Bogotá Commitment and Action Agenda

The World Council, UCLG’s principle policy-making body, approved Bogotá Commitment and Action Agenda as the main political output of the Congress. Within the framework of the Global Report on Local Democracy and Decentralization (GOLD IV) and after an extensive in-depth consultation process with UCLG’s members across the world, this commitment contributes to the global debate on sustainable development.

Local and regional governments from all over the world representing small and large, rural and urban communities gathered for the World Summit of Local and Regional Leaders in Bogotá in October 2016. The Bogotá Commitment argues that current global challenges represent an unprecedented opportunity to drive sustainable development, and that local and regional governments will need to be at the centre of the public policy process, translating normative ideals into concrete policies and practical investments that will remake human settlements as the primary driver of a new, sustainable era. It also posits that the answers generated within urban settlements and territories will pave the way for global solutions.

At precisely the moment in which the majority of the world’ s global population are urban citizens living in an array of settlements, we have come to realize that the current production model has reached its own limits and that the global community is confronted with both the persistent challenges of increasing social inequalities and the task of the ecological restoration of planetary systems while protecting cultural diversity.

A post-Quito Agenda for Local and Regional Governments

Calling for action at all levels (local, national and international) as well as recognition and commitment from peers, the Bogotá Commitment came up with a series of recommendations for action.

1. The first set of recommendations on local action addresses how   sub-national governments can contribute to the achievement of the SDGs, the Paris Agreement, the Sendai Framework and the New   Urban Agenda.
2. The second set of recommendations on national action focuses on national legal, institutional and policy reform.
3. The final set of recommendations on global action tackles three of the most potent enablers of national and local development: global governance, international financing and decentralized cooperation.

All the recommendations seek to empower local and regional governments to take their rightful place  at the head of a new international agenda for   inclusive and sustainable development.

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