0w2010 01 RESUM EJECUTIVO 01 DEFcarta ang
26/10/10
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FOREWORD Executive Summary
The 2nd Global Report on Decentralization and Local Democracy, that I have the pleasure to present you with, is dedicated to local finance. It confirms the growing role of local governments in all regions of the world. It equally demonstrates the important imbalances that can exist in the sharing of resources and responsibilities between national and local governments. These imbalances have only been worsened with the impact of the global financial and economic crisis. Thus, everywhere in the world, local authorities have more and more responsibilities in service provision, the putting in practice of social policy, environmental management, and local development. They ensure between two thirds to a half of the public investment in OECD countries as well as in certain emerging nations –China, South Africa and Brazil. However, if the responsibilities of local government are growing, the share of funds available to ensure these responsibilities is often inadequate, in particular in developing countries. This issue is made worse by the low level of autonomy local governments have with regard to financial management in the majority of regions.
Bertrand Delanoë Mayor of Paris, France President of UCGL
Without autonomy and resources local democracy is crippled. Its advances, which include the free election of local representatives in the majority of countries, remain precarious and can generate a profound disillusionment which threatens to ricochet back and fissure its own democratic foundation. This divide between responsibilities and the sharing of resources specifically impacts the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In fact, it is in sub-Saharan Africa and in the least advanced countries of Asia, where the means of local governments are the weakest, that the attainment of the MDGs is lagging the most. If local governments in the European Union spend near 3,250 € a year, by inhabitant to meet the needs of their citizens, in sub-Saharan Africa and certain countries of Asia only 24 € per inhabitant is available, and significantly less in the poorest countries. The 2nd Global Report demonstrates that the financing of urban and local development is one of the weak links of development aid policies. With accelerating urbanization the current level of available financing does not allow for a response to the existing and ongoing “urbanization of poverty”.