The future of decentralization and multilevel governance in a rapidly changing context
New York City, February 26-27, 2026
The seismic shift that is underway in the global development funding landscape should be a wake-up call to leaders in the Global North and South alike. As support from the international community is waning or changing, sustainable development will increasingly have to be achieved by Global South countries themselves and potentially other partners, redoubling their efforts to improve the responsiveness, results-orientation, and efficiency of the public sector.
The changing global context has obvious and important implications for those who study, work on, and advocate for inclusive and efficient decentralization, localization, and multilevel governance. Inclusive and efficient multilevel governance systems can—and should—be leveraged to contribute to global stability, economic prosperity, sustainable development, and efficient public service delivery in countries around the world.
Within this context, the Local Public Sector Alliance (LPSA), together with the Forum of Federations, NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, the Center on International Cooperation (CIC) at New York University (NYU), Commonwealth Local Government Forum, OECD, United Cities and Local Governments, UNDP, the World Bank, and the SDSN Global Commission for Urban SDG Finance convened a global roundtable.
The global roundtable took place on February 26-27, 2026, at New York University’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service in New York City.
Thanks to NYU’s Center on International Cooperation, pictures of the roundtable are available through a dedicated Flickr album (with highlights below).
