Consultation Mechanisms

Policy Councils

The UCLG policy councils drive and develop the 2017-2019 priorities and work programme to enhance policy ownership and political participation, facilitate networking and support the sharing of expertise among UCLG members on specific themes identified as priorities of the global agenda of the World Organization.

Policy Council objectives:

The Policy Councils develop policy recommendations in relation to strategic topics.
Committees can refer topics for broad discussion, reports and documents to the Policy Councils to be tabled during the Executive Bureau meetings.

Key Elements

01

The Policy Councils shall be composed of up to 15 representatives with a political mandate, including at least one member of the Presidency..

02

UCLG Policy Councils report at each session of the Executive Bureau..

03

The World Secretariat facilitates the work of the Policy Councils in collaboration with other parts of the membership relevant to the issues to be covered..

The Terms of Reference for UCLG Policy Development and Consultation Mechanisms

Policy Councils

Right to the City: Reclaiming the Commons

This Policy Council places the focus on supporting the realization of the new essentials (innovative public services) that our constituency must protect (including housing, universal health coverage, accessibility, education, decent work, digital inclusivity, the right to food and water, and food systems). It will continue strengthening the link between the Commons and Human Rights through the Right to the City. The Policy Council will also push for a stronger agenda on Culture as the backbone of the Commons and debate views on how to build stronger partnerships and tailor-made solutions to unlock the potential of subsidiarity.

 

Co-chairs:

  1. Mohamed Sefiani, Mayor of Chefchaouen (Morocco), Chair of the UCLG Forum on Intermediary Cities, UCLG Special Envoy for Food Systems
  2. Co-chair to be confirmed

 

Policy Councillors:

  1. Esteban Áviles, Mayor of Villa Carlos Paz (Argentina)
  2. Emmanuel Carroz, Deputy Mayor of Grenoble (France)
  3. Filippo Mannino, Mayor of Lampedusa and Linosa (Italy)
  4. Said Daoud Mohamed, Mayor of Djibouti City (Djibouti)
  5. Anyang Nyong’o, Governor of Kisumu (Kenya)
  6. Leonardo Orlando, Prefect of Manabí Province (Ecuador)
  7. Daithí de Róiste, Lord Mayor of Dublin (Ireland)
  8. Linda Voortman, Alderman for Work and Income, Diversity, Public Services, Personnel and Organization of Utrecht (Netherlands), Co-Chair of the UCLG Committee on Social Inclusion, Participatory Democracy and Human Rights

Opportunities for All: Redefining Finance and Economies of Equality

This Policy Council works around defining ways to ensure that local actions advance to effectively lead our constituency to urban and territorial equality. It will allow debates to ground financial decisions on people’s needs by a rights-based approach and ensuring that our economies serve all people equitably, by centering marginalized voices, and paying attention to addressing intersecting and systemic forms of discrimination. The Policy Council will also push for a new way of measuring finance and the adequacy of economic systems based on sustainability, human development and wellbeing criteria, but also on territorial solidarity and decentralized cooperation.

 

Co-chairs to be confirmed

 

Policy Councillors:

  1. Cemal Baş, City Councillor of Keçiören (Türkiye)
  2. Anthony Berthelot, Mayor of Indre (France), Member of the Board of Nantes Métropole
  3. Wobine Buijs-Glaudemans, Mayor of Oss (Netherlands)
  4. Carolina Cosse, Mayor of Montevideo (Uruguay), President of Mercociudades, President of UCLG
  5. Emil Dardak, Vice-Governor of East Java (Indonesia)
  6. Fernando Gray, Mayor of Esteban Echeverria (Argentina), Vice-President of UCLG for Latin America
  7. Rohey Malick Lowe, Mayor of Banjul (Gambia), President of REFELA
  8. Jeannette Nyiramasengesho, President of Rwanda Association of Local Government Authorities – RALGA (Rwanda)
  9. Llorenç Perelló, Mayor of Alaró (Spain), President of the Majorcan Cooperation Fund
  10. Francisco Toajas, Deputy of Seville Provincial Council (Spain), Chair of the UCLG Committee on Local Economic and Social Development
  11. Ye Niuping, Mayor of Xi’an (China)
  12. Abdel Karim Zubaidi, Mayor of Salfeet (Palestine), President of the Association of Palestinian Local Authorities (APLA)

Multilevel Governance: Regaining Trust

This Policy Council centres  on conversations around the renewal of local democracy (including citizenship, the renewal of public institutions and the needs of communities). It will continue building on the idea that multilevel governance needs to be prepared for addressing the new demands of responding to complex emergencies (climate breakdown, health emergencies, security and energy crisis, crisis of rights and citizenship for communities). The Policy Council will push for the inseparable relationship of public services and trust. It will deliberate on strategic tools to consider local and regional governments as an enabling environment to regain trust.

