All Democracy is Local

A famous US politician once said “All politics is local.” By this he meant that the success of any political system depends on responding to local needs.

Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights establishes that every person has a right to voice in the decisions that affect their lives – which requires active citizen participation in governance at the community level.

The Movement for Community-led Development (MCLD) works to achieve a new level of partnership between grassroots civil society and local government. MCLD calls for local communities to have a fair share of public resources and mandatory mechanisms for citizen participation that guarantees the voice of women, youth and marginalized groups.

This side event will share the experience of both civil society and local government actors in working together to fulfill the promise of participatory local democracy.