As you might recall, the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) finalised its research on the current state of development cooperation of and by local governments and their associations at the end of last year. Based on the work done by IDS, and your important contributions to it, the CIB working group now plans to develop a concise UCLG-CIB policy paper on development cooperation & local government, which will be presented to the UCLG Executive Bureau in June 2022. This policy paper should serve as an update of the UCLG-CIB policy paper on this topic from 2013.
As mentioned before, the policy paper should build the case for a continued strong role of local and regional governments in development cooperation, and will emphasize that, globally, local governments are key actors that drive development and support decentralization processes. As the order of government responsible for ensuring equitable delivery of essential services, including in many cases social services around health, welfare and housing, local governments occupy an important niche in a nation’s development; however, support is needed from national governments and the international community to further strengthen local governments in fulfilling their mandates. The paper will also include the major role played by regional governments, for example in relation to sustainable territorial development and partnership between the different levels or orders of government. The policy paper should reflect on the current (international policy) context in which development cooperation between local and regional governments takes place and present updated key messages, to support advocacy with local governments, national governments and the international community. When describing the developments in the (policy) context, the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath should also be taken into account.
Steps ahead
We are happy to announce here that we have hired senior expert Sebastien Hamel (former co-chair of CIB) to help us develop the policy paper in the next few months. The draft paper is already in preparation, consultations with the UCLG policy team and learning team, as well as with PLATFORMA and the CIB leadership have taken place. We are now preparing a dedicated consultation session with UCLG regional sections and partners, which will take place in the framework of the UCLG retreat, on Thursday 24 February, between 16:00-17:00 CET (Zoom ánd in-person in Barcelona). During this session, Sebastien Hamel and the CIB secretariat will present a first overview of key messages and recommendations, to be validated by the audience. If you cannot make it to the Retreat session, please know that we will organise other moments for validation in the months to come, as well as a last round of in-depth interviews. We encourage you to further engage in the process; please contact uclg.cib@vng.nl if you want to learn more!
Source of image: https://www.ispionline.it/en/pubblicazione/development-cooperation-sdgs-...