In October 2015, the Thematic Meeting on Metropolitan Areas was held in Montreal, as part of preparations for Habitat III.

The Declaration that came out of that meeting defined the main challenges and transformations necessary for building more inclusive and interdependent metropolitan areas.

Participants also reaffirmed the need to place the “Right to the City” at the heart of metropolitan policies and ensure cohesion and solidarity between the territories that make up metropolitan areas. This is to promote equalisation mechanisms and civil society participation in the decision-making process.

The New Urban Agenda adopted in 2017 emphasised the need for effective and inclusive metropolitan governance that transcends administrative boundaries and respects functional territories.

It urged supporting subnational and local governments to enhance their capacities, participation and authority in addressing key urban, metropolitan and territorial issues.

Since 2018, Metropolis and UN-Habitat have celebrated World Metropolitan Day on 7 October. However, it is time to take this campaign to the next level and bring much-needed attention to the realities faced by metropolitan areas worldwide.

The World Metropolitan Day campaign has garnered significant support from mayors of global cities such as Bogotá, Montreal, Barcelona, Johannesburg, Rabat and Seoul.

Metropolis, along with 48 mayors and metropolitan leaders from all global regions, have signed a request for World Metropolitan Day to be recognised as an international day.

Almost 50 cities worldwide signed our petition urging the UN General Assembly to proclaim World Metropolitan Day an official international day.

Another important milestone for metropolitan governance was achieved at the second session of the UN-Habitat Assembly, held in Nairobi on 5-9 June. For the first time, a normative resolution on “Localization of the Sustainable Development Goals” was adopted by the UN-Habitat Assembly, with the endorsement of nine countries.

The resolution recognises the key role of local and metropolitan multi-level governance in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals through better policy coherence, cross-sector alignment and multi-stakeholder participation.