December 2014 newsletter

LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND DECENTRALIZATION Newsletter ‐ December 2014 The Local Government and Decentralisation Unit sits at the Urban Land, Legislation and Governance Branch at UN‐Habitat. The core role of the unit is to stresses the role of local government as a key actor of development, whose relevance has been reinforced by the Rio+20 Declaration "The World we Want". The unit supports local governments and their associations, working closely with both central and territorial governments to establish mechanisms of dialogue, to exchange best practices and to support projects for the empowerment of local and regional governments through a fair distribution of resources.

Brochure on‐line available at http://unhabitat.org/local‐ government‐and‐decentralization‐unit‐brochure/

Looking Forward to 2015 Launch of the 'Uraia' Platform The year 2015 will see the official launch of the exciting Uraia platform. Uraia meaning ‘Citizenship’ is a platform that aims to have an interactive exchanges and a repository of knowledge on the innovation of public management with the aim of providing better and improved opportunities for active citizenship The main objectives of the URAIA platform are to:    

Facilitate and support the cooperation between cities and technology providers Strengthen interaction between local government and their local stakeholders Support to improved transparency and cost effectiveness in urban services provision Support sustainable municipal finances for local governments

Find out more at http://www.uraia.org/

What’s Have We Been Up To Global Consultation on Localizing SDG's (Turin, Italy 13th ‐15th October 2014)

The Local Government and Decentralization Unit (LGDU) attended, the global consultation on localizing SDG’s in Turin, Italy. This was the last event amongst many of a process of national and regional consultations regarding the role and future of SDGs at the local level. In January 2014, LDGU on behalf of UN Habitat co‐lead a series of consultations together with UNDP and the Global Task Force on Local and Regional Government, with the aim of assessing the future local dimension of the implementation of the SDGs National activities took place in 13 different countries: in Africa (Burundi, Cameroon, Ghana, Malawi and Tanzania), Asia Pacific (Armenia, Philippines, Tajikistan and Vanuatu), Europe (Portugal) and Latin America and the Caribbean (Ecuador, El Salvador and Jamaica). Finally, the global consultation invited the representatives from the 13 countries plus the members of the Advisory Committee to assess the final report, present the main findings and to endorse the proposed way forward.

Find out more on http://www.worldwewant2015.org/localising2015

Urban Thinkers Campus. Caserta,Italy 16th‐17th October 2014

LGDU represented UN‐Habitat at the Urban Thinkers Campus in Caserta, Italy. The campus offers open space for partners to contribute to the preparatory process towards Habitat III consultations. The Campus conveyed representatives of constituencies and partner organizations to debate around urban challenges and solutions to learn from each other and exchange on emerging practices that can positively contribute to a new urban paradigm. UCLG (United Cities and Local Government) delivered the common and agreed position of the Global Taskforce of local and regional governments and also participated in the final drafting session that culminated in “The City We Need” document. Present parliamentarians were in support of the report delivered by UCLG.

Find out more on http://unhabitat.org/urbanthinkers/

Cities for All‐ 11th Metropolis World Congress. Hyderabad, India 7th ‐10th October 2014

LGDU was in Hyderabad, India to attend the Metropolis World Congress and to present the unit’s work on metropolitan governance.

UN‐Habitat and its partner, GIZ (German Development Cooperation) co‐organized a session on Metropolitan Governance, with the objectives of, identifying governance instruments for metropolitan governance in developing metropolises. Special attention was given to equity, accountability and participation. A needs assessment and joint reflection exercise with participants was held to support the development of policy recommendations in the field of metropolitan governance and an exchange on existing practices, successful experiences and innovations.

The Congress was well attended with approximately 1800 participants and high‐level representation from India that included the Prime Minister, former president, Minister of urban development.

Three speakers from India ( Andra Pradesh), Germany ( Stuttgart) and Brazil (Sao Paulo) shed the light on their experiences and challenges and Jean‐Francois Habeau, Executive Director of FMDV, facilitated the session.

Find out more at http://hyderabad2014.metropolis.org/main‐ outcomes

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Smart Local Governance: The Challenge of Good Governance in Local Administration. Bilbao, Spain 6th ‐7th November 2014 The Local Government and Decentralization Unit presented the preliminary results from the joint activity with London School of Economics and UCLG on Mapping Urban Governance at the Smart Local Governance event in Bilbao. The results highlighted the governance gaps, opportunities and challenges that local governments face in the day‐to‐day running of a city. This was as a result of months of data collection from a diverse set of cities on various aspects of urban management and development.

An exciting and new program, URAIA is well positioned to offer knowledge on smart local governance for active citizen participation.

Smart technologies allow the establishment of new relationships between local government and citizens; in particular, the establishment of online public services and the use of new technologies to improve citizen participation in public decisions.

The meeting represented a unique opportunity to exchange knowledge and debate about some of the key challenges and challenges that local governments face such as: strategic local governance; Transparency and Citizen Participation; Intelligence city: Big data + open data; and modernization of the Administration and Public Services On‐line. More than 80 representatives from cities, city associations, international organizations and academia from around the world attended the meeting on Smart Local Governance held in Bilbao, Spain. The successful event was organized by the City of Bilbao, currently the chair of Digital Cities and Knowledge at the United Cities Local Government, the Committee on Decentralization and Local Autonomy UCLG, chaired by the Barcelona Provincial Council, the Cities Programme at LSE and EUDEL and the cooperation of UN‐Habitat. Find out more on http://goo.gl/wtD4TE

Urban Age Conference. Delhi, India 14th ‐15th November 2014

LDGU was pleased to attend the Urban Age Conference in Delhi where the official unveiling of the joint UN Habitat, LSE and UCLG (United Cities and Local Governments) survey results for the Mapping Urban Governance project took place. The survey results were presented in the annual conference newsletter Governing Urban Futures 2014.

See LDGU’s contribution to the survey here http://goo.gl/Q3j3q

The event was organized by LSE Cities at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Deutsche Bank’s Alfred Herrhausen Society. This years Urban Age conference investigated the link between urban governance and capacities to engage with and shape the future development of cities. The conference, gathered key scholars on urbanization and cities, ministers, partner organizations amongst others to discuss key issues on urban governance and the challenges that cities face with planning for cities.

Contacts Local Government and Decentralization Unit Urban Land, Legislation and Governance Branch habitat.governance@unhabitat.org http://mirror.unhabitat.org/categories.asp?catid=365

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