Global roundtable on the future of decentralization and multilevel governance

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), and a number of other partners, will be convening a global roundtable.

The global roundtable is scheduled to take place on February 26-27, 2026, at New York University’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service in New York City.

While participation in the roundtable will be invitation-only, selected panel sessions of the roundtable may be structured in a hybrid format to permit public participation online.

Roundtable objectives

The collective vision of the roundtable organizers is a world where people are informed and empowered; governments are open and responsive; and the public good is enhanced through civic engagement and collective action. Achieving this vision requires countries to pursue inclusive, efficient, and responsive multilevel governance systems.

Implementing the necessary reforms to achieve inclusive and responsive multilevel governance systems requires building country-level consensus and political will that results in public sector reforms (including in governance, administrative, fiscal, and sectoral systems), informed by evidence and an in-depth understanding of decentralization and localization as complex, cross-cutting and multistakeholder reforms. Global advocates of inclusive governance and sustainable development have an important role to play in knowledge development; knowledge sharing; and convening, outreach, and field-building.  The issue of how to strategically sequence and implement reforms also requires dedicated attention.

The focus of the roundtable is not to reflect on the importance of different thematic or technical issues—there are other venues to dive deeper into specific topics. Instead, the focus would be on identifying what we (think we) know, where we need to be more self-critical or work harder to better understand how multilevel governance can be leveraged in the real-world (or not), what to prioritize, and how to overcome the increasingly restrictive operating environment being faced by global champions, development actors, and other stakeholders that recognize the importance of multilevel governance and the local public sector in achieving inclusive governance and sustainable development.

Hosting, funding, and participation

The roundtable will be co-hosted by the Local Public Sector Alliance (LPSA), the Forum of Federations, NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, and the Center on International Cooperation (CIC) at New York University (NYU). Additional co-conveners and partners include the Commonwealth Local Government Forum, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the World Bank.

An initial estimate is that 40-50 participants might take part in the roundtable. In-person attendance will be invitation-only. In principle, all co-conveners, partner organizations, and participants will bear the cost of their own attendance. Travel support for a limited number of unaffiliated participants may be provided by LPSA or other partners.

Please monitor LPSA’s Event Calendar for future announcements regarding this event. Please contact Ms. Mirna Dave (mirna@decentralization.net) for questions or further information.