Cités Unies France aims at promoting local democracy, peace, international solidarity, and a strong and genuine participation of the population in local affairs. It also firmly believes cities and other levels of local and regional government can only win by exchanging on challenges that face them all over the world.
Cités Unies France is:
- a network of 3 000 French local governments engaged in international cooperation with their counterparts worldwide;
more than 30 years of experience in facilitating the engagement of French elected local officials and their staff in international cooperation to share expertise and experience with their peers in public matters;
- a branch of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), a world-wide organization of local authorities, promoting democratic local self-government;
- an advocate of city diplomacy;
- several partnership agreements with local government associations abroad ;
- a platform of “country-groups” dedicated to a number of focus countries offering a unique opportunity for local governments to develop, together with their partners abroad, programs that tackle complex local challenges;
- a team of 20 people in day-to-day working relations with international and national bodies dealing with issues that are of interest for local governments;