Initiatives / Partnerships • UCLG is working on a Global Observatory on Local Finance to identify all existing financing mechanisms available for local and regional governments, assess their impacts and ensure information sharing between local and regional governments. • Up to now, the French Development Agency (AFD) is one of the few funders to directly fund local authorities, based on its decentralization policy. The AFD has moved from a project approach to an actor-based approach. It promotes direct intervention and provides direct loans to be disbursed via the local government. In parallel, it provides grants to reinforce capacities of local governments in both financial management and human resources. It also supports local governments to gain a better understanding of their systems and how they plan to use assumed funding. • To promote decentralization, the AFD also takes part in roles involving the distribution of fiscal resources, the creation or training of regional civil servants and legal frameworks for a counting system that facilitates the functionality of local governments. • The Mayor of Santa Fe presented the concrete example of his city, where implementation is financed by establishing an axis between the public and private sectors and using credit management's. • As part of alternative approaches, the use of local currencies was raised as an interesting option to be further addressed by the networks.
15 UCLG RETREAT AND CAMPUS 2017
Follow-up actions for the Global Taskforce and networks • Continue advocating to obtain finance decentralization and the capacity for local and regional governments to raise their own taxes • Collaborate with regional and global institutions to ensure the development of specific funds that are accessible to local and regional governments • Contribute to the different mechanisms promoted by the Global Taskforce networks on local finance such as FMDV and C40 • Foster new thinking on the financing of sustainable infrastructure and services • Contribute to the UCLG Global Observatory on Local Finance