On the 27th of January, the CIB working group officially kicked-off a new year full of activities, with an interactive discussion with 35 CIB members on the draft CIB work plan 2022. Peter Knip, chair of CIB, opened the meeting, welcoming participants from all around the world, and reiterating the wish to meet in-person in 2022, at a CIB annual meeting in Belgium in June.
2022: a UCLG congress year
Emilia Sáiz also provided opening remarks and underlined that "CIB is a permanent working group of the world organisation; it has a very strong legacy and a very concrete membership within UCLG". She mentioned that it will be crucial that CIB members join preparations towards the 6th UCLG world congress, to be held in Daejeon, Korea, from 10-14 October 2022. The UCLG retreat, which is taking place in Barcelona from 21-25 February, will be an excellent opportunity to get on board and learn more about the set-up of the Congress and how you can contribute, as member of UCLG.
A strong CIB work plan
Mrs. Sáiz congratulated CIB on its draft work plan. "We have a strong work plan in front of us, which is very aligned to the UCLG work plan. In general, the online working situation has strengthened connections between CIB and different parts of the UCLG secretariat (learning, research, policy). The work plan could use some additional focus on the role of local governments in critical areas we are trying to promote as UCLG, such as human rights and human mobility."
Key activities within the CIB work plan
Jessie Post, coordinator of the CIB secretariat, presented some of the key activities for 2022, together with members and partners. A short recap:
- CIB annual meeting in Belgium (May/June 2022 - dates will be announced soonest)
Hanne Albers (VVSG) informed members that the VVSG is still happy to host the next CIB annual meeting in int-Niklaas (Belgium), in a COVID-proof manner. Possible themes for sessions at this yearly event include working on climate, finance and gender within international programming. Najat Zarrouk (UCLG Africa/ALGA) mentioned that it would be very interesting to also visit the city hall of Sint-Niklaas and hear what they are doing on the topics discussed at the annual meeting. The CIB secretariat and VVSG will work on a draft agenda for the meeting in the next week and inform you about the final dates asap.
- UCLG-CIB policy paper on development cooperation & local governments
Following the research paper developed and published by the Institute of Development Studies in Fall 2021, the CIB secretariat has hired consultant Sebastien Hamel (former co-chair of CIB on behalf of FCM) to transform the research findings into a concise and targeted UCLG-CIB policy paper. The paper will be prepared in the next months. After validation by CIB members and UCLG sections, it will be presented to the UCLG membership at the UCLG Executive Bureau in June, for approval. The development of the policy paper is strongly aligned to UCLG's policy making process towards the UCLG world congress. This way, our policy recommendations and action plan will also enter into ULCG's strategic priorities for the next years, bundled in the 'Pact for the Future'. Between the Executive Bureau and the Congress, we will co-organise several dialogues with external stakeholders, together with UCLG, DeLoG and other partners.
- UCLG world congress in Daejeon, Korea (10-14 February 2022)
Maria Alejandra Rico Fallo gave a short sneak preview on the plans and set-up of the UCLG world congress in Daejeon. She explained the motto and different components of the programme. The event will surely be another milestone event of UCLG, with many opportunities for CIB members to get involved. CIB plans to be actively present in Korea, through the (co-)organizing of different sessions, including a session for CEOs and Presidents of Local Government Associations (LGA Forum).
- New leadership for CIB
Peter Knip announced once again that he will retire by Summer 2022. This means that we will need to explore possibilities for new leadership of the CIB working group. Members raised different questions about the requirements for new chairs - the CIB secretariat will communicate those to the membership soonest.
Please have a look at the work plan attached if you want to learn more about the other activities of CIB this year. We are happy to announce that all of the financial partners of CIB - UCLG (through its EU and Sida grants), FCM, the Generalitat the Catalunya, the City of Barcelona and VNG International) have confirmed their contributions for 2022, making it possible to implement the work plan.
Next steps
The CIB secretariat will finalise and distribute the work plan in the first week of February. We will make sure to include many of your ideas mentioned in the call, or on the (very rich!) Mural board. We hope to meet you at our various activities in the next months, including the UCLG retreat (which will see two CIB sessions, one on SDG reporting by LGAs and one on the UCLG-CIB policy paper), the CIB annual meeting and the UCLG world congress!
Update: the CIB work plan 2022 is now available! Please find it attached to this news item.
