In the lead-up to the 2026 World Congress in Tangier, a series of political Letters has emerged as a central pillar of how local and regional governments intend to define their priorities for the next decade.
Developed under the framework of the Local Social Covenant — a structured dialogue between UCLG Policy Councils and the UCLG Town Hall representing organised civil society — eight thematic Letters have been published. Rather than technical papers, they set out public, traceable political positions on the issues that cities and territories consider essential to advancing rights-based, people-centred governance.
The Letters cover a broad range of subjects shaping local responsibilities. Among them are commitments toward adequate housing for all, ending hunger and securing food systems, preventing conflict, universal health, climate justice, cultural rights for sustainable development, access to local finance, and the “new essentials” — expanding the understanding of essential services beyond traditional infrastructure to include connectivity, care and social infrastructure.
The process has been intentionally iterative and visible. By publishing the correspondence, UCLG has created a transparent record of where political positions converge and where negotiation remains necessary as the Congress approaches. The Climate Justice Letter underscores the frontline role of local governments in responding to climate impacts and calls for mitigation and adaptation strategies grounded in equity and human rights. The Public Health Letter frames health as a universal right, arguing that robust and inclusive local systems are indispensable to addressing inequality and environmental risk.
Letters on Finance and Cultural Rights add further political weight. The finance Letter stresses that without long-term, locally adaptive and publicoriented resources, local commitments — from housing to climate action and care systems — cannot be sustained. The cultural rights Letter positions access to knowledge, creativity and community spaces not as peripheral amenities, but as democratic infrastructures.
Taken together, the Letters map the terrain on which the Congress will define its mandate. They link everyday governance challenges with global debates on inequality, sustainability and democratic inclusion.
Their publication also reflects a shift in how policy priorities are co-created. Rather than confining civil society to reactive consultation, the Local Social Covenant invites partners into a sustained correspondence that builds collective political commitments. For UCLG leaders, this approach signals a desire to move beyond technical cooperation toward more accountable, coowned agenda-setting.
Beyond their thematic scope, the Letters also function as an instrument of collective leverage. By articulating shared priorities ahead of the Congress, they equip local and regional governments with a common political baseline for negotiations with national authorities, multilateral institutions and international partners.
As Tangier approaches, the question is no longer whether dialogue has taken place, but how to turn these positions into shared commitments.
The full set of Letters is publicly available at: uclg.org/localsocialcovenant/