United Cities and Local Governments

United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) is an umbrella international organisation for cities, local and regional governments, and municipal associations throughout the world that is concerned with representing and defending the interests of local governments on the world stage.

The organization achieved inclusion of Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities into Agenda 2030, aggregates best local practices into action plans, and provides regular updates on the progress and proposals to the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. Its day-to-day activities include hosting meetings of mayors and other local and regional leaders, running joint projects with partners, organizing international peer-to-peer training on local policies and practices, and advocacy for the interests of local and regional governments at the UN.

Since its founding in 2004, UCLG is headquartered in Barcelona (the World Secretariat, Metropolis and UCLG Regions), with its regional offices in Brasilia, Brussels, Istanbul, Jakarta, Kazan, La Paz, Ottawa and Rabat. It is the largest organization of sub-national governments in the world, with over 240,000 members in over 140 UN Member States, and understands itself as the united voice and world advocate of democratic local self-government, de facto representing over half the world's population across seven world regions: Africa, Asia-Pacific, Euroasia, Europe, Middle East & West Asia, Latin America and North America.

The organisation's work programme focuses on: * Increasing the role and influence of local government and its representative organisations in global governance; * Becoming the main source of support for democratic, effective, innovative local government close to the citizen; * Ensuring an effective and democratic global organisation Provided by Wikipedia