Cities at the Heart of GCM Implementation: New United Nations Secretary General Report Sets the Bar on Localisation

(18 December 2024)

The United Nations Secretary-General’s third biennial Report on the Global Compact for Migration, released this December, recognises the critical role of cities in implementing the GCM. It goes further than earlier editions, as it acknowledges: 

• The Call to Local Action as a tool to achieve both the Global Compact for Migration and the Global Compact on Refugees.

• The need to grant cities direct access to funding.

• The need to include cities in national implementation dialogues.

• Concrete local leadership with references to the pledge of Tlaxcala and pledges by Colombian cities to ‘socio-economic integration and social cohesion’. 

Measuring GCM Implementation: New Indicator Framework Recognises Need to Work with Local Governments

With his report, the Secretary-General also released a new set of indicators to help Member States measure their progress in implementing the GCM. The framework includes five indicators to track localisation, building off existing UN indicator systems like the SDGs. Critically, this includes a brand new metric on whether national governments collaborate with LRGs: 

‘Whether or not the country involves and supports local authorities in the identification of needs and opportunities for international cooperation for the effective implementation of the Global Compact’ (Objective 23)