🔴 Policy Debate: Care lever of a New Generation of Public Service Provision

📍 Room: Patio Grande | 🔗 Zoom link (not yet available) | 💬 Interpretation : English - French - Spanish - Turkish

The positioning of care as a central lever for a new generation of public service provision reflects a shift in the role of local and regional governments, placing them at the forefront of shaping equitable, resilient, and democratic societies. As in the Pact for the Future of Humanity and the Local Social Covenant, care is understood as a transversal political priority and a collective responsibility, redistributed across society through public policies and services, to address structural inequalities while sustaining the social and ecological foundations of communities and territories. At the local level, this means investing in integrated care systems that support both people and the planet, while renewing democracy itself through more participatory and inclusive governance. 

Realizing this vision depends on a robust enabling environment that integrates adequate financing, institutional capacities, and coherent multilevel governance. Crucially, this enabling environment must also be political and cultural: transforming social norms that devalue care, and advancing equality by embedding care within long-term development strategies. This requires renewed political leadership, capable of reorienting priorities toward interdependence, equity, and wellbeing, as well as sustained commitment backed by resources, accountability, and institutional continuity. This perspective is also in line with the proposed UCLG work plan for the next political cycle, placing caring territories and the renewal of local public service provision among the key transitions of the municipal movement. The debate will hence connect with the broader political horizon towards our World Congress in Tangier, where these priorities will help shape the next collective mandate of the organization.