The regular annual meeting of the United Nations Advisory Committee of Local Authorities (UNACLA) took place on Sunday 10 April. This was the first regular meeting of UNACLA Chaired by the new Executive Director of UN-Habitat, Joan Clos. He expressed the need to strengthen the ties between local authorities and UN-Habitat. He also stressed the need to provide proper recognition of the historical effort made by local governments to unite in a World Organization UCLG. With this in mind he proposed to guarantee a close link between UNACLA and UCLG, ensuring that the Chair of UNACLA will always be fulfilled by the President of UCLG.
Dr. Clos recognized the important role played by Anders Knape, President of the Association of Swedish Local Authorities as Chair of UNACLA in the past year.
It was further decided that UNACLA will have yearly thematic focuses which were fixed as follows: 2011 Urban Mobility; 2012 Job Creation and Local Production; 2013 Flood protection and environmental resilience; 2014 Municipal Fiscal Systems and Finances.
UN-Habitat Executive Director committed, upon request of the local authorities, to bring this issues forward to the UN General Assembly. It was further agreed that the actions on this fields will be clearly linked with the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals and it will be so transmitted to the national government.
The President of UCLG confirmed the engagement of the World Organisation of Cities to work closely with UNHABITAT to make sure the voice and concerns of local governments are clearly heard.
He stated that "we would like to ensure that the members of UNACLA are representative of organised and articulated local authorities, representing local governments beyond their own particular interests". He therefore celebrated the decision of Joan Clos to appoint also the future Presidents of UCLG as Chair of UNACLA.
With mobility being a crucial aspect of successful and sustainable urbanization, the President of UCLG invited city members to actively contribute to the discussions on the topic to be schedule along the year.
He concluded by highlighting the milestones achieved regarding the acknowledgement of the role of local governments and of their centrality for the future of humankind.