Hereby the CIB Working Group launches the new website! To ease the use of the website, the lay-out of the new website was designed to be well-ordered and clear. Besides the changes in the design, the new website also aims to serve its visitors better content wise. We have improved several of its functions, such as the compendium and the members area, and have rearranged the menu to increase the accessibility of the information.

The 6th edition of the Africities Summit is scheduled to take place at the King Fahd Palace Hotel Dakar, the capital city of Senegal, from 04 to 08 December 2012. Its theme will be:“BUILDING AFRICA FROM ITS TERRITORIES: WHAT CHALLENGES FOR THE LOCAL GOVERNMENTS ?”

Capacity4development has created a new blog post in their Public Sector Reform & Decentralisation group. This post discusses the summary of the ´Grand Panel´ discussion of the advanced seminar on Decentralisation that was held in Brussels in the first week of July, 2012. The main topics under discussion were: Why should donor agencies care more about decentralisation? How can decentralisation be “instrumental” to development? How can donor agencies like the EU provide smart support to decentralisation?

This paper provides a midterm report on a multi-country research effort to shed light on the institutional sources of variation in public goods’ provision at the sub-national level, with a particular focus on key bottlenecks to improvement in maternal mortality, water and sanitation, facilitation of markets and enterprise, and public order and security.

The World Bank decentralisation thematic group has revised its website, including an updated dataset on fiscal decentralisation indicators.

This paper is intended to provide an assessment of the impact of the silent revolution of the last three decades on moving governments closer to people to establish fair, accountable, incorruptible and responsive governance.

The EAC (East African Community) Deputy Secretary General in charge of Productive and Social Sectors Hon Jesica Eriyo on 4 July 2012, hailed the role of the local governments in information dissemination, mobilisation and rallying support of the ordinary citizens in East Africa on the regional integration and development process.

On October 1 PLATFORMA organized a meeting on the work of local and regional associations in relation to the aid effectiveness agenda. This meeting took place in Barcelona and was hosted by the UCLG World Secretariat. The main element of this meeting was the presentation of the PLATFORMA publication “Local and Regional Government Development Effectiveness”.

The Autonomous University of Barcelona has published a study on aid effectiveness of European development cooperation at the local level in Latin America and Peru.

The deadline for the achievement of the 2000 Millennium Development Goals is coming up in 2015. The United Nations and the international community are getting ready to define a new agenda that will follow the MDGs and started the so-called 2015 agenda. The post-2015 process needs to be an open and inclusive consultation process. Therefore the CIB Secretariat recommends its members to participate in the discussion.

FCM, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, has been helping municipalities around the world for 25 years. They have created a brand new video to tell their story: “Communities Helping Communities” is the first of a  seven-part video series celebrating 25 years of working with local governments overseas.

By participating in the ‘Peace under construction´-programme of CARE International, The Hague Academy will embark on a new four year programme to support peace and stability in Burundi and South Sudan. Since 2012, as part of the Youth Engagement Programme together with SPARK, we have also been developing training sources on leadership and (youth) participation in these two countries.

This report provides a snapshot of resilience building activities at the local level and identifies trends in the perceptions and approaches of local governments toward disaster risk reduction. It examines factors that enable urban disaster risk reduction activities, including how the global campaign Making Cities Resilient – “My City is Getting Ready!” founded by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR).

Makati City, located in the Philippines has won an award for an innovative city-to-city learning partnership between Quito, the capital of Ecuador, and the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu. Kathmandu and Quito benchmarked Makati City on emergency management systems and community-based disaster management.

The ARIAL programme is organising two regional training sessions on (1) improving the dialogue between local government associations and national/international institutions in development programmes, and on (2) improving the communication and lobby strategies of local government associations towards national decision-makers and their members.

In 2016 the Third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) will take place. The content and outcomes of this conference will be highly influential in shaping the work of local governments internationally. Consequently, UCLG is closely involved in this process and has been invited to provide initial inputs to the consultation process. UCLG has taken advantage of their special working relation with David Satterthwaite, Senior Fellow Human Settlements Group of IIED, to request some thoughts on key issues to be addressed at Habitat III.

