The Global Taskforce will meet in Barcelona from 10-12 November to prepare for the Second World Assembly of Local and Regional Authorities, and to coordinate its joint advocacy strategy for the Habitat III Conference.
The first day of the meeting, which will bring together representatives of local and regional government networks of the Global Taskforce, will focus on defining the scope, mobilization and sessions of the Second World Assembly of Local and Regional Authorities.
Sessions on the subsequent two days will focus on preparations for the Third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, Habitat III, to be held in Quito, Ecuador, in October 2016.
The Global Taskforce will be joined by 14 experts from 9 of the 10 Habitat III Policy Units, representing the full range of issues up for debate on the New Urban Agenda, from the Right to the City to Urban Services and Technology, to name just two. UCLG nominated many of the experts selected for the Policy Units, and the meetings in Barcelona will allow the Global Taskforce to provide the experts with a local government perspective on their work on each of the policy areas.
UCLG is co-leading Policy Unit Four on Urban Governance, Capacity and Institutional Development with the London School of Economics. UCLG will carry out this role in close coordination with the Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments. Other local government organizations, such as the German Association of Towns and Municipalities for Urban Services and Technology, will also be co-leading Policy Units.
The sessions on 11 November with the Global Taskforce and Policy Unit experts will have an interactive format. Participants will break into three groups around the Policy Unit clusters and use the ‘Keep, Drop, Create’ methodology to identify key drivers for action in each area.
On 12 December the initial results of UCLG’s consultations of intermediary cities, metropolitan areas and territories on the Habitat III Agenda will be presented. These consultations will feed into UCLG’s Fourth Global Report on Local Democracy and Decentralization and the Global Agenda of Local and Regional Governments, both of which will provide the foundation of local and regional government contributions to Habitat III. The day will close with a discussion on the methodology and organization of work going forward.
Follow the meetings live via Twitter using the hashtag #GTFmeets