Thematic Round Tables and Parallel Sessions
The speakers highlighted that, during the last 20 years, we have noticed an active movement among local authorities of the world in the field of decentralized cooperation, among which there have been moments of celebrations of great success stories, as well as some shortcomings and risks that we have to tackle, deal with and take into consideration. The role adopted by International agencies in this field was also highlighted; examples such as UN agencies, the European Commission and others were discussed. This opens the door for local authorities to benefit from the experience and support of such organizations to make the cooperation more effective by setting clear benchmarks. Among the challenges and weaknesses of decentralized cooperation, one issue raised was the project focus on the results that are at stake, which are supply driven. Transparency is often missing, there is a lack of financial resources, inadequate legal and consultant processes at local level, and practices of budget support and their conditions threaten local ownership. In addition, speakers stressed important issues such as assessing and prioritizing needs, equality among partnerships, the development of agreements on specific objectives and open agreement. Speakers also highlighted that citizens and citizens’ groups must play a major role in the implementation of cooperation and promote ownership, transparency, confidence and trust among partners. In some cases, development cooperation programmes are not mature enough; they lack financing and resources. They are often subject to change, when administrations change meaning they are not institutionalized.
Among the main conclusions: Support for decentralized cooperation is increasing as a result of the benefits of such relations, and local authorities are becoming increasingly recognized as major influential local actors in creating development and improvement. Agreements for Decentralized Cooperation are important, but they must be active, well established, and institutionalized with clear specific objectives - they are citizen oriented when society is involved. Cooperation must be based on transparency, a sense of ownership, confidence and trust, and based on learning and past experiences. Local authorities should have effective staff capable of implementing cooperation agreements and should build their capacities and develop capacity building programs. Good practices must be shared for mutual benefit as decentralized cooperation is best implemented if based on organization-to-organization and peer-topeer relationships. A legal framework that protects the agreement in each of the partner local authorities must be agreed in order to continue the cooperation after administration changes, or once funding is stopped. Central government policies limit cooperation agreements. There is a need to facilitate integrated systems of local development in which decentralized cooperation is one important tool. The improvement of universities, civil society groups, and community based organizations, chambers of commerce and private sector in decentralized cooperation can make economic partnerships more effective. 31