Financing the Right to the City for all: declaration adopted in Mexico City

New Urban Agenda
08 May 2016

A declaration on “Financing the Right to the City for All’ was adopted on Tuesday 8th of March at the side-event “Local Governments’ Social Spending: Justice & Urban Equity”, held as part of the Habitat III Thematic Conference “Financing Urban Development” in Mexico City.

 

Link

 

The declaration warns of the effects of the financialization and commodification of cities on inequalities and calls for:

  • An increase of public resources devoted to an equitable sharing  of wealth;

  • Effective political and fiscal decentralization, with adequate resources according to each context;

  • Participatory and transparent management of local resources;

  • Acknowledgement of local governments’ role in promoting public policies for a fair and responsible economic development that generates local wealth for the benefit of their inhabitants;

  • The incentivization of the municipalisation of common goods such as water and energy;

  • Public, citizen and sustainable control of public space, both in terms of land and real estate.

  • Equalization mechanisms aiming at fixing urban and metropolitan inequalities

Read the full declaration in English, French and Spanish.

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The side-event was co-organized by the Government of Mexico City and the UCLG Committee on Social Inclusion, Participatory Democracy and Human Rights (CISPD), with the support of the UCLG Committee on Local Finance and Development.

The goal of the event was to strengthen the Right to the City in the Habitat III process, especially in relation to local finances and to make proposals to enhance public resources for local governments to invest in human rights and the Right to the City.