UCLG Position Paper v_2 (eng)
22/12/09
18:13
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A Compilation of Case Studies
strengthening the structures for cooperation of local authorities and the mechanisms of mutual information”. At the same time, due to the high number of cooperation initiatives to strengthen local administrations, it became necessary to articulate innovative formulas for greater aid effectiveness on Spanish state level, in line with the aid effectiveness principles. So that, with the aim of promoting, coordinating and facilitating the efforts of the Spanish cooperation in this field, the Spanish central government and local authorities agreed in 2007 to launch the Municipia programme. AECID, the Ministry of Public Administrations (in Spanish: MAP), the FEMP and the Confederation of Cooperation and Solidarity Funds (in Spanish: CONFOCOS)35 are part of this programme.
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According to the constitutive declaration of the programme, “Municipia is an initiative to coordinate the efforts of different stakeholders of Spanish cooperation in order to encourage and strengthen the local world and the municipal processes in every country where cooperation is being carried out”. The programme aims at creating space for shared action that allows public Spanish cooperation stakeholders (both central and decentralized) to set up a municipal cooperation project in developing countries.
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Both the data collection agreement and the Municipia initiative demonstrate important steps forward in aligning with the Paris Declaration principles; achieving real coordination, more information sharing and knowledge exchange among local public administrations, as well as a better link between these efforts and the state level cooperation. Approach
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i) Data collection results As a result of the agreement with MAEC, FEMP collects the information concerning local authorities´ ODA on an annual basis. Among the results of this collection, the following can be emphasized: •
evaluation documents of the Spanish cooperation and in the information sent to the Committee on Development Cooperation. According to the latest data, the ODA of Spanish local authorities in 2008 reached the amount of 148 million Euros. Study on local cooperation: The reports prepared by FEMP which analyze the data of the collected information provide a description of the main characteristics of local government development cooperation (targeted sectors, partner countries, management modalities, etc.). In accordance with the 2007 information, 19% of the funds were dedicated to interventions in Education, 16% to Health and reproductive health, 15% to Government and civil society and 7% to Water and drainage. Geographically speaking, 58% of the aid focuses on Latin America, followed by Sub-Saharan Africa (15%) and Maghreb, Near and Middle East (11%). Peru, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Bolivia and El Salvador are, in this order, the five main receiving countries. On-line platform: From the collected information, FEMP developed an on-line application that aims at being a key space to favour local aid coordination. In this platform, which will be available during the fall of 2009, information can be found on more than 15,000 contributions from Spanish local authorities to cooperation projects (information from 2005-2008). Therefore the platform works as an organized catalogue of projects and allows local public administrations to contact one another to exchange information, complement activities and develop initiatives of mutual interest. The platform gives visibility to the local ODA and stands as an information reference for the entirety of the cooperation stakeholders. Network: As a transversal result, the information sharing enables the exchange of knowledge and cooperation initiatives and it facilitates the development of common action strategies and complementary activities.
ii) Municipia programme in relation with the Paris Declaration principles The main guidelines for the Municipia´s projects are directly linked to the principles of the Paris Declaration on aid effectiveness and, in particular, to the principles of ownership and alignment. The programme supports projects that strengthen decentralization processes that focus on capacity development of local public administrations to improve basic local service delivery. The methodology used
Data of the local ODA: Local cooperation is appropriately illustrated in the planning and
35 CONFOCOS is the entity that gathers part of the Local Funds for Cooperation, which themselves reunite City Councils and other entities with the aim of creating an economic fund contribution to the development of developing countries.
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