Presidency report,  UCLG World Council, 17 oktober 2025

 

Distinguished members, colleagues, partners, and friends,

It is a privilege to stand before you today, as we gather to reflect on an extraordinary year of achievements, challenges, and forward-looking ambitions. Dear friends, it is true that 2025, we have advocated for a world in which local and regional governments, and the communities that they represent, are a part of the decision-making table to bring about transformation. We have also listened to, and built strengthened partnerships with the international community in key policy priorities built around People, Planet and Governments. The “Power of We”, which inspired the adoption of our Pact, has ensured that care is at the centre of our efforts, and at the core of a renewed social contract.

In 2025, the international landscape remains complex and ever-evolving. Amid this uncertainty, our collective voice as local and regional governments has grown stronger and more united. UCLG has continued to stand at the forefront of global debates, advocating for a world where local democracy, care, and sustainability are the cornerstones of the global agenda. As the 2030 deadline for the SDGs approaches, this commitment is more urgent than ever. Our constituency renews its call for a new global social contract grounded in local realities, co-creation, and solidarity—placing care, proximity, and democratic renewal at the heart of sustainable development.

 

The focus on care, people-centred planning, and a feminist way of doing politics that has been guiding our work for years has remained central this year.

FFD4

This year, the need for our communities to be at the centre of decisions has been especially prominent in the Fourth Financing for Development Conference, held in Seville. The World Assembly held in the framework of FFD4 reaffirmed that public investment, care systems, and the commons must be at the heart of a renewed global financial architecture grounded in democracy, proximity, and sustainability.

The scope of our action was more than evident by reading the Seville Outcome Document, which includes a paragraph on subnational finance. This is just the start: we need more than recognition. We need structural change: participatory country platforms, facilitated access to finance, and a truly inclusive multilevel governance system.

Building the local social covenant.

Dear friends: Next year is, as we all know, a Congress year. This Congress year will not only be a year for our own governance, it will also be the year of local multilateralism. The 100 days of local multilateralism that we are envisioning next year, that encompass our World Summit, but also the 13^th World Urban Forum and the High-Level Political Forum, among other milestones. Our Congress will be the centre of these 100 days, and at the heart of our Congress will be our Local Social Covenant: a political space of shared commitments between local and regional governments, organized civil society, and stakeholders.

This is not a peripheral dialogue, but a central political process to co-construct the future we owe to present and future generations: a platform for structural dialogue among high-profile stakeholders. A space to define priorities around critical topics that will affect the sustainability of peace and justice in territories: Housing, Local conflict prevention, Culture, Public Health, Food systems and Hunger, Finance and Climate Justice. The topics that are relevant to our membership, sure, but most importantly, relevant to our communities. A Local Social Covenant to build on the Pact for the Future adopted in Daejeon, and to empower us to deliver a better world for our communities.

A Year of Impact and Collaboration

In 2025, UCLG has continued to expand its reach and impact through innovative programmes and strategic alliances. The Youth Climate Action Fund, developed with Bloomberg Philanthropies, is now active in cities across every region, empowering young leaders to drive local climate solutions. Our partnership with UN Women and the European Commission on the Women and Youth in Democracy and Civic Engagement (WYDE) programme continues to nurture new generations of local changemakers committed to equality and inclusion.

This year, we have also advanced our work on Voluntary Local and Subnational Reviews (VLRs and VSRs), hosting the 4^th VLR-VSR days, enabling us to reshape the way progress on the SDGs is measured and understood

Our research this year remained laser-focused on the GOLD VII multimedia journal, building on our shared understanding that inequalities are not an option. The Report, based around the economies of equality and care, finalized its first phase this year, and the second phase launched earlier this month, with 25 new contributions, summing up over 40 between the two phases.

Our learning agenda has included the development of tools, activities, and modules to learn together and re- embrace localization. Our online #LearningwithUCLG platform remains at the heart of our efforts, with overt the centre, developing over 50 learning courses, four modules on SDG localization, two new MOOCs on VLRs and VSRs and two modules on the localization of the Sendai Framework, and counting on more than 5000 people registered in our online platform.

Throughout the year, the Presidency has also placed strong emphasis on reinforcing the institutional backbone of UCLG, ensuring that our Organization remains agile, transparent, and representative of the diversity of our membership. The Working Group on Institutional Issues has played a centrol role in reviewing our internal functioning and statutory framework, with a focus on clarifying existing rules, and improving accountability and political inclusivity. These efforts are part of a wider reflection on how to adapt our governance model to the evolving needs of our membership, and to ensure that UCLG remains a leading voice in the multilateral system, taking its legitimacy from a unique, democratic process.

Towards a More Inclusive Multilateralism

The work of the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Group on Local and Regional Governments has been pivotal in ensuring that local perspectives are embedded in the outcomes of the UN Summit of the Future and the ongoing reform of the multilateral system. We are witnessing a growing recognition that the global challenges of our century — from climate change to inequality and migration — can only be addressed through coordinated, multilevel governance.

As we move forward, our task is to ensure that this recognition becomes permanent and institutionalized — that local and regional governments have a permanent seat at the global table.

It is my pleasure to relate to you that the Report prepared by the United Nations Secretary General on Recommendations on how engagement with local and regional authorities could advance the 2030 Agenda, presented earlier this month, represents a key opportunity to place our actions at the centre in achieving the 2030 Agenda, and provides actionable options to strengthen our engagement in UN processes.

The UCLG Agenda for Peace

Dear friends, peace and city diplomacy are an integral part of what we are, and what we stand for. Humbly, I must add, they have been the guiding light of my presidency, in a year that remains increasingly complex and a global context that is, unfortunately, as far from peaceful as it was a year ago.

It is this urgent need to acknowledge our role as cities, and as territories, in fostering peace that guided the development of the Hague Charter on Municipal Peace, a contribution from my city to our agenda, which I am convinced can be step forward for our world organization in building local peace.

The hosting of the UCLG World Forum on Cities and Territories of Peace in Montevideo has also been at the heart of our efforts in building peace from our communities, emphasizing a vision of cities and territories of peace as liveable, cohesive, inclusive, and supportive environments, a sustainable economy with quality employment, and democratic, transparent, and effective governance.

The Declaration adopted in Montevideo builds on our long-standing trajectory around peace, around the three axes of our Pact for the Future, and considers the Hague Charter for Municipal Peace as part of the shared local acquis around peacebuilding.

Conclusion

Colleagues, the road ahead is both challenging and full of opportunity.  I want to thank each and every one of you for your unwavering commitment, your resilience, and your belief in the power of local action.

Together, we are not only transforming our communities, but we are redefining the way the world governs itself. Let us continue to work together, guided by our shared principles of care, equity, and trust, building a future where no one and no place is left behind.

I am proud to have linked my life not just to being a public servant, but to being part of our movement, of our World Organization. I am proud to have been your President in 2025, and look forward to continue being a part of our movement in the years to come.

Thank you.