EDITORIAL
The most important political conversations of our time are not always taking place where we expect: They often unfold in neighbourhoods, towns, cities and regions, not just in national capitals, international organisations or global summits. These are the places where climate change impacts are managed, housing pressures are felt, care needs are organised, public services are delivered and trust in institutions is tested and built every day.
Local stories remain underrepresented in the broader public conversation. For more than a century, the international municipal movement has defended local self- government, decentralisation, proximity and the need for local authorities to have the powers and resources required to serve their communities. Its roots reach back to the early twentieth century, long before today’s language of localisation and multilevel governance became common in global policy debates. The conviction that local governments matter is not new, but the world around it has changed.
Over the past decade, and particularly through the collective advocacy of the Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments, the municipal movement has become increasingly visible in global debates on development, climate, migration, housing, peace and human rights.
Local and regional governments are no longer only asking to be recognised as implementers of global agendas, but they are instead claiming their place as political actors capable of shaping them.
That is also where the Municipal Times comes from. Created by the Urban Journalism Institute, an initiative of the non-profit organisation OnCities2030, with the support of UCLG, the Municipal Times was born from the simple belief that local and regional governments deserve stronger journalistic attention. After all, they are central to the future of our societies.
The first edition was published during the UCLG World Congress in Daejeon in 2022, when the municipal movement adopted the Pact for the Future of Humanity and sought to articulate a common vision after a period marked by crisis, recovery and uncertainty.
Four years later, the movement gathers again — this time in Tangier. But the world we face has changed.
Housing has become one of the defining political pressures in cities of every size. Climate emergencies are no longer future scenarios but local budget lines, emergency responses and planning decisions. Care has moved from the private sphere into the centre of public debate. Public services are under strain and democratic trust is fragile. Meanwhile, the international community is already beginning to look beyond 2030.
Against this backdrop, the UCLG World Congress and World Summit of Local and Regional Leaders takes on a particularly important role. Mayors, governors, and local officials come together to take stock of what has changed since Daejeon, to renew the leadership of the movement, and to define how to shape the next political cycle.
Tangier will bring together statutory debates, political assemblies, public service dialogues, discussions on housing justice, care, climate resilience, peace, feminist municipalism, local finance, and the future of global agendas. But behind the programme lies the larger debate of what communities can expect from public institutions in a time of profound transformation.
That question is at the centre of the Local Social Covenant, and the Municipal Times Outlook — this special edition ahead of the Congress — is conceived as a companion to that conversation. It is an invitation to understand what is at stake before the Congress begins: the ideas gaining momentum, the tensions shaping the agenda, the city hosting the debate, and the answers local and regional leaders will carry home when the sessions end.
As readers move through these pages, we hope they encounter not only Tangier, but also a movement in transition — from the Pact for the Future adopted in Daejeon to a Local Social Covenant rooted in rights, services, care, dignity and everyday life.
Because if the challenges of our time are increasingly experienced locally, the voices of local and regional governments need to be heard more clearly. That was true in Daejeon and it remains true in Tangier. These voices will matter long after the Congress concludes.