UCLG world congress

At the occassion of the UCLG world congress, Local Government Associations (LGA) from all around the world gathered for a LGA Forum. This years' edition discussed how LGAs are responding to global crises, including COVID-19, the climate emergency and social-economic inequalities, and what there is to learn from each other in this regard. The Forum was organized by GAOK (Korea) and VNG (The Netherlands). Metropolis, CUF (France), SALGA (South Africa), FCM (Canada), FSLGA (Sri Lanka), CLAIR (Japan), FEMP (Spain) and UMT (Turkey) participated as co-organisers.

The municipality of Palmira in Colombia has been crowned winner of the UCLG Peace Prize 2022 during the UCLG World Congress in Daejeon, Korea.

The UCLG Peace Prize is an award that celebrates local governments that implement successful initiatives for peace in their communities. It generates more attention for this important role of local governments and provides a stage to strong examples, in order to inspire other local governments to start peace projects of their own.

The latest UCLG World Council approved the Pact for the Future (Daejon, October 2022) as the political contribution of local governments to multilateralism. As the document indicates, humanity faces challenges and transformations never imagined before. Local and regional governments are committed to ensure the quality of life of citizens and to build just and inclusive societies. We can also, via our concerted action, ease necessary transformations ensuring the preservation of the planet in all its dimensions for present and future generations.

At the UCLG World Congress, VVSG participated in various SDG sessions, presenting concrete examples of Flemish municipalities, showcasing the supporting tools materials of VVSG on awareness raising, policy planning, and SDG monitoring and reporting and sharing its vision on how to move forward on SDG localization.

"The transformation that will need to be brought about in our development model will only be possible if it responds to the dreams and expectations of citizens and communities and if collective responsibility is taken to adjust and make compromises on a fair, equal and sustainable basis” (preamble to the Durban Political Declaration). 

2019 will see the 6^th version of the UCLG world congress (11-15 November, Durban, South Africa). An important event for local government representatives from all around the world, which will see statutory meetings, as well as numerous side events and field visits. Last week, the Capacity and Institution Working Group has, together with its partners, sent in different proposals for sessions. You will find an overview below.