UCLG is organizing yet another Annual Retreat; the yearly gathering of secretariats and leadership of the working groups, committees and other consultation mechanisms of the world organization. This year's Retreat will be held in Barcelona on 21-25 February.
The 2022 Retreat builds on the concepts of care introduced in last year’s Retreat, and aims to be a global experience that brings the network together physically in Barcelona, and virtually all over the world. In its communication, UCLG announced that "the UCLG Retreat is the space where we begin the renewal of our priorities as a movement. It aims to be the first step towards rethinking together the agenda of the municipal movement and our stance vis-à-vis the universal development agendas within the framework of the UN Secretary-General’s Common Agenda as a shared goal for humanity".
Programme at a glance
The focus of this year’s edition will be the renewal of our strategies, with the UCLG Daejeon World Congress (10-14 October 2022) on the horizon. The UCLG Retreat will follow the tracks that pave the way towards the global conversations that will take place in Daejeon, offering a space for co-creation and gathering critical visions from our membership and partners. As such, there will be an Assembly day built around a conversation with UCLG regional sections on general priorities and regional visions. The Town Hall process will take central stage in discussions exploring how to shape the future social contract. The Local4Action component will focus on the equality agenda of our movement. And, as is traditionally the case, the Global Taskforce will hold its annual meeting, focusing specifically on the Common Agenda defined by the UN Secretary General. The final day of the Retreat will be dedicated to a meeting of the UCLG Presidency, followed by a high-level political debate.
CIB at the retreat
The CIB secretariat will be present in Barcelona, and so will some of the CIB members. We are co-organizing two sessions at the retreat:
1. Workshop on Voluntary Subnational Reviews and Voluntary Local Reviews, together with the UCLG GOLD Team (Tuesday 22 February, 11:30-13:00 CET, in-person)
2. An open discussion on the CIB policy paper on development cooperation (Thursday 24 February, 16:00-17:00 CET, hybrid)
More information will be shared soonest! We would be very happy to see you at these events, in-person or in Barcelona!