From 12 to 14 October, a daily plenary session will take place at the UCLG 7th World Congress to foster dialogue between representatives of local and regional governments and other actors, including national and international representatives and partners, on the Pact for the Future of Humanity, the outcome document of the Congress.
The first session on the Pact for the Future of Humanity will focus on “People: Equality and Care,” the second on “Planet: Transforming our Relationship with our Ecosystems,” and the last on “Governance: Governing Local & Global Realities as One.”
Each three-day sessions will be structured with an initial political introduction that will include a long-term vision to set the scene with the hopes, aspirations, and calls for the years to come; this will be followed by a consultation process to define that political vision.
The final pledge that participants will be invited to make for the “Future of People, Planet and Government” will set the groundwork for future advocacy priorities of the Local and Regional Governments constituency and its partners.
The unprecedent challenges the world is facing today require political commitments to shift the direction and move toward a better future. The role of the municipal movement is becoming increasingly crucial in today’s emerging crises, as local and regional governments are typically those on the front lines of these challenges.
In this context and within the framework of the SDGs, the Pact for the Future of Humanity will provide strategic guidance toward a new social contract to understand peace, equality, and justice as the indispensable pillars of any sustainable, thriving society. It reorients policy to place the three dimensions of people, planet and government at the center of local and regional action-oriented initiatives.
These three dimensions — people, planet, and government — have been identified through discussions and deliberations raised among UCLG leadership and different consultation mechanisms, including through work with the UN Common Agenda and through the #CitiesareListening process. The dimensions have driven the exploration of the principles and policies which have been debated, advocated, researched, and learned in the run up to the Daejeon Congress, and will be reflected in the Pact for the Future of Humanity.
The Pact aims to achieve an agreement anchored in the “Power of We,” the collective strength and value of the municipal movement, to contribute to the Common Agenda of the UN Secretary General — to develop a pact for the future, localize the universal agendas, and develop a society of care that achieves transformation by guaranteeing the provision of public services. The “Power of We” is a concept that is fundamental to UCLG and its principles, and is also a way to communicate the core goals of centralizing care for residents’ wellbeing in local and regional governments’ priorities. UCLG members and the organized constituency of Local and Regional Governments will use the Pact for the Future of Humanity to define strategic priorities util 2028, ensuring that not only the Pact but also the actions of the constituency align with and speak to the UN Summit of the Future, the SDG Summit, as well as the High-Level Political Forum when the progress on the achievement of the SDG 11 is being reviewed.