The World Forum on Local Economic Development (WFLED) opens its sixth edition with a strong focus on inclusivity, sustainability and resilience in a world facing profound socioeconomic changes.

In this edition, which is being held in Seville from 1 to 4 April, the Forum emerges as a platform and a working process to promote innovative solutions that promote the creation of quality employment, highlighting the importance of public policies at the local and regional level, and recognising the key role of local governments in the implementation of economic development policies that reflect the needs and aspirations of society.

During the inauguration ceremony, the First Vice-President and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero Cuadrado, emphasised the Spanish Government’s commitment to the local economic development of all regions, promoting them as key drivers of social and economic transformation.

Francisco Reyes, president of the Andalusian Fund of Municipalities for International Solidarity (FAMSI) and representative of the Forum’s International Committee, underlined the importance of this space for advancing solutions to global challenges. ‘This Forum restores the way for local economies to be heard within the global agenda, as they are the foundations on which resilient, sustainable and inclusive economies are built,’ he said. He also emphasised that ‘the Forum reinforces its role by contributing to the localisation of the Sustainable Development Goals and the achievement of the 2030 Agenda at the local level’.

For his part, Antonio Sanz, Regional Minister of the Presidency, Interior, Social Dialogue and Administrative Simplification of the Regional Government of Andalusia, said that local economic development is the lever that drives the quality of life of people and territories.

For his part, Francisco Javier Fernández de los Ríos, president of the Seville Provincial Council, emphasised the historic opportunity that this forum represents for exchanging successful experiences at the municipal and international level. He urged everyone to ‘seek solutions for territories and for people from a local perspective’, to ‘make progress in pooling solutions to unique problems at the global level from the perspective of local governments’. These, he reminded us, ‘have the capacity to simplify complex problems, from proximity, from knowledge’.

In his speech, Jan Van Zanen, president of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) and mayor of The Hague, emphasised that ‘the Forum has been a key platform for rethinking local economic development through equity, sustainability and resilience’.

Finally, the councillor for Priority Neighbourhoods, Social Rights, Employment, Family, Equality and Associations and the East-Alcosa-Torreblanca District, José Luis García, emphasised that the Forum provides a political platform to highlight the fact that cooperation is an essential tool for creating a fairer and more united world.

The opening ceremony was also attended by representatives of the Forum’s International Committee and Expanded International Committee, the Scientific Committee, the National Committee, as well as representatives of the UCLG Executive Bureau.

The World Forum once again places local economic development at the centre of the debate as a key strategy for promoting sustainable growth in cities and regions, promoting the formulation and application of policies at the local level for sustainable development, establishing a solid alliance of multiple actors at the global level.