The Local Multilateral System Has Come of Age
Our world is at a foundational moment. The pandemic placed us in front of an unprecedented scenario, but also gave us a renewed sense of purpose to deliver truly transformative action, to overcome the current levels of inequality, address the environmental crisis, and challenge the widening cultural divide. The 2020 World Council mandated the World Organization to pursue a Pact for the Future of humanity based on three principles: people, planet, and government, building on the legacy of the Durban Political Declaration.
The Pact for the Future, The Daejeon Declaration is the key outcome document of the 2022 World Congress and defines the Strategic Priorities for the Organization 2022 to 2028. With the Pact, local and regional governments re-state that they are ready to join national and international partners in bringing about meaningful change.
The World Summit of Local and Regional Leaders and UCLG Congress was the stage to ensure that the Pact for the Future speaks to the UN Summit of the Future and the SDG Summit of 2023. Twin high-level consultations on the future for People, Planet and Government framed the political vision of our constituency and were built on the aspirations of our national and international partners, which will further represent a crucial lever to ensure that our constituency plays its part within a renewed multilateral system to achieve the global development agendas, such as the 2030 Agenda, the Paris Agreement and the New Urban Agenda. To meet the expectations of current and future generations and break through as one.
The Pact for the Future for People places people at the center, deepening the needs of current generations and expanding the rights of future ones by guaranteeing access to public services and the commons. As we acknowledge the impact of growing inequalities within and between cities, the Pact seeks to deliver fairness and intersectional justice for everyone and for every place.
The Future for the Planet promotes systems and ways of living in harmony with our planet while building resilience and sustainability through policies that renature our production and consumption models will be crucial cornerstones of the Pact for the Future – and an endeavor that no actor nor level of government can achieve alone.
The Future for Government is founded upon the call of our communities who are increasingly pleading for the transformation of governing systems. We are in a once-in-a-generation opportunity to review and improve our tools to respond to the challenges we face, to ensure we drive a profound transformation of our societies and our systems.
The three twin consultation sessions resulted in municipal pledges for the Future of People, Planet and Government that were brought to the World Council on the 14 of October and set the ground of the future advocacy of the constituency of Local and Regional governments and its partners for inclusive, just and equal societies.
The visions and aspirations reflected in the Pact will be shaped into actionable commitments throughout 2023 and serve as the strategic vision for the World Organization in the coming years. Motions presented by all members will further deepen the policy visions and serve as a reference to the inputs of the whole local and regional governments constituency represented by the Global Taskforce.
Three political leaders have been appointed as Ambassadors for the Pact for the Future: Ada Colau, Mayor of Barcelona as Ambassador for the Future of People; Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris as Ambassador for the Future of Planet; Yücel Yilmaz, Mayor of Balikesir as Ambassador for the Future of Government.