The ARIAL programme has opened a second call for Expressions of Interests for the Emerging Local Government Associations Fund (ELGAF). Emerging associations are invited to submit their letter to the ARIAL team. The selected associations will receive extra support until August 1, 2013.

On 31st of July 2012, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the members of a High-Level Panel to advise on the global development agenda beyond 2015, the target date for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Among the 20 personalities of this High-Level Panel, Mr. Kadir Topbas, Mayor of Istanbul and President of UCLG, has been nominated.

The Centre of Expertise of the Council of Europe proudly presents its cartoon for raising awareness of the importance of local democracy. The cartoon has been produced as part of the programme to strengthen local government in Ukraine, funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency - SIDA

Under the responsibility of the Consejo Nacional de Competencias (National Council of Competences) and the technical support of the National Secretariat for Planning and Development, the government of the Republic of Ecuador has published, the new Plan Nacional de Descentralización 2012-2015.

From 1-7 September 2012, the sixth session of the World Urban Forum will be held in Naples, Italy. The forum is organised jointly by UN-Habitat, the Italian government, the region of Campania and the city of Naples. The theme of this year´s Forum is "The urban future".

The Local Government Handbook: South Africa 2012 provides a complete, yet concise overview of all 278 municipalities and aims to provide a clear understanding of each municipality and its place in South Africa, as well as a directory of the relevant mayors and contact details in each municipality.

The European Commission has commissioned a study on Decentralized Cooperation, which is due to be finalized by October 2012. The study aims to give an overview of the policy trends of European Member States and the European Commission regarding decentralized cooperation, their main strategies, with recommendations on how to improve the added value of the EC programmes and instruments supporting decentralized cooperation in the next EU multi-annual framework period (2014-2020), and how to ensure complementarity with strategies of Member States. The study is carried out by Mr. Agustí Fernandez de Losada, who CIB members may know from his former position as director of the international department of the Provincial Council of Barcelona.

CIB is on Twitter now! 
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On the 11th and 12th of June, the CIB Working Group meeting took place in Bergen, Norway, on the invitation of KS Norway and the city of Bergen. Active participation and valuable input of CIB members made the meeting a successful event. 

Further to the discussions in the CIB meeting that took place in June, the CIB Working Group Secretariat participated in the last meeting of the OECD Working Party on Aid Effectiveness on 28-29 June in Paris. 

The State of Arab Cities Report 2012 is the first report in the UN-Habitat series on the state of cities to focus on the Arab world. It presents a collective picture of urban conditions and trends in each of four Arab regions (Maghreb, Mashreq, Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC) and Southern Tier), and provides a discussion of the similarities, differences and linkages between these countries in the context of a larger Arab region.

Source: Cities Alliance

The European Centre for Development and Policy Management (ECDPM) published a Discussion Paper with the title ´Common or Conflicting Interests? Reflections on the Private Sector (for) Development Agenda´.

This course is about strengthening the economic capacity of a regional community in such a way that it makes optimal use of the potential and characteristics of the area.

This recent OECD studyexamines the ability of sub-national governments to “better spend”, by identifying relevant paths for territorial competitiveness and effective delivery of public services, is mostly enshrined in their institutional background.

The  Swiss Development Cooperation has published a policy paper based on evaluations from development partners such as UNDP, the World Bank, GTZ (GIZ), NORAD and OECD.  The study recommends adopting a more strategic orientation...

A broad consensus has emerged among practitioners and researchers that failure to build accountable and legitimate institutions is a critical risk factor associated with vicious circles of repeated violence. Despite this consensus, very few studies have tested the extent to which local government performance and decentralized service provision shape citizens´ beliefs toward political authorities.This paper contributes to fill this gap by examining the antecedents of trustworthy local government authorities in a post-conflict and fragile setting, Sierra Leone.

After several years of centralized State, Mozambique has from the late 1980s initiated profound reforms that led to the democratisation of the State and the decentralisation of government and markets. The decentralisation process thus initiated aimed primarily at boosting the economy and promoting public sector efficiency and effectiveness.