 

Co-chairs:

  1. Carola Gunnarsson, City Councillor of Sala (Sweden), Vice-President of UCLG for Europe, UCLG Special Envoy for Freedom, Solidarity and Fighting Violence against Local Political Leaders
  2. Co-chair to be confirmed

 

Policy Councillors:

  1. Juan Mari Aburto, Mayor of Bilbao (Spain)
  2. Meritxell Budó, Mayor of La Garriga (Spain), President of the Association of Catalan Municipalities (ACM)
  3. Barthélémy Dias, Mayor of Dakar (Senegal), Incoming President of Metropolis
  4. Panyaza Lesufi, Premier of Gauteng Province (South Africa)
  5. Valeria Melipillán, Mayor of Quilpué (Chile)
  6. Benoît Pilet, Deputy Mayor of Angers (France), Vice-President of Angers Loire Métropole
  7. José Manuel Ribeiro, Mayor of Valongo (Portugal)
  8. Bheke Stofile, President of the South African Local Government Association – SALGA (South Africa), Co-President of UCLG

Resilient and Regenerative Territories: Renaturing

This Policy Council will advance, in light of the triple crisis of the climate emergency, biodiversity loss, and environmental pollution and damage, the discussion on how to decouple human development and wellbeing –in harmony with nature– from an economy solely centred on growth, resource depletion and the social inequalities that accompany it. The Policy Council will also foster debate on innovative public actions that can change extractivist relationships both between cities and the environment, through models of green growth and de-growth, as well as regenerate the lost and damaged instances of interdependence in the continuum between larger cities, intermediary cities and rural land.

 

Co-chairs to be confirmed

 

Policy Councillors:

  1. Fatimetou Abdel Malick, President of Nouakchott Regional Council (Mauritania), President of UCLG-Africa, Chair of UCLG Standing Committee on Gender Equality, Co-President of UCLG
  2. Véronique Bertholle, Deputy Mayor of Strasbourg (France)
  3. Paulin Claude Danho, Mayor of Attécoubé (Côte d’Ivoire), President of the Union of Cities and Towns of Côte d’Ivoire (UVICOCI)
  4. Sharon Dijksma, Mayor of Utrecht (Netherlands), Chairperson of the Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG)
  5. Anders Knape, Vice-President of Karlstad Council (Sweden), Executive President of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR)
  6. Antoine Le Solleuz, Deputy Mayor of Nancy (France)
  7. Axel Schmidt Grael, Mayor of Niterói (Brazil)

 

Local Multilateralism and City Diplomacy: Linking the Local to the Global

This Policy Council focuses on building a local-global coalition for a more inclusive multilateral system. It will debate different ways to continue dialogue amongst all actors to enhance ownership, trust and accountability and to ensure that a new multilateral system is one that reflects the views of all. Since the New Urban Agenda is a critical cornerstone of the space provided to the international municipal movement in development policies, the Policy Council will provide inputs on its monitoring and state of implementation. It will discuss how to continue bringing the voice of communities in the international forums. 

 

Co-chairs:

  1. Carlos Martínez, Mayor of Soria, UCLG Special Envoy for the New Urban Agenda
  2. Co-chair to be confirmed

 

Policy Councillors:

  1. Chokri Badreddine, Deputy Mayor of Voiron (France)
  2. Nicolas Cuesta, Mayor of San Justo (Argentina)
  3. Clare Hart, City Councillor of Montpellier (France), Vice-President of Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole
  4. Gunn Marit Helgesen, Regional Councillor of Vestfold and Telemark (Norway), President of the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS), President of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR)
  5. Sami Kanaan, City Councillor of Geneva (Switzerland), Chair of the UCLG Permanent Working Group on Territorial Prevention and Management of Crises
  6. Miguel Lunghi, Mayor of Tandil (Argentina)
  7. Maria Lluïsa Moret, Mayor of Sant Boi de Llobregat (Spain), President of Barcelona Provincial Council
  8. Almudena Maíllo del Valle, City Councillor of Madrid (Spain), Secretary General of the Union of Ibero-American Capital Cities (UCCI)
  9. Fuad Noman, Mayor of Belo Horizonte (Brazil)
  10. Paola Pabón, Prefect of Pichincha, President of CONGOPE (Ecuador), Vice-President of UCLG for the Forum of Regions
  11. Asmaa Rhlalou, Mayor of Rabat (Morocco), Treasurer of UCLG
  12. Jan Van Zanen, Mayor of The Hague (Netherlands), Member of UCLG Executive Presidency
  13. Cristian Zamora, Mayor of Cuenca (Ecuador)

What are UCLG Committees?

