If Tangier is meant to clarify how the municipal movement positions itself globally, it will also need to answer a more concrete question: what exactly are local governments prepared to guarantee?
Beyond institutional debates on multilateral reform, a more grounded shift is underway — a redefinition of what cities consider essential.
Water, sanitation and energy remain fundamental. But recent crises, from the pandemic to accelerating climate impacts, have permanently altered the baseline. “When we talk about essentials, we’re talking about things that are much more than just basic services,” said Lorena Zárate, Co-Director of the Global Platform for the Right to the City. Internet access became indispensable for education and livelihoods. Care systems determined who could participate in economic and public life. Public space proved critical for social cohesion.
Zárate pushed the argument further. If services are essential, they must be treated as commons. “They should not be privatised, they should not be commodified.” The question, she suggested, is not only provision, but governance — who controls essential systems, and in whose interest.
The concept of care surfaced repeatedly as a thread linking housing, health, mobility and climate action. UCLG Secretary General Emilia Saiz framed care as a lens through which policy priorities must be reassessed, rather than as a sector in its own right. Decisions about transport, urban design or youth participation, she argued, should be evaluated according to whether they sustain dignity and reciprocity.
Kelsey Paul Shantz of Peace in Our Cities articulated the principle in relational terms: “To embody care practice in our communities and in our worlds, it takes caring individuals and caring communities and caring cities and caring societies globally.” In this framing, care becomes a governance model.
The debate also expanded into culture. Stephen Wyber, Director of External Affairs at the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, argued that access to information and creativity is not secondary to development goals. “[People] have always benefited from the possibility to be creative, to be empowered, to be informed.” In a fragmented political climate, he suggested, libraries and cultural institutions function as democratic infrastructure.
For several participants, redefining essentials also requires confronting inequalities embedded in housing systems. Alexandre Frediani of the International Institute for Environment and Development described the shift of housing toward the centre of the municipal agenda as significant. “The position of the housing agenda today is significantly different from where it has ever been,” he said, while warning that political commitment remains uneven.
Voices from the Pacific reinforced that urgency. Mekhelesi Singata cautioned that climate change and gentrification are pushing communities away from their territories. “Gentrification needs to be stopped… people are being pushed away,” she said, calling for indigenous knowledge and community governance to be central in urban development.
Expanding the definition of essentials carries structural consequences. It challenges how budgets are structured, how public-private partnerships are negotiated and how accountability is enforced. It also reopens the question of who defines priorities.
The discussion in Barcelona did not produce a fixed list. Instead, it marked a shift in approach: essential services are no longer defined solely by infrastructure, but by their capacity to sustain rights, participation and collective wellbeing.
As preparations continue toward June, the Congress will not only address how local governments engage globally, but also what they are prepared to guarantee locally — and under what principles.