United Cities and Local Governments

United Cities and Local Governments
Cités et Gouvernements Locaux Unis (in French)
Ciudades y Gobiernos Locales Unidos (in Spanish)
AbbreviationUCLG (in English)
CGLU (in French)
CGLU (in Spanish)
Formation5 May 2004 (2004-05-05)
Founded atParis
Merger ofIULA, FMCU, Metropolis
TypeInternational umbrella organization
PurposeRepresenting and defending the interests of local governments on the world stage
HeadquartersBarcelona, Spain
Region served
Worldwide
MethodsAdvocacy & dissemination of best practices
FieldsSustainable development goals:
Membershipover 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
Subsidiaries9 UCLG Sections & 19 Cross-sectional bodies:
  • 4 UCLG Policy Councils
  • 4 UCLG Policy Committees
  • 2 UCLG Working Groups
  • 6 UCLG Communities of Practice
  • 3 UCLG Fora
AffiliationsGlobal Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments, United Nations Advisory Committee of Local Authorities & UN ECOSOC's Development Cooperation Forum
Websitewww.uclg.org
RemarksPartners: 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

United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) is an umbrella international organisation for cities, local and regional governments, and municipal associations.

The organization achieved inclusion of Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities into Agenda 2030, aggregates best local practices into action plans, and provides regular updates on the progress and proposals to the 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 its founding in 2004, UCLG is headquartered in Barcelona (the World Secretariat, Metropolis and UCLG Regions), with its regional offices in Brasília, Brussels, Istanbul, Jakarta, Kazan, La Paz, Ottawa and 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