A UCLG Committee is an organized group of local government members represented by politicians that get together to work on a specific policy area. A Committee has a dedicated Secretariat and a group of members coming from all Sections of the organization. It reports to the World Council, in close coordination with the Policy Councils.

Committee objectives

The Committees develop background on specific policy areas that can serve as bases for formal policy positions to be adopted by the governing bodies of the World Organization. These policies must be embedded in the thematic areas defined by the Executive Bureau and the framework of the strategic priorities for the period in progress. Committees are further able to convene meetings among members and promote the implementation of programmes related to their policy area. The results of their work shall be presented to the UCLG Policy Councils for further recommendation to the UCLG Executive Bureau and/or World Council.

Co-chairs:
  • Enrique Avogadro, Minister of Culture of Buenos Aires
  • Claudia Curiel de IcazaSecretary of Culture, City of Mexico.
  • Diogo Moura, Councillor for Culture, Lisbon City Council.

 

Technical Secretariat:

Jordi Pascual: j.pascual@uclg.org

Co-Chairs
  • Philippe Rio, Mayor of Grigny
  • Gijung Kang, Mayor of Gwangju
    República de Corea
  • Claudia Sheinbaum, Mayor of Mexico City
  • Stéphane Troussel, President of Seine-Saint-Denis Council
  • Linda Voortman, Co-Mayor of Utrecht
Technical Secretariat

Amanda Fléty cisdp1@uclg.org

Co-chairs
  • Francisco Toajas Mellado (FAMSI), Mayor of Las Cabezas de San Juan
  • Bev Esslinger (FCM), Councillor of the City of Edmonton
Technical Secretariat

Paula Bejarano del.cglu@andaluciasolidaria.org

Co-chairs
  • Jorge Alberto Giorno, Deputy Secretary of Buenos Aires
  • Mxolisi Kaunda, Mayor of eThekwini-Durban

 

Technical Secretariat: 

Puvendra Akkiah (eThekwini) and Patricia Mancuello (Buenos Aires): uclg.usp@gmail.com

What is a UCLG Community of Practice?

A Community of Practice is a group of local government members of UCLG represented by technical staff and practitioners convened at the initiative of a UCLG member around a specific topic. Communities of Practice report annually to the Policy Councils.

Community of Practice objectives

Communities of Practice call learning meetings, suggest studies or programmes and contribute to the different parts of the UCLG network, informing on specific topics. Communities of Practice can develop ground work for Committees or Policy Councils in close collaboration with the World Secretariat.

Urban innovation provides the impetus for cities and local governments to improve the quality of life of its citizens.  It lies at the heart of finding new ways and means to meet the social, economic, environmental and governance challenges that face cities today.

For this reason the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), Association of Major Metropolises (Metropolis) and the City of Guangzhou established on 28 March 2012 the Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation (abbreviated as the Guangzhou Award).

Following the success of the 1st Guangzhou Award in 2012, the 2nd Guangzhou Award has received 209 initiatives from 159 cities and local governments. To promote the innovation and learning agenda of UCLG, the Executive Bureau, during its meeting in Liverpool in June, decided on the establishment of a Community of Practice on Urban Innovation. The Community serves to enhance international exchange and cooperation in urban innovation, facilitate relevant research and development, provide suggestions for policy and decision-making, and ensure the continued involvement of the Award’s finalists in the future work of UCLG.

Objectives and Activities of the UCLG Community on Urban Innovation:

The Main activities of the Community include:

1.     Networking of Members and Partners. The Community will serve as a platform to share ideas and practices on urban innovation, by establish a network of members consisting of cities and local governments, as well as partners in academia, specialized institutions, professional associations, international organizations and the media.

2.     Field Studies. To fulfil commitments made at the conclusion of the 2012 Guangzhou Award, the Community, together with the Guangzhou Institute for Urban Innovation, has conducted field studies on all of the 15 shortlisted cities. Participants include city managers, experts, scholars, and partners from the media. The Community has been studying findings of the field research, which will contribute to improved city-to-city cooperation strategies and practices. Further field studies have been scheduled in the future for all members and partners of the Community.

