Innovate to improve the quality of life: the improvement of basic public services – health, education, housing, mobility and leisure – has greatly contributed to fostering wellbeing. However, our societies are increasingly faced with growing uncertainties – economic, social, environmental, cultural, and in the area of food security. In response to these evolutions, local and regional authorities and their partners are increasingly innovative, most notably in the fight against insecurity (violence, exclusion), the response to changes in society (urbanisation, aging populations). Their innovation is helping ensure that our lifestyles and consumer habits evolve in terms of its impact on the environment, and that all have the right to dignified life. Can these local policies contribute to the combat against global uncertainty? Some institutions are actually developing new tools to measure key indicators on the quality of life (e.g. “Better Life Index” of OECD).
The governance of basic services: presentation of UCLG’s 3rd Global Report on Decentralisation and Local Democracy. During the session the conclusions of this report will be presented analysing the links between quality of life and essential services. While there has been progress in access to services, inequalities persist and, in some cases, have widened. If access to basic services is central to the debate on inequality, shouldn’t the governance of basic services be at the core of the debate?
On the eve of the date determined by the international community to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, and as the debate on the definition of the future Post 2015 Agenda begins, this plenary session will address the contribution of local policies to development. How can local policies contribute to ensuring dignity and human rights for all?
These debates will allow local and regional authorities to discuss their changing role in the creation of local strategies and partnerships for meeting international goals and targets.