In February 2012 the Africa Research Institute published Whatever Happened to Africa´s Rapid Urbanisation? This publication analyses the last 20 years of African urbanisation.

The new Kenyan constitution, adopted in 2010 and fully functional after the 2013 elections, is playing a pivotal role in the devolution of power to the regional and local governments and ensures the future governance of Kenya.

Oxfam has published a new series of papers, drawing together lessons from its programme work on local governance and community action. It includes case studies from Nepal, Kenya, Vietnam and Tanzania.

The EC announced that a Communication on local and regional authorities (LRA) will be published at the beginning of 2013. The Commission is very much looking forward to receiving LRA’s contribution and therefore seeks a strong partnership with PLATFORMA.

The UCLG Committee on Urban Strategic Planning has received a grant from CityFuture which enables them to follow up activities in Mozambique for mentoring. Furthermore, the Committee is exploring opportunities for possible joint activities with the Sustainable Cities network in Canada.

The annual CIB meeting for 2012 is scheduled 11- 12  June 2012  in Bergen (Norway). We kindly remind you to send the completed registration form before May 10.

More and more African countries are moving out of aid dependency as the private sector boosts economic growth on the continent. The domestic private sector becomes the engine of growth across much of Africa.

The Norwegian Institute of International Affairs has published a paper on local and national ownership in post-conflict Liberia. Difficulties in implementing policies aimed at fostering local and national ownership in peacekeeping activities have been the starting point of the paper, in which extra attention is paid to training programmes for those working in peacekeeping operations.

On 12 March, the EC published its Final Report on Thematic global evaluation of the Commission support to decentralisation processes. An evaluation was made to identify key relevant lessons and to provide recommendations to help ensure opportune and timely support to decentralisation processes. The evaluation looked at 77 countries that benefited from aid delivery in support of decentralization processes between 2000 and 2009.

On July 2-3 2012, the third edition of the Forum of international action of local governments will be held in the Palais des Congrès in Paris.

The City to City Barcelona FAD Award applications has officially opened for the year 2012.

An online submission form, which is to facilitate the submission of potential projects for the DIA Best Practices Award, has been recently made available at www.bestpractices.at/submission. The deadline for submissions is Saturday, March 31, 2012.

The LGA of England and Wales has been commissioned by United Cities & Local Governments Africa (UCLGA) to pilot peer review across the African continent during 2012. The funding for this peer review has been provided by the government of Luxembourg. In 2010, the LGA already carried out a peer review with its South African counterpart (SALGA) under the CLGF Good Practise Scheme.

UN-Habitat and the Government of Sweden signed a new collaboration agreement on the first of February whereby Stockholm will provide USD 14 million over the next four years to support the agency´s work programme.

The European Urban Knowledge Network published a Handbook for multilevel Urban Governance in Europe which focuses both on theoretical and practical aspects of multilevel governance. In addition, the Eurocites network has released a report, which responds to the need to strengthen cooperation and exchange ideas on governance of metropolitan areas between European local governments.

From the 2nd till the 6th of July 2012, the Hague Academy for Local Governance offers a summercourse especially developed for professionals working at donor and development organisations who are dealing with support to good governance, democracy, decentralisation, local governance and public service delivery.

VNG International has received approval of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to implement the Local Government Capacity Programme. Nine developing countries (Benin, Burundi, Ghana, Nicaragua, Palestine Territories, Rwanda, South Africa, South Sudan and Uganda),  will benefit and can count on support in the capacity building and strengthening of local government. 

VNG International develops benchmarks to improve performance of local government. In the benchmarks of VNG International achievements of municipalities and other organisations are compared to identify the practices of the ones that perform best. By implementing the practices of the best performers, organisations can improve their own performance. 

The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs awarded a one-year project in Tunisia to VNG International. It will help 11 municipalities with reforms, and share the lessons learned with many more. Reestablishing social cohesion and enhancing local governance and development are one of the main challenges of the new Tunisia. With this regard, ...

El Fondo Mundial para el Desarrollo de las Ciudades (FMDV) ha publicado un nuevo documento sobre financiación urbana en América Latina, que se presentó en noviembre en Porto Alegre durante un taller sobre el futuro de les inversiones urbanas en América Latina organizado con la colaboración de CGLU. 

