Major Group: Local Authorities
Intersession of the Open Working Group
22 November 2013
Session 3: Making good governance and multi-stakeholder partnerships
the building blocks of the SDGs
Intervention delivered by Ms. Aliye Celik, UCLG representative
on behalf of Local Authorities Major Group
Thank you Mr./Madam Chair.
Mr./Madam Chair, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
It gives me great pleasure to address the intersessional meeting of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals with Major Groups and other stakeholders.
As you will understand, local and subnational authorities have a particular interest in the issue of governance, given their governmental nature, their accountability towards their citizens and their responsibility towards the community they serve.
Good-governance and multi-stakeholders partnerships.
We are convinced that building governance from the bottom up and participatory, transparent and accountable governance are at the core of many of the challenges faced when ensuring universal service provision and protection of citizens’ rights. Governance should therefore be at the heart of the Post-2015 agenda.
The global agenda should further promote a high degree of policy coherence at and among all levels of governments from global, national, subnational and local. It should define shared responsibilities among all levels of government and stakeholders. Taking decisions with the full participation of the citizens and ensuring implementation by the sphere of government that is closest to them should be a guiding principle to strengthen governance and ownership from bottom-up. The drive towards increased participatory democracy has emerged as a key response to people’s demands for a greater say in their future and increasingly tailored services.
Responding to rapid and increasing urbanisation
The world is currently facing rapid urbanization, with the increase of one million plus cities and medium-sized towns, and to varying degrees depending on the regions, with the impoverishment of its suburbs, insufficiency of infrastructure and difficulty in delivery of basic urban services. The importance of rural-urban migration, urbanization of poverty and the impact of new environmental challenges (climate change adaptation, disaster risk prevention) have deep implications for city-region governance and were not well captured in the MDGs. We therefore call the Open Working Group to ensure the role of subnational and local governments’ inclusion in the sustainable development agenda and goals to be adopted, both through the adoption of a stand-alone goal on sustainable urbanisation and through localisation of targets and indicators within the other Goals.
Appropriate urban management needs decisions taken by subnational and local governments in collaboration to be well articulated, to work in closer partnership with stakeholders and to count on clear proceedings of communication and participation of
local actors, including civil society and the private sector. Considering the diversity of the territories, urban governance needs an integrated approach for large urban areas, and a targeted national and regional policy for intermediary sized cities, that require a context of connectivity, articulation and territorial cohesion.
Multi-level governance
However, considerable efforts are needed to strengthen local transparency, citizen participation and information, and control systems based on respect for local autonomy (accountability). There is strong evidence from many nations that competent, accountable subnational and local governments have had central roles in reducing inequalities, raising the voice of the poor and most vulnerable. It is also increasingly acknowledged that resilient societies capable of facing the impact of climate change but also changing their patterns of consumption and their livelihoods need to be built with the full commitment of the local actors. The post 2015 agenda needs to promote stronger support to effective decentralization. It would need to resource citizens and subnational and local authorities to interact and strengthen city-region management. Furthermore, a new global governance architecture is needed that brings a step further the important initiatives already undertaken in the Rio process and in the Post2015 consultation. We need to go from consultation to participation in decision making for all relevant actors. From the local authorities perspective the governmental nature of local and sub-national authorities will need to be recognised in any new governance framework for sustainable development.
Once again, we would like to thank the Co-Chairs for facilitating the dialogue with Major Groups and stakeholders and hope that these concerns will be taken into account. Thank you
22 November 2013
Session 3: Making good governance and multi-stakeholder partnerships
the building blocks of the SDGs
Intervention delivered by Ms. Aliye Celik, UCLG representative
on behalf of Local Authorities Major Group
Thank you Mr./Madam Chair.
Mr./Madam Chair, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
It gives me great pleasure to address the intersessional meeting of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals with Major Groups and other stakeholders.
As you will understand, local and subnational authorities have a particular interest in the issue of governance, given their governmental nature, their accountability towards their citizens and their responsibility towards the community they serve.
Good-governance and multi-stakeholders partnerships.
We are convinced that building governance from the bottom up and participatory, transparent and accountable governance are at the core of many of the challenges faced when ensuring universal service provision and protection of citizens’ rights. Governance should therefore be at the heart of the Post-2015 agenda.
The global agenda should further promote a high degree of policy coherence at and among all levels of governments from global, national, subnational and local. It should define shared responsibilities among all levels of government and stakeholders. Taking decisions with the full participation of the citizens and ensuring implementation by the sphere of government that is closest to them should be a guiding principle to strengthen governance and ownership from bottom-up. The drive towards increased participatory democracy has emerged as a key response to people’s demands for a greater say in their future and increasingly tailored services.
Responding to rapid and increasing urbanisation
The world is currently facing rapid urbanization, with the increase of one million plus cities and medium-sized towns, and to varying degrees depending on the regions, with the impoverishment of its suburbs, insufficiency of infrastructure and difficulty in delivery of basic urban services. The importance of rural-urban migration, urbanization of poverty and the impact of new environmental challenges (climate change adaptation, disaster risk prevention) have deep implications for city-region governance and were not well captured in the MDGs. We therefore call the Open Working Group to ensure the role of subnational and local governments’ inclusion in the sustainable development agenda and goals to be adopted, both through the adoption of a stand-alone goal on sustainable urbanisation and through localisation of targets and indicators within the other Goals.
Appropriate urban management needs decisions taken by subnational and local governments in collaboration to be well articulated, to work in closer partnership with stakeholders and to count on clear proceedings of communication and participation of
local actors, including civil society and the private sector. Considering the diversity of the territories, urban governance needs an integrated approach for large urban areas, and a targeted national and regional policy for intermediary sized cities, that require a context of connectivity, articulation and territorial cohesion.
Multi-level governance
However, considerable efforts are needed to strengthen local transparency, citizen participation and information, and control systems based on respect for local autonomy (accountability). There is strong evidence from many nations that competent, accountable subnational and local governments have had central roles in reducing inequalities, raising the voice of the poor and most vulnerable. It is also increasingly acknowledged that resilient societies capable of facing the impact of climate change but also changing their patterns of consumption and their livelihoods need to be built with the full commitment of the local actors. The post 2015 agenda needs to promote stronger support to effective decentralization. It would need to resource citizens and subnational and local authorities to interact and strengthen city-region management. Furthermore, a new global governance architecture is needed that brings a step further the important initiatives already undertaken in the Rio process and in the Post2015 consultation. We need to go from consultation to participation in decision making for all relevant actors. From the local authorities perspective the governmental nature of local and sub-national authorities will need to be recognised in any new governance framework for sustainable development.
Once again, we would like to thank the Co-Chairs for facilitating the dialogue with Major Groups and stakeholders and hope that these concerns will be taken into account. Thank you