Mayors’ Leadership Forum Unveils GovTech Manifesto, Placing People and Nature at the Center of Digital Transformation
Madrid, Spain – May 7, 2026 – Governmental leaders from Europe and the United States joined forces at the inaugural Mayors’ Leadership Forum, held during the Govtech 4 Impact World Congress 2026 in Madrid, to launch the GovTech Manifesto and action plan. The resulting document outlines a shared vision to realize the green, digital, and social transformation for cities and regions, explicitly putting “People and Nature in the Core of the Digital Transformation”.
The Forum’s central goal is to define a “moonshot” for GovTech: a coordinated, market-shaping approach that positions cities and regions as active market shapers in the global GovTech industry, starting with citizens at the center.
The manifesto was developed in collaboration with the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), the European Digital Infrastructure Consortium (EDIC), and the European Commission.
Shifting Governments from Buyers to Market Shapers
The Manifesto focuses on breakthrough interventions designed to accelerate the GovTech market, ensuring that digital transformations support the societal challenges faced by citizens and communities. It aims to leverage emerging technologies while strictly safeguarding the public interest.
The coalition plans to achieve this by working on shared solutions, aligning demand through open standards, and building capabilities across various governance levels. The effort is intended to unlock public purchasing power and shared investment, thereby driving economic growth, achieving climate-positive outcomes, and delivering meaningful value for citizens.
Rian van Dam, Mayor of Hollands Kroon, the Netherlands, and one of the initiative’s leaders, stressed the foundational role of cities. “In times of rapid change and growing societal challenges, cities and regions should serve as trusted anchors for their citizens,” van Dam said, adding that cities must be “places where people, nature and democratic values are at the centre of every decision”.
Leaders Commit to People-Centered Technology
Leaders from across the globe voiced strong support for the manifesto’s principles:
- Tony Dyer, Leader of Bristol: Stated that the principles will enable the use of technological advances to deliver core services that are “both people centred and resource efficient,” resulting in a better quality of life for citizens.
- Matjaž Rakovec, Mayor of the City of Kranj, Slovenia: Emphasized that smart cities must always serve people first and be trusted, using technology to help residents “live better, more connected and more sustainable lives with fewer resources”.
- Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard, Mount Vernon, NY, USA: Highlighted the common challenge shared by cities of all sizes: “using technology to make government more efficient, responsive, and impactful,” which requires reducing bureaucracy, accelerating innovation, and strengthening cross-sector partnerships.
- Vito Episcopo, Deputy Mayor of Granada, Spain: Called for shared infrastructure, noting, “Europe doesn’t need more pilots — it needs shared infrastructures to scale innovation”.
The Mayors’ Leadership Forum serves as a focused leadership coalition committed to translating ambition into implementation. Rooted in Europe, the initiative is designed to scale globally, connecting leading cities and institutions with shared instruments, including procurement frameworks, funding mechanisms, and innovation ecosystems such as European Digital Innovation Hubs and regulatory sandboxes.
The Manifesto forms the basis of a structured Action Plan that will be put into effect over the next year, with the first wave of progress to be reported at the next edition of the Forum. Cities, regions, and institutions are invited to join as co-shapers of this new GovTech ecosystem.
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