3.     Report Compilation. In order to provide cities and local governments with practical suggestions for urban innovation, the Community, in cooperation with the Guangzhou Institute for Urban, conducts in-depth analysis of short-listed initiatives of the 1st Guangzhou Award in various manners, including field studies, literature review, data analysis, comparative studies and logical deduction. Reports on selected initiatives have been compiled and published. It is the Community’s agenda to set report compilation as a routine task for a considerable long period of time, which will contribute to broader learning and exchange of successful innovative practices.

Transport plays a central role in the development of towns and cities; the challenges associated with it, as well as rapid technological advances, put the issue of mobility at a crossroads in this day and age. Regional contrasts according to the economic situation, history and the urban morphology of the territories are very important. However, in general, transport systems are not focused enough on the basic right of every citizen to affordable, varied and sustainable access to transport in a “smart” and compact urban environment that is less dependent on the use of private vehicles.

This has resulted in an exponential growth of personal cars (according to the World Bank, the number of individual vehicles in circulation could double by 2035 to 1.4 billion units), related to a significant increase in pollution (without intervention emissions from transport could reach 1.2 Gt of CO2 by 2050) and significant economic and competitiveness losses. Similarly, deaths due to road accidents continue to increase (annually, 1.2 million people are killed in road accidents). All of these factors are correlated with levels of development and social inclusion, as well as the capacity of urban areas to implement effective long-term strategic plans.

Urban transport is therefore both a vital issue for the sustainable development of cities and a key element in the fight against climate change.

UCLG, through its “Community of Practice on Mobility”, can contribute to linking the main global agendas (NUA, 2030 Agenda, Paris Agreement) by strengthening decentralized cooperation around mobility to disseminate best practices, anticipate the technological leaps in progress in this area towards greater equity and fluidity, support peer learning, and build the capacities of local institutional decision-makers (planning, lobbying before national authorities, access to funding, including via public-private partnerships or public service contracts).

UCLG aims to build an effective platform to strengthen global advocacy for sustainable mobility and to promote the key factors for medium- and long-term improvement, for the benefit of its members.

Chair:

  • Oh Se-hoon, Mayor of Seoul

Technical Secretariat: Laurence Kwark (GSEF): lkwark@gsef-net.org and Ahn Kyungmo (Seoul): akm0805@seoul.go.kr

Web : https://opengov.uclg.org/en

Co-chairs :

  • To be determined

Technical Secretariat : FEMP: internacional@femp.es

Web: http://www.uclg-digitalcities.org/

Chair:

  • Juan Mari Aburto, Mayor of Bilbao

Technical Secretariat: Bilbao International: info@uclg-digitalcities.org

Co-chairs:

  • to be determined

Technical Secretariat: Amanda Fléty: citiesforhousing@uclg.org

Co-chairs:

  • To be determined

Technical Secretariat: Fátima Fernandez: migration@uclg.org

What is a UCLG Working group?

A UCLG Working Group gathers practitioners with specific skills and expertise that are mobilized around specific topics and projects. The local government members of Working Groups may be represented by advisors – with or without a political mandate. A political representative member of the Policy Council shall monitor the activities of the Working Groups.

Working Group objectives

Working Groups aim to implement joint actions and support the implementation of specific parts of UCLG’s core programme.  Working Group activities and reporting are included in the general UCLG work plan and reporting to the World Council

Co-chairs:

  • Dr. Neila Akrimi, Head of Strategies and Network of VNG International
  • A representative from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM)

Technical Secretariat: Anne Schuurmans and Finn Speulman (VNG International): uclg.cib@vng.nl

Web: http://www.cib-uclg.org/

 

Presidency: City of Geneva
Vice-presidency: Union of Turkish Municipalities
Contact: Simoné Giovetti 
Secretariat: Cités Unies France;
Founding Members: CUF, UMT, VNG, FMC, Métropolis, UCLG MEWA and UCLG ASPAC

Background Information

Debate and support the preparation of UCLG policies in the field of local government disaster management Local government disaster management policy is not new to UCLG. Due to the Tsunami in South East Asia in 2004 were put forward in governing bodies of UCLG.

In April 2008, the “Local Action for Disaster Risk Reduction” Programme was launched by UCLG in partnership with ICLEI, Metropolis and CITYNET and with the technical support of the Earthquakes and Megacities Initiative (EMI). This initiative was created with the approval of the United Nations Secretariat for the implementation of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN-ISDR). The objective of the Programme, which has been running since, is to promote the adoption by local and regional governments of risk reduction policies and to promote their participation in the United Nations Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, which was launched in 2007.

