This year the fourth UN Development Cooperation Forum (UN DCF) is being held on 10-11 July, in New York by the United Nations Economic Social Council. The aim of this event is to review trends and progress in international development cooperation and to promote greater coherence among the development activities of different development partners.
This year's event will advance global dialogue on the future of development cooperation in the post-2015 era.
The main objectives of the 2014 UN DCF will be:
1. To assess how a global partnership for development beyond 2015 could work in practice;
2. To examine implications of a post-2015 development agenda for development cooperation;
3. To identify ways to enhance national and global accountability and effective monitoring of development cooperation;
4. To advance policy dialogue and concrete actions by Southern development cooperation partners on commons issues and challenges.
UCLG is part of the Advisory Board of the Forum and advocates for further recognition of the role of local governments in development. For the first time, the DCF 2012 counted with a Special Policy Session on Decentralised Cooperation, recognizing this important trend as efficient mechanism for development and the Policy Paper on Development Cooperation and Local Governments (2013) was included among the documentation.
Following the Policy Paper's recommendations, UCLG's objectives towards UN DCF will be:
• To obtain recognition of local government development cooperation by national governments as a positive public policy, with a supportive legal framework in all countries;
• To promote more and better decentralization, using local government development cooperation as a significant support mechanism;
• To obtain more direct financial support for cooperation available to local governments in lower income countries, including "south-south" partnerships.
> For more information on the UN DCF Forum, July 2014.
> Policy Paper on the UCLG.