THE TERRITORIAL APPROACH TO DEVELOPMENT Adressing the hindrances to development requires implementing and contextualizing solutions that make the territory the starting point of all interventions: its endogenous potential, identity and needs are taken
into account through inclusive and participatory processes that result in integrated, cross-sector and multidisciplinary interventions. In line with this approach, all the proposed integrated territorial development
Strong from its experience in 22 countries, the ART Initiative is well placed to play a pivotal role in bringing the implementation of the new development framework and its objectives to the local level, that is in localizing the new development agenda and implementing the future SDGs at the local level. Indeed, all of ART’s initiatives are carried out under a local perspective that is aligned to national development strategies and needs on the ground, promoting links between local, national and international levels, while keeping the focus on the territory, promoting the role of LRGs as strategic development actors in the countries and facilitating their participation in global development debates. The year 2014 allowed consolidating the strategic alliance with international associations of LRGs. Throughout 2014, UNDP through the ART Initiative, together with UN-Habitat on behalf of the UNDG and the Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments for the Post-2015 Development Agenda towards HABITAT III (GTF), have co-led the UNDG-mandated “Dialogue on the Localization of the Post-2015 Development Agenda” 2. The dialogues on localizing the agenda have been carried out in 13 countries across all continents, in addition to events organized at global and regional levels. These dialogues have led to a number of concrete recommendations to implement the post-2015 goals at the local
strategies focus on the “place” or “territory”, in the design of crosssectorial develpment policies, where the territory is starting and end line of the process.
level and contributed to the Secretary General’s Synthesis Report, presented to the United Nations General Assembly in December and used as the basis for the final inter-governmental negotiations3. Lastly, with the support of several UNDP Country Offices (COs), in 2014 the ART Initiative has made strides in establishing Integrated Systems for Local Development based on the territorial approach and multi-actor and multilevel governance systems. Various countries have promoted territorial platforms, encouraging a comprehensive approach to local development from within the territory and facilitating the inclusion of a wide range of local governance stakeholders. They aim at allowing the transition from fragmented and project-led initiatives to harmonized and inclusive processes that stem from the territory and are locally owned, while they also contribute to applying a framework of mutual accountability. These platforms are potentially strategic for UNDP because they can strengthen its stance towards territorial development, an element that will be key to the successful implementation of the post-2015 agenda at the local level.
ART - 2014 in Review
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