Decentralized cooperation and aid effectiveness

MINUTES DECENTRALIZED COOPERATION AND AID EFFECTIVENESS PROGRESS AND CHALLENGES FOR SUB-STATE ACTORS IN THE POST BUSAN DEVELOPMENT AGENDA rd

Barcelona, Friday March 23 , 2012

INSTITUTIONAL OPENING - Francesc Badia, CIDOB Manager - Carles Llorens, General Director for Development Cooperation, Government of Catalonia - Francisco Quesada, Advisor of the Office of the Secretary General for International Cooperation, Government of Spain - Octavi de la Varga, Executive Director of the OCO, Barcelona Provincial Council - Emilia Sáiz, Director of Statutory and Institutional Affairs, UCLG - Dasa Silovic, Special Advisor to the UNDP Assistant Administrator, BERA  The representative of the Secretary General for International Development Cooperation of the Government of Spain stressed their commitment with the aid effectiveness agenda, especially in this times of crisis. For the new executive, decentralized cooperation is a structural part of the Spanish cooperation, and coordination and complementarity is required at the highest level. There has been for instance the offer to share the Technical Cooperation Offices that Spain has abroad with those Spanish Autonomous Communities that might need it. He also forwarded the possibility of collaborating with the Autonomous Communities in the country cooperation frameworks.  The representatives of the government of Catalonia, UCLG, ORU-FOGAR, the Barcelona Provincial Council and UNDP reflected on the Partnership agreed in Busan, which opens a new landscape of development cooperation which is more inclusive, recognizing the role of emerging countries, civil society, the private sector and sub-state actors. This new fast-changing context will have during 2012 important meetings which will shape a new agenda for development, such as the Rio +20 Conference and the ECOSOC Development Cooperation Forum.  The various representatives recognized the importance of the partnership developed towards Busan between local government networks (UCLG) and regional (ORU-FOGAR) with the multilateral framework represented by UNDP ART. Given the added value of this alliance, the willingness to continue working in complementarity between the local, regional, national and international levels was reaffirmed. In this joint effort, the networks of local and regional governments lead the political dialogue and UNDP and other UN agencies are facilitators of the dialogue and presence in global forums, as well as supporting implementation at country level.  UCLG and ORU-FOGAR stressed that much work remains to be done in order to adequately place the importance of sub-state actors and of the needed complementarity between different levels of government for effective development. For the networks of sub-state governments it is difficult to disconnect their recognition in the international development agenda to the general recognition in global governance.

FIRST ROUNDTABLE. MAIN CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE HLF-4 ON AID EFFECTIVENESS AND CHALLENGES FOR DECENTRALIZED COOPERATION AND SUB-STATE GOVERNMENTS

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- Rafael Grasa, Professor of International Relations, Autonomous University of Barcelona and President of the International Catalan Peace Institute, Barcelona  The emerging agenda from Rome to Busan has been strongly shaken by the context (South-South and triangular cooperation; change in global wealth and crisis ;changing needs of the countries of the South; direct investment and remittances; the role of finances; public and private emerging actors, MDGs and discussions post 2015).  Problems of aid effectiveness for 20 years: lack of predictability of flows; ownership of development processes; credibility of the actors; improving the impact, coherence; absorption; international coordination; elements of competence (the capacity of joint work between national and sub-state actors is not well resolved).

COMMITMENTS BY THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY - Eduardo Gonzalez, Policy Advisor, Bureau for Development Cooperation, OECD, Paris - Dasa Silovic, Special Advisor to the UNDP Assistant Administrator, BERA, New York • Busan products: -

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Change from aid effectiveness to development effectiveness, in line with discussions taking place globally, for example around the ECOSOC Development Cooperation Forum.

More inclusive Partnership: conjunction of forces of all development actors, which in Busan moves from being only national governments to incorporating other actors (local governments, private sector, role of parliaments, CSOs, etc).

Reassertion of the validity of the Paris and Accra commitments, which are still in force.

Shared principles but differentiated commitments. It is one of the elements required by emerging countries to be there.

Emphasis on ownership and accountability.

