On the 25 and 26 April 2016 UCLG organized a series of consultations aiming to collect and explore the concerns and priorities of intermediate cities. The meeting brought together local authorities, professionals, experts and partners of intermediate cities.
Although intermediary cities play a key role in the urbanisation process and are significantly numerous and diverse on a global level, they have encountered difficulties in expressing themselves with a unified voice in the international sphere. As part of the development of the Global Agenda of Local and Regional Governments for the 21st century UCLG have emphasized the necessity to include contributions from every type of city.
Two documents were presented during the meeting. The first was the UCLG Frame Document on Intermediate Cities, debated by politicians, professionals and networks, the document has collected the experience of more than three years of work by the UCLG Intermediary Cities group in collaboration with the University of Lleida’s UNESCO Chair and the International Union of Architects’ Intermediary Cities Network (UIA-CIMES). The second document was the preliminary version of the chapter on Intermediary Cities from the IV Global Report on Local Democracy and Decentralization, GOLD IV, which dedicates a chapter to intermediary cities, one to metropolises and a third to small regions and municipalities.
Both documents contain local government’s priorities, policies and narratives as well as the dynamics and profiles of intermediate cities. They analyse the management capabilities, funding and governance, urban planning, inter-municipal cooperation, environmental policies, local economic development and urban-rural relationship of intermediate cities. They also present a quick overview of national and regional systems for intermediate cities.
During the sessions the UCLG Working Group on Intermediary Cities presented the Declaration of Intermediate Cities for the UCLG Congress and Habitat III. The event concluded with the recommendations for the the Global Agenda of local and regional Governments, recommendations which will be condensed in the conclusions of the GOLD IV report.
More information:
- Intermediary Cities website
- The UCLG Frame Document on Intermediary Cities
- City Profiles: Intermediary Cities
- Global Observatory on Local Democracy and Decentralization website