Noticias & Blog

The Networking Hub within the Summit of Local and Regional Leaders in Bogotá became the perfect platform for the launch of the Public Space Framework by and for Local Governments.

The UCLG World Secretariat celebrated the 3rd Learning Forum in the framework of the World Summit of Local and Regional Leaders that took place in Bogotá in October 2016. As it was the case in previous occasions members and partners gathered to work collaboratively on the UCLG Learning Agenda for cities, local and regional governments.

On the eve of Habitat III, officials from 500 cities release two new visions of a deeper international role for local authorities.

As the world gears up for the Third UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) in Quito, local and regional leaders will gather in Bogotá and Quito for the World Assembly of Local and Regional Governments to bring the voices of towns, cities and regions to the event, which they hope will be a landmark moment in their relationship with the UN.

12 October marked the opening of the largest global gathering of local and regional leaders and their partners: Bogotá 2016. Colombia’s capital city is hosting the 2016 edition of the UCLG World Summit, "Local Voices for a Better World", from 12 to 15 October.

Only a week left before the opening of our 2016 World Summit of Local and Regional Leaders “Local Voices for a Better World”.  The city of Bogota, capital of Colombia, is getting ready to welcome local and regional authorities and partners of global governance from across the world.

On  World Habitat Day 2016, that launches the beginning of the Urban month celetrations, UCLG reaffirms its commitment to the Right to the City for all and calls on the international community to harness the New Urban Agenda to support local and regional governments and make it a reality. The world must #Listen2Cities at Habitat III!

Municipal finances can be a murky area in some parts of the developing world. In some cities, even basic information about how much money is going into the local budget and how much is going out can be difficult to find.

The World Summit of local and regional leaders includes an Urban Journalism Academy, with the aim of encouraging a more proactive and substantive role of media in the development of the city, at international, national and local levels.

The Fourth Global Report on Decentralization and Local Democracy (GOLD IV) – Co-Creating the Urban Future explores how the New Urban Agenda can be achieved everywhere, in cities and regions large and small. It will be launched on the 15 October at the UCLG World Congress in Bogotá.

En un mes dará comienzo la Cumbre Mundial de Gobiernos Locales y Regionales. Es el momento de empezar a prepararse para tomar parte en la Cumbre, qué preguntas te gustaría realizar a nuestros ponentes y a qué talleres te gustaría asistir.

​As the urban community gears up for the Habitat III Conference in October 2016, there are high hopes that the New Urban Agenda will harness this once-in-a-generation opportunity to make a paradigm shift that puts local governments and territories at the center of development.

The principal task faced by millions of mayors and locally elected leaders worldwide is to implement concrete actions to improve the quality of life of residents living in the areas they govern, which is also linked to the sustainable development of cities and territories. The challenges associated with hosting the majority of the world’s population are obvious, and could lead to a misleading perception that increasing urbanization is the root of many problems. 

Women still make up fewer than 20% of councillors and just 5% of mayors worldwide, but the signs are that a new generation of women leaders is emerging at local level, just as the global urban population is set to explode. In this new urban world, local and regional governments call for cities created by and for women and girls at Habitat III.

The five finalists for the UCLG City of Bogotá Peace Prize have been selected by the high-level jury of the prize. The Peace Prize is a triennial award for local governments that have implemented innovative initiatives in conflict prevention, conflict resolution or peace building, and which have proven to have had a significant positive impact.

Public space is a powerful tool to drive local economies, promote cultural expression, empower women and tackle social segregation. That's why local and regional governments are working to put public space on the international agenda and to learn from one another about how to harness public space to improve the lives of their citizens.

In the framework of the World Summit of Local and Regional Leaders, Bogota invites you to participate in the Parallel Agenda that projects the city of Bogota at the year 2050, which will take place in Corferias simultaneously to UCLGStatutory Agenda. More than 50 special sessions and workshops will be conducted to exchange experiences and good practices around the challenges and opportunities in local governance and urban development.

UCLG’s Learning Agenda has been enhanced since the adoption of UCLG’s strategy for the period of 2013 to 2016. One factor that all learning events have in common is that they contribute to a cohesive network. 

On the eve of Habitat III, local and regional governments highlight the role of transparency and accountability in sustainable development and commit to go further in fostering local democracy.