With the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF-4, 29 November-1 December 2011, Busan, Korea) just behind us, commentaries and opinions abound as to its significance for the future of development. There is, however, agreement on one point: this summit has resulted in the most inclusive agreement on global co-operation for development to date. At the same time, ...

A partir de enero de 2012, se iniciará la difusión del libro Descentralización y Gobierno Municipal en América Central (Análisis del marco jurídico, institucional, financiero y tributario de los gobiernos locales en América Central), resultado de un extenso análisis sobre el gobierno local en la región centroamericana, que ha llevado a cabo el Instituto Centroamericano de Gobernabilidad (ICG), conjuntamente con la asociación DAR de Madrid y bajo los auspicios de la Diputación de Barcelona ....

El presidente de Bangladesh, Zillur Rahman, inauguró el primer Foro Urbano del país, celebrado en diciembre. Bangla Desh es un de los países de la región que más está creciendo a nivel urbanístico y está previsto que en 2030 su población urbana alcance los 80 millones de personas. Así pues, ...

Twenty years after the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, the UN is again bringing together governments, international institutions and major groups, among whom local authorities, to agree on a range of smart measures that can reduce poverty while promoting decent jobs, clean energy and a more sustainable and fair use of resources. Rio+20 is a chance to move away from business-as-usual and to act to end poverty, address environmental destruction and build a bridge to the future.

On December 9, on the first day of the UCLG World Council in Florence, the CIB Working Group meeting was held. Key issues under discussion were: the draft policy paper on Decentralized Cooperation and Local Government; and CIB priorities for 2012.

La secretaría del Gupo de Trabajo CIB les desea una feliz navidad y un próspero 2012.

Decentralisation has advanced considerably in Africa in the last two decades. Since 1990, many African central governments have initiated or deepened processes to transfer authority, power, responsibilities, and resources to sub-national levels. To examine the results of these processes, USAID has commissioned a comparative study to draw lessons from 10 country experiences with decentralisation: Botswana, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda.

DeLoG (The informal Development Partners Group on Decentralisation and Local Governance) investigations summarised in this paper show that over the past twenty years progress in decentralisation and local governance has been uneven and mixed.

The Netherlands organisation for international cooperation in higher education (NUFFIC) offers the opportunity to apply for a fellowship for this training course, as part of the Netherlands Fellowship Programme (NFP) for short courses. This two-week training course will be held in The Hague, The Netherlands from 10 to 21 September 2012.

UCLG - Hubert Julien-Laferriere, Vice Mayor of Lyon France and Co-president of UCLG’s committee on Decentralised Cooperation and City Diplomacy makes a first evaluation of the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness that just ended in Busan.

Recognition of local governments in the Outcome Document: Thanks to the lobbying efforts of UCLG, supported by the Committee and Working Group, the Outcome Document of Busan, entitled “Busan Partnership for effective development cooperation”, recognizes the role of local governments.

UCLG recently called upon its members to contact their national governments regarding the participation at the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan. Members were requested to ensure that the national governments would advocate for the importance of the inclusion of local governments’ voice in the debates on aid effectiveness.

With only little over a month to go the preparations for the fourth High Level Forum on Aid-Effectiveness in Busan are in full swing. The CIB Working Group would like to update you on some important recent developments regarding the role of local governments at the Forum.

La reunión anual del Grupo de Trbajo CIB para el 2011 tendrá lugar el 21 de junio en Rabat (Marruecos). La reunión tendrá lugar en el marco de reuniones del Buro Ejecutivo de CGLU. Agradeceríamos remiten el formulario de inscripción rellenado antes del 27 de mayo.

Del 13 al 15 de junio del 2011, la Comisión de Planificación Estratégica Urbana de CGLU y el municipio de Durban organizan una reunión en Durban sobre “Intercambio de conocimiento de planificación estratégica fomentando el aprendizaje del sur global”.

