Original version

BBC World Service

BBC World Service Radio

World Service Radio

The Documentary

Documentaries

Factual

Investigating global developments, issues and affairs.

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

The Documentary: World Mayor

Mayor Enrique Penelosa of Bogota

28/02/2017 GMT

World Mayor

BBC World Service - The Documentary, World Mayor

Dorothy Thornhill, the first elected female mayor in Britain, on delivering change

Dorothy Thornhill, the first elected female mayor in Britain, looks at how mayors are delivering change in the world’s cities.

We visit the mayors of cities from Helsinki to Bogota, from Los Angeles to Rotterdam and Cape Town to discover why citizens are putting their faith in the ability of local government and a charismatic mayor to deliver a better quality of life and solutions to 21st Century problems.

We report from the first World Parliament of Mayors that was convened in the Hague in September and which seeks to give mayors a stronger political voice internationally. 
 
The driving idea is that cities, where the majority of the world population now lives, have much in common with one another and that the challenges they face – migration, health,  trade, climate change, security, terrorism – are issues that cross national borders.

Mayors are highly accountable democratically, with a strong imperative to get things done. Often they are in charge of cities with populations of many millions – but they are often more free and less politically partisan than their colleagues in national  government. Increasingly it is mayors and their administrations who are taking the lead on solutions for housing, cleaner air and water, crime reduction and the ‘greening’ of cities.

But does the office of mayor confer too much power to one individual? We look at the rise of women majors - why is it that the mayors of Paris, Rome, Barcelona, Madrid, Cologne, Warsaw, Prague, Bucharest and a swathe of cities across the world now have women mayors?

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Documentary

World Mayor

Genres

Brand

BBC World Service

About BBC World Service