 In Busan there are nuclear commitments contained in the Busan Declaration (Common Principles); then there are some core commitments (Core Busan Commitments) which need to be further developed; and the building blocks (some members decide to go beyond what has been agreed, making a specific association to further advance in certain themes).  The OECD/DAC WP-EFF mandate ends in June, with the last task of establishing how the Busan Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation, is going to work, and define the global indicators and targets for the evaluation and monitoring of the Busan commitments.  It has not yet been decided how the Global Partnership is going to be. There will be a meeting in early April of the post-Busan Interim Group in preparation for the May WP meeting. There will be a Steering Committee of between 7 and 10 senior members and the secretariat (UNDP-OECD) which will support this process.  There will be two levels of monitoring. In each country, the relevant stakeholders will establish their own goals and indicators and report the results of progress. In parallel, at the global level there will be a selection of common goals and indicators, and a light follow-up structure. There is a need to incorporate flexibility in monitoring, since it is not the same to monitor traditional cooperation between donor-recipient than decentralized cooperation. UNDP ART proposes a locallevel monitoring.

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 In this context, governments and sub-state actors offer an added value not only for an inclusive ownership, but also to strengthen domestic and mutual accountability to achieve results. They also have a role in South-South and triangular cooperation, with the transfer of knowledge and knowhow in the areas of responsibility and expertise of local governments.

ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION OF THE BUSAN SIDE EVENT "AID EFFECTIVENESS AT THE SUBNATIONAL LEVEL": ROADMAP AND RESULTS. FUTURE CHALLENGES - Lupe Moreno, Head of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Directorate General for Development Cooperation, Government of Catalonia, ORU-FOGAR - Neus Gómez, Head of the Development Cooperation Office, Barcelona Provincial Council - Hubert Julien-Laferriere, Vice President of Grand Lyon, Lyon City Councilmember, France, and Chairman of the Decentralized Cooperation Commission, UCLG - Lourdes Gomez, Programme Specialist, UNDP ART Initiative, Geneva  Very positive evaluation of the alliance developed towards Busan bringing together the various actors behind a single but differentiated message, which culminated in the organization of a Busan Side Event on “Aid Effectiveness at the Sub-State Level” by UCLG, ORU-FOGAR, DeLoG and UNDP ART, with a final joint statement. This partnership reflects the complementarity between local, intermediate, national and multilateral actors.  The process towards Busan served to reflect on the opportunities of the differentiated but complementary roles of each actor and on the contribution of sub-state governments, networks of sub-state governments and multilateral organizations such as UNDP in deepening the aid effectiveness Agenda.  Aid effectiveness principles to which sub-state actors could contribute more: democratic ownership and mutual accountability, from two perspectives: as governments of partner countries and as governments of donor countries, and in the context of decentralization and local governance. a) Regarding ownership: sub-state governments are close to the citizens, provide basic services, are in direct contact with the needs of the population and thus have an important role in providing an effective development. Thus they need to be more involved in the definition of national development strategies and be able to deploy their own development strategies. b) As for mutual accountability, it should be done through a multilevel governance perspective: sub-state levels of government can have an important role not only in their relation to the citizens but also in linking citizens with national governments.  For sub-state governments to exercise this role, they must have a number of capacities.

Decentralized cooperation plays an important role in creating / strengthening capacities to identify development priorities and strengthening civil society so that development strategies take into account the interests of the population.  In relation to monitoring, there remains to be seen what the monitoring indicators at the global level will be, and how these will be reflected at national level. UNDP ART offers itself in order to advance in a local-level monitoring complementing the national-level monitoring.  In the Busan HLF-4 there was recognition of sub-state actors and an incipient integration into the development process through collaboration with UNDP ART and other UN agencies, counterparts 3

of local and regional authorities. It remains to be seen how sub-state authorities will be included in the post-Busan arrangements, once the WP disappears.  The formal recognition is essential because, beyond decentralized cooperation, is linked to the recognition of local and regional governments as development stakeholders in their territories and, therefore, in their countries. In the current global context of urbanization and decentralization, substate actors have competences to ensure many of the measures for MDGs achievement: public health, waste management, water supply and sanitation, etc., basic services that are, generally, in the hands of local governments. And they have a strong influence on national governments.  As a bottom-up movement, the spontaneity of interactions and solidarity among decentralized actors are the advantages of decentralized cooperation and the reasons of its effectiveness, but it cannot be ignored that the lack of top-down organization exacerbates fragmentation and the fragility of cooperation.  On this basis, the various actors propose to continue working together towards Rio +20 and the ECOSOC Development Cooperation Forum, adding more partners. The challenge in the post Busan is to achieve institutionalized representation in the aid architecture, not only in the definition of the Aid Effectiveness Agenda but across the international development agenda. It is not only a matter of legitimacy: the absence of sub-state levels jeopardizes the effectiveness of development. Linked to the above, another major challenge is how to do it, politically, so that bilateral cooperation owns decentralized cooperation and makes it an axis of its national policy, with a change of dynamics in multilevel relations between national, regional and local authorities.

