The Fifth Congress of UCLG took place on October 12-15 in Bogota (Columbia). The event was entitled “World Summit of Local and Regional Leaders”. The organizers sought the assistance of leading experts on local self-governance from all over the world. The expert endeavours went to form a sourcebook highlighting the current situation in local self-governance.
Alexander Puzanov, IUE Director General, participated in a research on medium-size towns with a population of 50 to 1,000 thousand inhabitants. According to the results of the work carried out by the group of experts in respect to the relevant topic, there are 8,923 medium-size towns in the world. Total population living in those towns accounts for 20% of the total global population and makes up 1,423 thousand persons. By 2030 the population is expected to grow by another 434.5 thousand persons. The outcomes of the research efforts were summarized in the form of key theses on socio-economic, territorial, cultural and other directions of development of medium-size towns. These will help local governments to arrange their performance in such a way as to ensure their sustainable growth over the period to 2030.
United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) is an organization with headquarters based in Barcelona. The organization understands itself as the united voice and world advocate of democratic self-governments, promoting common values, objectives and interests by way of organizing cooperation between local governments throughout the world, and within the wider international community. UCLG is an advisory body to the UN on local government mechanisms.
For the first time in history the World Congress was timed to coincide with the Third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban development (Habitat III) held in Quito, Ecuador, on September 17-20, 2016.
