The World Summit of Local and Regional Leaders was held in the Colombian capital from 12 to 15 October, bringing together mayors, councillors, municipal officials and members of civil society. The Chair of the IODP Denis Coderre, Mayor of Montreal, played an active part in various plenary sessions and at the UCLG's Assembly and World Council, championing the role of local governments as the players for international governance.
The World Summit of Local and Regional Leaders was held in the Colombian capital from 12 to 15 October, bringing together mayors, councillors, municipal officials and members of civil society. The Chair of the IODP, Denis Coderre, Mayor of Montreal, played an active part in various plenary sessions and at the UCLG's Assembly and World Council, championing the role of local governments as the players for international governance.
Summary of the 2016 World Summit of Local and Regional Leaders and 5th UCLG World Congress by IISD: link
The IODP, a CGLU member, jointly organised a learning workshop on local finances, inclusive governance and participatory budgets together with the CGLU's Social Inclusion Committees (CISDP) and Local Finances. The session followed the peer review method, and during the session, La Paz city presented its citizen participation model and the other experts and participants held a discussion and debate under this model.
Roger Quiroga, a strategic advisor to the La Paz Local Authority presented his city's participatory governance model. Three notable mayors were among the speakers who discussed this case study: Pedro Vicente Obando, Mayor of Pasto (Colombia); Dolors Sabater, Mayor of Badalona (Spain): Sally A. Lee, Mayor of Sorsogon City (Philippines). Notable local officials also taking part included: Cézar Busatto, the Secretary for Local Governance of Porto Alegre (Brazil); Fernando Pindado, the Barcelona Commissioner for Citizen Participation and Active Democracy and the Secretary-General of IODP and Markku Andersson, from the city Jyväskylä (Finland).
The experts who moderated the session were Giovanni Allegretti, a researcher from the Social Studies Centre at the University of Coímbra and members of the Regional Authority for Participation, Tuscany Region (Italy) and Bachir Kanouté, the adviser on local governance and participatory budgets for Enda Ecopop and coordinator of IODP-Africa.
The Secretary-General of the IODP and the Barcelona Commissioner for Citizen Participation, Fernando Pindado, also took part in the permanent workshop for co-creating cities, having spoken at workshops on "Living City" and "Democratic City". In these workshops, participants shared experiences of citizen-movement and the experiences of local authorities committed to the right to democratic cities and social justice.
The following recommendations from the municipal world were approved at the Summit, in preparation for the United Nations Habitat 3 Conference in Quito.