Greg Munro is the Director of Cities Alliance, a partnership hosted by UNOPS, which seeks to address the challenges of urban poverty and informality, particularly in secondary cities. Based in Brussels, Cities Alliance works globally as well as through country programmes.
Eugenie L. Birch is the President of the General Assembly of Partners, the engagement platform for the implementation of the United Nations’s New Urban Agenda, and Lawrence C. Nussdorf chair of Urban Research and Education at the University of Pennsylvania.
Sophia Torres is a member of the Global Platform for the Right to the City and the Habitat International Coalition General Secretariat teams, working on issues related to global advocacy.
The unprecedent challenges and emerging crises the world is facing today require political commitments to shift the direction towards a better future, where the role of the municipal movement is crucial. It also means more participation and engagement from local communities, increasing democracy, responsability, accountability and ownership.
The Pact for the Future is the key outcome document of the 2022 World Congress. It defines the strategic priorities for the organization 2022 to 2028. With the Pact, local and regional governments reaffirm that they are ready to join national and international partners in bringing meaningful change.
The 7th UCLG World Congress and Summit of Local and Regional Leaders closed on 14 October 2022 with the participation of more than 3,000 representatives from all over the world. The adoption of the Pact for the Future of Humanity was the most relevant outcome of the event held in Daejeon, Republic of Korea.
The world’s largest meeting of mayors, local and regional leaders and their associations closed on 14 October 2022 in Daejeon, Republic of Korea. It was the first time after the breakout of the COVID-19 pandemic that most of them met physically.
The Pact for the Future of Humanity has been adopted by the UCLG World Council during its gathering on 14 October 2022 at the 7th UCLG World Congress in Daejeon, Republic of Korea. Representatives from local and regional governments and stakeholders from around the world participated in the plenary consultations around the three key axes of the Pact: people, planet, and government.
The session “The Future of the New Urban Agenda: Moving towards an Inter-Urban Future” took place on the last day of the World Congress, with discussions on the role that the New Urban Agenda plays in the implementation of integrated and balanced territorial development. Representatives from local governments’ associations, academia, and mayors from cities of various sizes presented their perspectives on the paradigm shift proposed by the New Urban Agenda and how to advance the implementation of its inclusive, age-sensitive and gender-sensitive multilevel and multistakeholder approach.
The transformation required to achieve the global agendas on sustainable urbanization, climate change, and sustainable development can only occur if development models respond to the actual needs and expectations of local communities. Often, there is a significant gap between global policies and the needs and experiences of municipal governments. Therefore, local democracy plays a key role in creating collective responsibility for global goals.
