Retreat and Campus of the UCLG network

A retreat was called on 9-13 February 2015 by the UCLG secretariat to assess and reflect on the collaborative work within the UCLG network, taking advantage of the new opportunities offered by the Strategic partnership recently concluded with the European Commission.

All general secretaries of the UCLG sections and the 19 secretaries of UCLG committees and working groups were in attendance.

The meeting had 3 segments: 1) a meeting of the secretariats of the UCLG section on Monday 9 February; 2) a campus of UCLG committees and working groups on Tuesday 10 and Wednesday 11 February 2015; 3) a debate with UCLG Partners on Thursday 12 February 2015.

The general secretaries had at objectives to develop exchanges between all different parts of the nerwork and define concrete join actions. It also updated participants on the global and regional agendas for an improved ownership, and defined ways and tools aiming at better interactions across the network. It was recommended that secretariats general should be trained on the management of network which training course is available online.

The campus of the committees and working groups aimed at building a shared agenda to build synergies with the objective to have convergence towards the global work. A detailed plan of actions was defined, including in financing, cooperation and learning and institutional relations and advocacy.

Tomorrow Thursday 12 February will be devoted to a brainstorming with UCLG Partners that will help build a new narrative on UCLG and explore ways to deepen collaboration.

Friday 13 February 2015 is reserved to a meeting of the UCLG political leadership chaired by UCLG President Kadir Topbas, Mayor of Istanbul.