The World Summit of Local and Regional Leaders, convened by United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), is the largest gathering of mayors, presidents of associations, councillors, and local and regional practitioners from around the world. It also gathers the most influential local and regional leaders, councilors, local governments, partners, and actors implicated in the decision making of city and community life.
The gathering is the true cornerstone of our movement and organization. It has also become a reunion relevant to the members of UCLG, to the movement and to the world. The gathering showcases our full strength, the diversity of our organization, and our capacity to work with others aiming to strike a balance between the great matters of our time and the day to day business of our communities and our neighborhoods.
The triennial UCLG Congress also builds on the legacy of the commitments of the local and regional governments constituency around the world. A commitment to ensure a better future for all through action at local, national and international levels. A commitment to govern and build in partnership, a commitment for cities and regions to take their rightful place at the head of a new international agenda for inclusive and sustainable development.
Who is expected to come to the World Summit?
The UCLG World Summit gathers over 3,000 people from the highest level: from representatives of the international system and the United Nations, to local, regional, and national leaders, to representatives from NGOs and the civil society, co-creating the solutions that our planet needs. The UCLG World Summit is truly the largest gathering of the Municipal movement, and is also evolving constantly to be more useful to the entire world
What did the 2019 Congress bring to the table?
For the first time, our Summit provided an alternative space for the constituency to organize with stakeholders and prepare inputs, promote policy areas and develop the next steps of the Municipal movement. Through its four tracks, the Summit consolidated the policies that UCLG has been promoting within its strategic plan, with a strong focus on localizing the SDGs, aiming at leaving no one, and no place behind, with a key focus on local governments as representatives of communities and for communities, and keeping the four UCLG Policy Councils issues as key pillars.
The Assembly Track was driven by local and regional government representatives, and provided the continental, thematic, and sectoral priorities that contribute to the global policies of the World Organization of Local and Regional Governments. UCLG Sections, as well as sister organizations of local governments developed position papers that presented these priorities to the movement
Civil Society partners were behind the Town Hall Track, the space for dialogue and interaction between different internationally organized communities, civil society, and the political leadership of the local and regional governments constituency to define our global policies.
The Local4Action Track provided the adequate format for all the spheres of the network and partners to participate in a cooperative process to share, listen, and review.
The Statutory Track comprised of the governing bodies that shape the policies and work plan of the World Organization of United Cities and Local Governments (the Executive Bureau, the World Council, and the General Assembly, that meets once every three years). This includes leading the charge for the renewal of the UCLG Leadership.
The Special Sessions that take place within the World Congress will strive to build upon the policy issues that the World Organization is tackling, and develop a Manifesto that addresses their future.
Outcomes
For the first time, the outcome of the Summit was a compendium of integrated policy recommendations resulting from a consultation with other stakeholders in the Assembly Track and the Town Hall track, based on the papers drafted by each of the constituencies, and offering both bottom-up continental and region-specific priorities. The outcomes were presented to the UCLG Leadership and to the World Assembly of Local and Regional Government.
Ten Manifestos with specific recommendations for the Network were developed as a result of the Special Sessions, aiming at envisioning the future of the municipal movement and co-creating happiness for the communities that we represent.
Finally, the Durban Political Declaration is a political document adopted by the local and regional delegates that gathered within the World Summit builds on the work of our constituency and strong vision of the future of the international municipal movement.