United Cities and Local Governments
United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) is an umbrella international organisation for cities, local and regional governments, and municipal associations throughout the world that is concerned with representing and defending the interests of local governments on the world stage.
| Cités et Gouvernements Locaux Unis (in French) Ciudades y Gobiernos Locales Unidos (in Spanish) | |
UCLG Presidium during 2013 World Congress in Morocco, co-chaired by President Kadir Topbaş (Istanbul) & Treasurer Fathallah Oualalou (Rabat). | |
| Abbreviation | UCLG (in English) CGLU (in French) CGLU (in Spanish) |
|---|---|
| Formation | 5 May 2004 |
| Founded at | Paris |
| Merger of | IULA, FMCU, Metropolis |
| Type | International umbrella organization |
| Purpose | Representing and defending the interests of local governments on the world stage |
| Headquarters | Barcelona, Spain |
Region served | Worldwide |
| Methods | Advocacy & dissemination of best practices |
| Fields | Sustainable development goals: |
Membership | over 240 000 members |
Official language | English, French, Spanish |
Secretary General | Emilia Saiz |
| Uğur İbrahim Altay | |
| Fatimetou Abdel Malick, Johnny Araya, Zhenis Kassymbek, Bheke Stofile, [Berry Vrbanovic]], Ye Niuping | |
| Ada Colau & Carlos Martínez Mínguez | |
Vice-President | Oumarou Dogari Moumoun, Ashok Kumar Byanju Shrestha, Aysen Nikolayev, Carola Gunnarsson, Yücel Yilmaz, Fernando Gray, Scott Pearce, Claudia López, Paola Pabón |
| UCLG Executive Bureau | |
Main organ | UCLG General Assembly |
| Subsidiaries | 9 UCLG Sections & 19 Cross-sectional bodies:
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| Affiliations | Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments, United Nations Advisory Committee of Local Authorities & UN ECOSOC's Development Cooperation Forum |
| Website | www |
| Remarks | Partners: Association of Netherlands Municipalities, C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, Compact of Mayors, European Commission, ICLEI, OECD, UNICEF, United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-Water, UN Women, United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, World Bank, World Water Council |
The organization achieved inclusion of Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities into Agenda 2030, aggregates best local practices into action plans, provides regular updates on the progress and proposals to High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. Its day-to-day activities include hosting meetings of mayors and other local and regional leaders, running joint projects with partners, organizing international peer-to-peer training on local policies and practices, and advocacy for the interests of local and regional governments at the UN
Since founding in 2004, UCLG is headquartered in Barcelona (the World Secretariat, Metropolis and UCLG Regions), with its regional offices in Brasilia, Brussels, Istanbul, Jakarta, Kazan, La Paz, Ottawa & Rabat. It is the largest organization of sub-national governments in the world, with over 240,000 members in over 140 UN Member States and understands itself as the united voice and world advocate of democratic local self-government, de facto representing over half the world's population across seven world regions: Africa, Asia-Pacific, Euroasia, Europe, Middle East & West Asia, Latin America and North America.
The organisation's work programme focuses on:
- Increasing the role and influence of local government and its representative organisations in global governance;
- Becoming the main source of support for democratic, effective, innovative local government close to the citizen;
- Ensuring an effective and democratic global organisation