President of UCLG Mohamed Boudra, on behalf of the constituency of local and regional governments gathered within the Global Taskforce, addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations to call for the renewal of the multilateral system, as a means to strengthen basic service provision and ensuring universal access to public services as the cornerstone of the COVID-19 recovery.
The statement he delivered also addressed the need to recover trust between communities and the institutions that represent them through a more community-based inclusive multilateral system, the renewal of local democracy, and the development of the next generation of human rights.
The pandemic has acted as a magnifying glass that highlights who and what had been left behind. It has brought to light the essential role local and regional public service provision, as well as decentralized cooperation initiatives, played during and beyond the outbreak and towards the achievement of the SDGs.
Following the public health response, led by the World Health Organization, the United Nations launched a coordinated global humanitarian response plan to mitigate the immediate impacts of COVID-19 in some of the world’s most vulnerable places.
Throughout the pandemic, the constituency of local and regional governments and their associations has been at the forefront of the efforts to protect the people and the planet. Local and regional governments have demonstrated over and over again their willingness to leave no-one and no place behind, and it is essential to include them in the global decision-making table and recover plans to ensure a recovery that truly works for all citizens.
The ecological transformation that the planet needs, he argued, needs to be delivered through a reen recovery that transforms how we understand the concept of development and fosters a new relationship with nature. Finally, he argued that the efforts of the constituency of local and regional governments are indispensable to carry out the transformation that the planet and the communities need, and issued the call of the constituency for a renewed and more inclusive multilateral system, based on co-creation among all stakeholders and that fully engaged local and regional governments at the decision-making table, representing the communities that they serve.
“Our message before this extraordinary assembly is both a call for help and a message of hope. A cry to support the local and regional service provision ecosystems. A message of hope, to ensure that the sacrifices made by those that didn’t make it through, and the sacrifices that we are asking for our future generations will serve a purpose, allowing us to shape a better future for all.” Mohamed Boudra, President of UCLG, Mayor of Al-Hoceima.