ROUNDTABLE 2. DECENTRALIZED COOPERATION, SUB-STATE GOVERNMENTS AND THEIR ADDED VALUE IN DEVELOPMENT. POSITIONING OF NETWORKS IN PREPARATION OF THE DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION FORUM (DCF) ORGANIZED BY UN DESA-ECOSOC IN JULY 2012 - Vanna Ianni, Professor at the Università L'Orientale di Napoli, Italy  We are facing a new stage of development cooperation, with a diversity of actors, modalities of action and development visions. In this context, the most innovative aspects of decentralized cooperation are: - Being closer to the contexts.

- The horizontal partnerships, different from the vertical partnerships which have traditionally linked donor-recipient. The horizontal is an enabling partnership which promotes the overcoming of asymmetrical relations between the different actors involved.

- Concept of co-development, because the relationship of proximity that each local government establishes with its territory implies a strengthening of relations in the North itself.

- The South-South cooperation between territories, with a great variety of practices which need to be better known.

- The complementarity with the multilateralism to reduce fragmentation.

PRESENTATION / CONTEXTUALIZATION BY UN DESA - Monica Nogara, Economic Affairs Officer, Office of ECOSOC Support and Coordination, UN DESA, New York 4

 The Development Cooperation Forum was established by the General Assembly in 2005 as a biennial intergovernmental forum, but has been transformed in response to the changing context, including new actors and new modalities that need to be understood.  The DCF mandate is to provide answers and solutions to the challenges of the new context of international development cooperation, with political discussions on cooperation strategies and financing methods.  Among other topics, the 2012 DCF will touch upon coherence, predictability, orphan countries, and South-South cooperation. It will also focus on new actors (foundations, private sector) and emerging modalities such as decentralized cooperation, which should be discussed and appraised.

It will also aim to facilitate discussions between "new" actors with traditional players.  The DCF will have a panel dedicated to Decentralized Cooperation (July 6th afternoon), where the discussion can advance, presenting its characteristics, opportunities, constraints, measuring its impact, actors, good practices (especially in sustainable development), how local solutions can impact the global sphere, etc. After the DCF there will a study on Decentralized Cooperation and an Expert Group Meeting at the end of 2012 / early 2013, on good practices and standards of quality of Decentralized Cooperation.

PRESENTATION OF THE UCLG CIB GUIDANCE NOTE - Renske Steenbergen, International Affairs Officer, Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG) and member of the Working Group on Capacity Building, UCLG  UCLG is developing a policy guidance note on local governments’ development cooperation, which could also contribute to the DCF debate. The paper aims to describe this development modality’s characteristics, opportunities, strengths, threats, and how it responds to development effectiveness.  The paper analyzes the various elements conforming local governments’ development cooperation, such as strengthening local governments themselves, the support to decentralization processes, and the facing of global challenges.  Strengths identified in DC: proximity to citizens; expertise in providing basic services. Opportunities: decentralization, urbanization, greater recognition. Weaknesses: not focused on results; political change limits the continuity of actions; projects are not strategic; fragmentation. Threats: funds are shrinking more and more; blocked decentralization processes.

PRESENTATION OF GOOD LOCAL / SUB-STATE PRACTICES FOR SUSTAINABLE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND AID EFFECTIVENESS - Mohamed Sefiani, Mayor of Chefchaouen, Tangier-Tetouan Region, Morocco  Decentralized cooperation is one of the key development axis of the municipality of Chefchaouen.

Since 2006, they count with the support of the UNDP ART Programme for greater coordination of the multiple DC partners and greater involvement of their activities to the local development strategy. In this regard the "House of Development" has been created as a space for dialogue, consensus building, capacity development and coordination of international cooperation partners and local authorities.  The new City Charter requires municipalities to develop a 6-year strategic plan, which in Chefchaouen has been developed by the municipality technical teams and councilors, accompanied 5