On 12-15 October the World Summit of Local and Regional Leaders will be held in Bogotá together with the 5th UCLG World Congress. During the World Summit, local and regional leaders will have the opportunity to discuss cutting-edge environmental, economic and societal issues affecting our daily work on the ground. 

The function of culture as a dimension of sustainable (urban?) development is increasingly worldwide recognized. Truly "sustainable cities" will not happen unless heritage, creativity, diversity, knowledge and participation become "operational" in urban policies.

Will you be attending the World Summit of Local and Regional Leaders? Do you have an experience or a proposal that you think could be interesting for local government representatives and practitioners from around the globe?

​​Are you, your city or organization thinking of taking part in the World Summit of Local and Regional Leaders? You can also participate by presenting a video that demonstrates your work, a project or policy, or a problem faced by your community.

United Cities and Local Governments and the City of Bogota are pleased to announce that the on-line registration is now open for the World Summit of Local and Regional Leaders, the 5th UCLG Congress, which will be held from 12 to 15 October 2016 in Bogotá, Colombia.

The year 2016 is of paramount importance for urban sustainability. In October, the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) will convene in Quito, Ecuador, immediately after the World Summit of Local and Regional Leaders concludes in Bogotá, Colombia.

What are the real capacities of local governments to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? The Global Observatory on Local Finances is an essential tool to raise awareness and strengthen the dialogue among the international community and central and local governments, in order to improve fiscal decentralization worldwide. The UCLG World Congress in Bogotá will see the launch of the first edition of this Global Observatory.

On the eve of the Habitat III Conference, local and regional governments, representatives of civil society, the academic world and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights will meet at the UCLG World Congress in Bogotá to debate how to ensure that the Right to the City is guaranteed. 

The UCLG's Executive Bureau took place in Kazan from 25 to 27 May with over 200 representatives present from some 90 cities and local and regional authorities from all around the world, along with important figures from the urban world. The meetings in Kazan are the last time that the UCLG governing bodies will come together before they meet at the World Summit in Bogota, which will take place from 12 to 15 October this year. 

Through Habitat III, it’s up to national leaders and the international community to take the next step: to share powers, means and responsibilities with local and regional authorities.

The Second World Assembly is the mechanism through which the local and regional government constituency will make its official inputs to the New Urban Agenda that will be adopted at the Habitat III Conference in October 2016. The New Urban Agenda will make recommendations to guide urban development policy across the world for the coming decades.

The 2016 edition of the UCLG Summit: “Local Voices for a better world” will take place immediately before the Habitat III conference. The World Summit of Local and Regional Leaders, organized by United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), is the largest, most influential global gathering of mayors, councillors, local governments, and our partners. It’s hoped that this 2016 edition, to be held in Bogotá, Colombia from 12-15 October, will count on over 3,000 locally elected leaders and practitioners in attendance.

A message from Josep Roig, UCLG Secretary General. In our cities and regions, mayors and governors attend to the daily agendas of  citizens in their territories. National governments direct three or four year macro policies and international organizations discuss global agendas in cycles of 15-20 years. For cities, regions and local governments around the world, 2016 guarantees to be a particularly intensive year.  The global agendas are touching down in cities and regions. 

The World Summit of local and regional leaders will be celebrated from 12 to 15 october 2016 in Bogota (Colombia). Held every three years, the United Cities and Local Governments Congress, commonly known as the World Summit of Local and Regional Leaders, is the event of reference for all local and regional leaders. Previous editions have seen the event take on huge importance at the heart of the international community, becoming a key date in the calendar of local and regional governments around the world.

Latin America will host these two key dates on the global agenda, where the challenges and possible solutions to determine the cities of the future will be defined. At a time when the transformative potential of urbanization is becoming increasingly recognized within the international community, the future urban agenda must ensure a key role for cities and urban areas, and their connection with rural areas, in order to construct a sustainable future.

The World Summit of Local and Regional Leaders, the 4th Congress of UCLG culminated today in Rabat with the announcement of the new Presidency of UCLG – the largest organization of Mayors and local and regional governments in the world. Over these three days, over 3,000 participants from 125 countries came together under the theme, “Imagine Society, Build Democracy”.