The OECD welcomes the 7th United Cities and Local Government (UCLG) World Summit and Congress, the largest gathering of local governments, local government associations and practitioners in the world. Current global challenges, such as climate change and natural disasters, widening territorial disparities or skills mismatches, all have a significant local dimension. The World Summit and Congress serves as a timely and necessary platform for local actors to enhance synergies and co-operate to promote a renewed vision of how local governments can act to address the global challenges our societies are facing.
The OECD and UCLG are key partners that aim to foster economic and social well-being of citizens at the subnational level. In agreement with UCLG, the OECD strongly believes that effective multi-level governance, combined with a fair distribution of resources among levels of government, is crucial to improve local public policies. Through this co-operation, the OECD endeavours to enhance dialogue with regions and cities in order to promote territorial development.
Acknowledging the importance to collect and analyse data to this aim, the OECD and UCLG jointly lead the World Observatory on Subnational Government Finance and Investment – SNG-WOFI, whose primary objective is to expand knowledge and to promote dialogue on multi-level governance and subnational finance around the world by collecting and analysing standardised quantitative and qualitative data. The third edition of the SNG-WOFI, which will be launched on October 24, 2022 at the OECD headquarters in Paris, encompasses data from 135 countries, covering around 85% of the world surface area and more than 90% of the world population and GDP. At the UCLG World Congress, a teaser session dedicated to the SNG WOFI will be held on Friday October 14, to present the methodology and features of the new edition and discuss, with the participants, the role of such a World Observatory in policy and societal debates.