by UNDP ART experts and a specialized cabinet from Catalonia. It has been drafted in a participatory manner and with a gender sensitive approach.  The support to decentralization and local governance is very important: projects to improve municipal management, capacity development, better service to citizens, and the computerization of many services of the municipality, the latter with the support of triangular cooperation by ISI@MED component of UNDP ART. - Julio Portieles, Chief Technical Advisor UNDP ART Ecuador Programme  Presents a case involving the national and all sub-state governments (rural communities, municipal and provincial), in addition to the UNDP ART Programme, with the support of the Spanish Cooperation and several Spanish Autonomous Communities.  Since 2007 there is a recovery of Ecuador’s planning: National Development Plan (Plan Nacional para el Buen Vivir), supported by a participatory decentralized system. Each tear of government drafts its development plan and ensures certain discussion and participation spaces with civil society. Under this system there is a system of international cooperation that operates in an autonomous and decentralized manner.  In a given territory, there are four different levels of government independently managing international cooperation. Beyond its innovative nature, this raises the enormous challenge of finding mechanisms for coordination and complementarity between the different levels of governments. This has been touched upon in some laws for the transfer of international cooperation competences to sub-state levels of government.  Based on this background, the UNDP ART Programme measured in 2010 its contribution to the complementarity of actors and aid effectiveness. The results enabled to correct many things, and to see that there were very positive results in ownership and alignment, and less progress in harmonization.  The Government of Ecuador and the UNDP ART Ecuador Programme have also developed an instrument measuring the 5 principles of aid effectiveness in a particular territory. The tool intended to be as simple as possible and linked to the key elements of day-to-day management of the territory. It has already been piloted in several territories.

- Felipe Llamas, Director of the Multilateral and Networks Area, Andalusian Fund of Municipalities for International Solidarity (FAMSI)  Stresses the innovation that at the time represented the creation of the cooperation funds, such as the Catalan and Andalusian, as a network for complementarity and joint efforts, of coordination in a territory.  Today, maintaining a public development cooperation policy is a great effort. It requires territorial social responsibility, that all the actors of the territory jointly reflect on how solidarity is built within the territory and towards others.  Presents the work done with Moroccan local governments, articulating different funds under the umbrella of community plans and the methodological approach of the UNDP ART Programme.  Importance of bringing to the discussions how to incorporate creativity and innovation through Decentralized Cooperation, not only to influence development cooperation policy but also the 6

territorial development policies themselves. This should be done through public leadership for the promotion of public services, with the objective of improving the lives of the citizenry.

- Pere Trias, Secretary of the Catalan Fund for Development Cooperation (FCCD)  The Catalan Fund brings together Catalan municipalities and other local organizations (councils, county councils, unions of municipalities), as an instrument for coordination and articulated work in international development cooperation. It manages the resources of several institutions in a jointly manner, allowing for unified action.  Mention of the Fund's action in the Dominican - Haiti border, in collaboration with UNDP ART, working jointly and in an articulated manner with Haitian and Dominican border municipalities, contributing to the institutional capacities of local governance in various aspects such as improving services to citizens and the ability to plan the own local development.

DISCUSSION OF A JOINT STRATEGY FOR PARTICIPATION AND RECOGNITION OF THE ROLE OF SUBSTATE GOVERNMENTS AND DECENTRALIZED COOPERATION IN THE DCF  Consolidation of the strategic alliance developed towards Busan, agreeing to put on paper the common objectives and clarifying the differentiated roles of each partner. The direct political interlocution would be of the local and regional governments. UNDP and through the ART Initiative would facilitate the international positioning of the sub-state level, support decentralized cooperation networks and provide technical backup at country level through the framework programmes. Efforts will be made to make the alliance more inclusive, incorporating greater representation of partner countries.  Promote multilevel dialogue. In addition to the positioning of sub-state governments, work will be done to promote increased articulation with national governments and the multilateral framework for greater impact.  Exchange of agendas to identify common interests, avoid duplication, maximize efforts and to jointly participate in events, seminars etc. The networks of local and regional governments request the accompaniment of UNDP in different processes: post Busan, Rio +20, DCF.  Participation of the UN DESA is very positive, as is the news that Decentralized Cooperation will have a dedicated panel in the DCF. There will be exchanges between the network of partners, UN DESA - UNDP for the organization of the panel. Also joint work to prepare the Expert Group Meeting on Decentralized Cooperation.  With regard to the post-Busan arrangements, UNDP is responsible, along with the OECD, to ensure the proper functioning of the Global Partnership. UCLG is accredited and intends to participate in two of the Building Blocks: Effective Institutions and Policies, South-South Cooperation. Proposal to develop the network of partners into a non-official BB, building on the alliance among the present partners and others.  For the definition of strategic messages for the DCF, the UCLG policy paper could be the starting point for developing common messages, keeping in mind that the DCF is a political forum for discussion and reflection, there is no final statement. ORU-FOGAR offers to jointly work with UCLG on a first draft of joint messages.  Develop a roadmap until July, also linked to the work towards Rio +20 (policy paper on territorial approach to sustainable development; consultation processes at the sub-national level).

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