACLAC were organised to facilitate this process and lead to the creation of a permanent unified global voice for local authorities, UCLG.
This year’s centennial celebration therefore allows us to reflect on our shared past, take stock of the achievements of a movement that is still going strong in 1913. Today, the next step in the international municipal movement is in our hands.
Click here to see the publication of the testimonies.