Hay esperanzas para el programa LOGO Sur de VNG Internaiconal. El ministro de Cooperación al Desarrollo reserva € 1.96 mlln para el programa LOGO Sur en el 2011

Del 17 al 19 octubre del 2011, VVSG organiza una conferencia sobre partenariados de cooperación municipal internacional en Gante

La programación de las convocatorias para presentar propuestas en el marco del programa ANE AL (Actores No Estatales y Autoridades Locales) para 2011 y 2012 ha sido publicada.

El 7 y 8 de julio del 2011 tendrá lugar el segundo foro de cooperación internacional de las autoridades locales y regionales en Paris.

El 4 de octubre 2010 el primer Foro Mundial sobre el Desarrollo Local tuvo lugar en Kampala, Uganda. El objetivo del Foro fue presentar e intercambiar experiencias y desarrollos de cómo los Gobiernos Locales trabajan hacia la realización de los Objetivos de Desarrollo del Milenio.

El Comisario Piebalgs pide a la UE que mantenga su liderazgo en materia de Ayuda Oficial al Desarrollo en el momento en que nuevos datos revelan que gastó la cantidad récord de 53 800 millones EUR en 2010.

La reunión anual del CIB para el año 2011 tendrá lugar el 21 de junio en Rabat (Marruecos).

La conferencia de la Platforma fue un éxito. El 28 marzo, PLATFORMA lanzó su nueva publicación: ´Cooperación Descentralizada para el Desarrollo - Perspectivas Europeas.

El 11 de enero, la UE public su revisado “Marco operacional sobre la eficacia de la ayuda”, que tiene como objetivo accelerar el progreso y demonstrate resultados concretos para el cuarto Foro de Alto Nivel sobre la Eficacia de la Ayuda, que tendrá lugar en Busan (Corea del Sur) en noviembre del 2011.

En otoño del 2010, VNG International y sus socios de implementación lanzaron oficialmente el programa ARIAL “Apoyar y fortalecer las Asociaciones de autoridades locales en países ACP a nivel nacional y regional” en Bruselas. El objetivo específico del proyecto es de facilitar la participación de las asociaciones de gobiernos locales (AGL) en la creación y implementación de políticas de desarrollo.

Por favor, completa la encuesta del CGLU para redefinir las prioridades de la organización.

La revista « Observa » del Observatorio de la cooperación descentralizada Unión Europea – Latino America, nos informa sobre la reunión del Grupo de Trabajo que tuvo lugar el 28 y 29 de junio del 2010 en Barcelona, España.

VNG International acaba de publicar el nuevo boletín “Gender equality and local government, Changing the face of local leadership”.

La Asociación Finlades de Autoridades Locales y Regionales (AFLRA por sus siglas en inglés) lanzó su nueva publicación sobre el Fortalecimiento de Asociaciones de Gobiernos Locales.

The next CIB Working Group meeting, hosted by the City Council and the Province of Barcelona, will be held in Barcelona on 28 and 29 June 2010. Deadline for registration and reservation of the hotel is 11 June.

El Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores de los Países Bajos (MINBUZA) lanzó el pasado mes de febrero un debate electrónico en torno a la descentralización como ingrediente clave para la reducción de la pobreza, formando parte de una serie de consultas que realiza el MINBUZA sobre temas específicos de la cooperación internacional al desarrollo y que ha generado diversos informes bajo el título “A rich menu for the poor – Food for thought for effective aid policies” (“Un menú rico para los pobres : ideas para cultivar las políticas de ayuda eficaz”). Dado que el tema es de importancia para los miembros del Grupo de Trabajo CIB, los miembros del grupo fueron invitados para participar en este debate online. La síntesis de este debate ya está disponible.

Del 24 al 26 de febrero, FCM y  VNG International, en colaboración con CGLU ASPAC, organizaron el tercer taller de las asociaciones de gobiernos locales de la región Asia Pacífica. La Asociación de Ciudades de Vietnam (ACVN) fue la anfitriona del taller.

14 Asociaciones de Gobiernos Locales de Asia participaron en el evento, incluyendo todos las AGLs que actualmente benefician de los programas de fortalecimiento institucional (ACB, por sus siglas en inglés) de FCM y VNG International. El taller se centró en los temas de...