Between 15-18 May, more than 100 representatives of local governments (LGs) and their associations (LGAs), all active in local government development cooperation, gathered in Marrakech for the first CIB annual meeting in Northern Africa. During the meeting, hosted by UCLG Africa and its African Local Government Academy (ALGA), participants exchanged information and knowledge on the latest trends in our sector, with special attention for the perspective of the Global South. Moroccon key note speakers provided informative presentations, case studies and best practices throughout the week, after which participants from all around the world dived into group discussions and interactive world cafés. The presence of representatives of the Development Partners Network on Decentralisation and Local Governance (DeLoG), also gave an extra touch to this year's meeting: it created for a lot of space for dialogue between implementing LGs and LGAs and donors and development partners, one of the objectives of the UCLG-CIB policy paper on development cooperation of local governments.
Opening conference: a Southern perspective on decentralised cooperation
After brief opening remarks by the Dr. Neila Akrimi and Pascal Lavoie, chairs of CIB, Dr Najat Zarrouk (UCLG Africa; director of ALGA) and Firdaous Oussadouhum of UCLG, different speakers from Africa were invited to share their perspective on decentralised cooperation, in an introductory plenary conference dedicated to the voice of the Global South. Mr. Oumar Ba of the Association of Burkina Faso opened by saying that we need to give more responsibity to Southern partners, jointly establish new partnerships and collectively search for funding, in line with the narrative behind SDG 17. He also mentioned that more South-South cooperation is needed. The representative from the Ministry of Interior of the Kingdom of Morocco shared an interesting modality for these South-South partnerships: the Ministry has created a fund for decentralized cooperation. The city of Benguerir then shared its successful experience which is financed through this fund.
Tour de Table and thematic workshops
After the plenary opening and introductory conference, participants were divided into smaller groups for 'tour de tables' - interactive peer-to-peer exchanges on organizational and project updates, achievements and questions. Relevant conclusions and questions were gathered in the plenary wrap-up, and used in the next days. The Tour the Table confirmed that the topics of Tuesday's in-depth workshops were the right ones: almost all members work on gender, the SDGs, resilience and city-to-city cooperation. CIB members and other participants got the chance to hear from about methodologies, good practices and lessons learned of others, and to codevelop joint actions, connected to the CIB working group.
Strategic review
Both the Tour de Table and thematic workshops laids the fundaments for a strategic review session with all present CIB members on Tuesday afternoon. Consultant Kubeshni Govendor moderated a conversation on the history of CIB, the current status, and the opportunities and challenges for the future. Participants were invited to discuss what is happening in development cooperation that is likely to impact CIB and to note down what issues and themes should be a priority for CIB in the future. First ideas were shared and participants were invited to also fill out a Mentimeter after the CIB annual meeting. Kubeshni Govendor will collect all information and present a first draft vision document for CIB for the next years, in the following weeks.
Joint day with DeLoG-network
The entire third day of the meeting was dedicated to policy dialogue, between LGs and LGAs on the one hand, and the members of the DeLoG network on the other hand. The fact that both the CIB and DeLoG communities were represented at one meeting on the topic of development cooperation of local governments was a novelty - and an excellent opportunity to create more understanding about each others perspectives on the sector. Organising high-level dialogues between the two communities is an important action after the adoption of the UCLG-CIB policy on development cooperation. Both communities underlined the need to jointly advocate for development cooperation by and for local governments, in different arenas.
Field visits and cultural tour
The CIB annual meeting's last day was dedicated to field visits and a cultural tour, to get a more in-depth understanding of Morocco, some of the ongoing development cooperation activities in Marrakech (incl. the collaboration on gender between the province of Barcelona and IMADEL) and the overall surroundings of this years' CIB annual meeting. It added great value to everyone's experience and placed the discussions from the other days in a larger context.
Next year
At the closing of the CIB annual meeting 2023, the province of Barcelona announced that they would be happy to host next years' meeting, in Barcelona. The exact dates will be announced soon.