We Care.
Pact for Government.

Municipalism is the driving force. We care for government and governance in partnership, rebuilding trust with our communities.

Our Vision

Municipalism is a new way of going about politics. We envision the future as a neighborhood built around solidarity and governance of proximity. A world shaped by the aspirations of our communities needs democracy and strong local governance to be the building blocks towards fostering sustainable peace and prosperous and creative societies. Caring for governments means building institutions that are participatory, transparent, accountable, and responsive to times. It means rethinking democracy in the new society of dis-information, and the relationships between spheres of government and with communities so they can impact local governance and the livelihoods of all people, leaving no one behind. It means enhancing decentralized multilateralism towards developing an inter urban system driven by our communities. To renew the multilateral system to ensure the next generation of multilateralism by the time the UN turns 100, placing local democracy at the core.

Our Pledge

To renew the multilateral system to ensure the next generation of multilateralism by the time the UN turns 100.

To defend the public service delivery, critical for societies to protect themselves.

To carry out a holistic approach to the emergencies that we are facing, and will face, and to do so mindful of individual and collective rights.

To acknowledge the importance of subsidiarity for the success of actions at all levels, making a dialogue between all spheres of government and an effective decentralization that guarantees the care for the needs of citizens.

To move from an international to an interurban system, built on the force of cities, local and regional governments that learn and define policies together, with strong associations that will allow scaling up of actions.

To place local democracy at the core, through governance of proximity and door-to-door democracy that cares for the dreams of our communities and defines solidarity and resource capacity as the backbone of humanity.

Our Undertakings

Governance Renewal

This increasingly urbanized world will continue to face unequal patterns of development, and it is up to cities and territories to rise to the challenge and contribute to a renewed model of governance. We are calling for enhancing the link between decentralisation and governance, and the renewal of the relationship between different spheres of government through the principle of subsidiarity. We are calling on bringing the local sphere to the conversation as it is better suited to address certain elements of public life and can contribute to a revitalized governance.

Actions

Decentralized Development Cooperation

The international community has long been discussing the efficiency of international cooperation. Decentralized and city-to-city development cooperation has grown over the last decade, and an increasing number of governments are engaging in cooperation with local governments. It is critical to debate the impact of decentralized cooperation on SDG localization, reinvent the core of cooperation, and ensure we renew financing mechanisms and ecosystems to enhance the impact on decentralized development cooperation.

Actions

The UCLG Peace Agenda

Conflict is inherent to societies, but violence is not. Our work on peace is based on this notion and the agenda of local and regional governments around peacebuilding. With peace as the opposite of violence, the work of our mechanisms of peacebuilding is that of understanding the roots of violence and working to prevent escalation, thus ensuring cities of territories of peace, while also exploring the role of local and regional governments in post-conflict scenarios to build social cohesion and foster reconciliation at the community level. The concept of city diplomacy as transformative diplomacy and the role of local and regional governments building bridges between communities remain at the heart of our efforts.

Actions

Revisiting Locar Democracy

Democracies are suffering a crisis due to increasing levels of polarization, misinformation, and mistrust towards politicians and institutions. Local democracy provides a meaningful platform to address many of these issues: to renew trust in institutions, build cohesion at the community level, and enable co-creation between residents and their representatives. Linked to municipalism as a new way of doing politics, our work in revisiting local democracy has a strong approach on participatory democracy, and in informing and empowering people.

Actions

Local Finance

Local and regional governments need to be adequately empowered to carry out their role in implementing the global agendas. The UCLG local finance agenda covers 3 main work areas: evidence-based advocacy; knowledge production and sharing, and delivery and capacity building. Some of our more essential outcomes are linked to research work analyzing subnational government structure and finance and carrying out advocacy to ensure that LRGs can access the finance market.

Actions