At one point during the “100 Days of Local Multilateralism” session, the discussion took an unexpected turn into metaphors.
Several participants compared today’s multilateral landscape to a train line with too many stops: gender here, climate there, migration further down the track. The problem, they suggested, is not the lack of stations, but deciding which ones to prioritise—and having the capacity to get off at the right moment with something meaningful to say.
Others widened the image into a transport system, with multiple routes, connections and modes of travel. Cities and regions, in this view, are not just passengers moving from one official platform to the next, but actors switching tracks between UN forums, political summits and informal coalitions, depending on where influence is possible.
The image hanging in the room, however, was a balloon. Expanding in all directions, full of energy—and at risk of drifting if not anchored. The metaphor stuck. With local governments now present across so many global agendas, the challenge is no longer how to join the conversation, but how to stay focused once inside it.
Behind the humour sat a serious point: in a crowded multilateral landscape, strategy may matter more than speed. Sometimes choosing the right stop, and knowing when not to board the next train, can be the most political decision of all.