When disasters strike, local governments are the first line of response, often with wide ranging responsibilities but insufficient capacities to deal with them. Local governments are equally on the front line when it comes to anticipating, managing and reducing disaster risk, setting up or acting on early warning systems. International disaster response efforts often lack a local governance dimension addressing specific needs of local governments.

Members of United Cities and Local Governments have historically launched solidarity missions to crisis areas. They are convinced that this area of work should be developed under UCLG flag and in cooperation with strategic international partners. In order to improve the position and the action of local governments in the face of disaster and those dealing with the consequences of disaster, it has been proposed that a Task Force on local government disaster response is to be created under DCCD (Development Cooperation and City Diplomacy Committee). Initially made up of representatives of VNG, FCM, CUF and UMT, the city of Istanbul and UCLG MEWA, this body will help to stimulate debate, legitimize joint initiatives and engage new actors.

The Taskforce will provide a platform for local governments, to exchange knowledge and expertise on disaster management. It will improve and increase the availability of local governments expertise to disaster-affected municipalities and it will highlight and develop the role of local governments on the international disaster management, resilience and response.

The UCLG Taskforce for prevention and territorial management of crisiswill incorporate the following aspects:

  • Debate and support the preparation of UCLG policies in the field of local government disaster management;
  • Discuss and validate quality standards and other collective approaches that are being prepared as part of joint Programs;
  • Maintain / increase the capacity of UCLG members to technically mobilize for a disaster.
  • Discuss / prepare opinions in relation to decision making / initiatives of UN agencies in the field;
  • Share approaches, tools, methodologies and knowledge on program development (for example: approaches, proposal templates, guiding principles, criteria for identification and selection of new program areas, etc.);
  • Discuss new programming opportunities and exchange on strategies to assess and seize these opportunities.

What is a UCLG Forum?

A UCLG Forum is a consultation and policy development process that culminates in an event every two years. It focuses on a specific constituency or topic. A Forum process is led by a member and supported by a reduced group of members from different regions. UCLG Fora-related activities will be included in the annual general UCLG work plan presented to the World Council.

Fora objectives

UCLG Fora aim to gather political representatives of a specific constituency from the membership. Fora may also gather political representatives around a specific topic of critical importance for the agenda of the organization. The Fora should produce policy guidance related to the constituency represented therein and should foster visibility for the issue concerned…

The UCLG Forum on Intermediary Cities is a consultation and policy development process that culminates in an event every two years.

Chair : Mohamed Sefiani, Mayor of Chefchaouen

Technical Secretariat : Firdaous Oussidhoum : intermediarycities@uclg.org

Web: https://intermediarycities.uclg.org/en

The Forum on Peripherical Cities Presidency is the City of Nanterre
Chair: Patrick Jarry, Mayor of Nanterre, France
Contact: Djamel Sandid, Relations et Coopérations avec le monde. Nanterre, France.

Peripheral cities have common characteristics

The cities in the periphery are complex, varied and changing realities. Although situations across the world vary, these peripheral cities share common characteristics. They are at the core of basic questions such as relations between the centre and the periphery for the governance of metropolitan areas, infrastructure, living environment, the spatial dimension of activities, regional planning, social and territorial segregation, social integration, the relationships between urgent immediate needs and long-term projections of space, democracy and the role of the citizen.

Peripheral cities exchanging experiences and practices

The UCLG Forum on Peripheral Cities, chaired by Jaime Zea Usca, Mayor of Villa El Salvador, Peru, aims to facilitate the exchange of experience and practices, and develop a common approach by peripheral cities. In March 2006, a Forum of Peripheral Cities took place where members looked at three main themes: Democratic governance of metropolises, a metropolis for all and the sustainable metropolis.

Rethinking the notion of centrality

The Forum brings together the members of the worldwide network ’Cities in the periphery & participatory democracy’. It shows the need for recognition of the social and political situations of peripheral cities within their conurbations and within the world of cities. This does not mean opposition to the ’capital city’, but rather that it is necessary to question and rethink the notion of ’centrality’ in these urban zones.

Co-chairs:

  • Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM)
  • Association of Dutch Municipalities (VNG)
  • Association of Flemish Cities and Municipalities (VVSG)

Technical Secretariat: Elena Pierce (FCM): epierce@fcm.ca, Jessie Post (VNG): Jessie.Post@vng.nl, and Bert Janssens (VVSG): bert.janssens@vvsg.be

Standing Committee on Gender Equality

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UCLG Women

An equality driven movement