Global Trends in Local Governance

The chapter provides an overview of the impacts on local government due to the demographic, urban, environmental and digital transitions taking place in different regions of the world in the last decades. It addresses two research questions: What is the impact of current and expected urban, environmental and digital transitions on local governance? and How is decentralization and local autonomy related to sustainable development? The chapter is based on a review of the literature, on the main findings from research and policy reports, namely from multilateral organizations devoted to sustainable development, as the United Nations and its agencies, among others. The central hypothesis is that the degree of decentralization and the level of local autonomy correlates positively with the level of development. The more decentralized the easier it is to ‘localize’ the global sustainable development goals and targets and therefore the more likely they will be achieved. This overview concludes by asserting that with demographic growth and urbanization rate higher in developing countries, which tend to be more centralized than its developed counterparts, there is a real need to concentrate efforts in the reform of local government systems in developing countries, as a condition to achieve the sustainable development targets and the goals of the global urban agendas.