uclg position paper on aid effectiveness

UCLG Position Paperon Aid Effectiveness andLocal GovernmentUnderstanding the link betweengovernance and development

Including the Support Paperand a Compilation of Case Studies

UCLG Position Paper v_2 (eng) 22/12/09 18:13 Página 1

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Coordinated by the UCLG Capacity and InstitutionBuilding (CIB) Working Group

Prepared by: Federation of Canadian Municipalities(FCM), in collaboration with the UCLGWorld Secretariat and the CIB WorkingGroup Secretariat

Technical Chair: Peter Knip, Director of VNG International

Vice Chair: Tim Kehoe, Director of FCM International

Secretariat: Carrer Avinyó, 15E-08002 Barcelona (Spain)+34 933 428 [email protected]

© United Cities and Local Governments

Photos:Page 8 Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Mayors

Roundtable at the 3rd World Urban Forum.Page 14 Federation of Canadian Municipalities,

Participants of the Federation of Sri Lankan LocalGovernment Authorities' 2008 Annual Conference.

Page 26 Grand Lyon, Inauguration of the well drilling inthe Bekaa Valley in Lebanon.

6 Sara Hoeflich, Construction project in Aceh,Indonesia.

Page 44 City of Lahti, South Africans and Finns jointlydeveloping waste management.

Page 52 Renske Steenbergen, View of a suburb ofGuayaquil, Ecuador.

Design: STV Disseny (www.stvdisseny.com)

Preprinting, printing and binding: Cevagraf

Legal Deposit: B–00.000–2009

December 2009

Printed on BIO TOP 3, 100% chlorine free (TCF), made offibres sourced from sustainable forestry (FSC).

This publication has been made possible with financialsupport from:

VNG International, the International co-operation Agencyof the Association of the Netherlands Municipalities (VNG)in the framework of its LOGO South Programme funded bythe Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and

the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), under theauspices of its Municipal Partnership Program,(MPP) fundedby the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)


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Table of Contents

Acronyms 5

Foreword 6

UCLG Position Paper on Aid Effectivenessand Local Government 8

Support Paper on Aid Effectiveness andLocal Government 141. The policy context: an emerging

consensus on Aid Effectiveness 162. Reviewing the progress of the Paris

Declaration 163. Local Governments as Development

Actors 184. Principles of Aid Effectiveness:

A Local Government Perspective 205. Conclusions: Localizing the Aid

Effectiveness Agenda 24Bibliography 25

A Compilation of Case Studies 26Overview of Case Studies 281. The CIB Working Group: Harmonization

of Municipal Development programmesUCLG Capacity and Institution BuildingWorking Group (2009) 29

2. Tanzania’s Health Basket Fund ImprovesDistrict Level Health ServiceFederation of Canadian Municipalities incollaboration with the Association of LocalAuthorities of Tanzania (2009) 34

3. The Establishment of the Federation ofSri Lankan Local Government AuthoritiesA case study of Aid Effective Programmingin the Local Government SectorFederation of Canadian Municipalities incollaboration with the Federation of SriLankan Local Government Authorities (2009) 37

4. The Local Government Associationof Zambia’s participation in the10th European Development FundProgrammingACP Platform (2007) 39

5. Coordination and complementarities:Spain Uses Key Tools and Programmesto Achieve More Effective AidSpanish Federation of Municipalities andProvinces (2009) 41

6. Harmonization of efforts to enlarge localtax base and improve municipal servicedelivery in GhanaVNG International (2009) 45

7. Alignment in strategies for housingdevelopment in South AfricaVNG International (2009) 47

8. Carbon Compensation Scheme with locallydesigned, owned and managed projectsLocal Government Association and theLancashire County Council (2009) 49

9. Municipal partnership between Herent(Flanders, Belgium) and Nimlaha’kok andNimlasa’chal (Guatemala) promotes localownership of development strategiesAssociation of Flemish Cities and Municipalities(2009) 53

10. Building the capacity of the localenvironmental administration in BojanalaPlatinum District Municipality, South AfricaAssociation of Finnish Local and RegionalAuthorities and the City of Lahti(2009) 56

11. Incentivizing performance: the Bosniaand Herzegovina Beacon SchemeLocal Government Association (2008) 59

12. The Twinning Cooperation between theCity of Liege (Wallonia, Belgium) andthe City of Lubumbashi (Congo)Union of Cities and Municipalities of Walloniaand the Association of the City and Municipalitiesof the Brussels-Capital Region (2008) 61


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13 Urban Rehabilitation of the Al-NasserDistrict Gaza City, Occupied PalestinianTerritoriesCity Council of Barcelona (2009) 63


Acronyms

AAA Accra Agenda for Action

ACB Association Capacity Building

CIB Capacity and Institution Building

DAC Development Assistance Committee

DCF Development Cooperation Forum

EC European Commission

ECDPM European Centre for Development Policy Management

EU European Union

FCM Federation of Canadian Municipalities

LGA Local Government Association

MDGs Millennium Development Goals

MIC Municipal International Cooperation

NGO Non-Governmental Organization

ODA Official Development Assistance

OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

PRSP Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper

SWAP Sector-Wide Approach

UCLG United Cities and Local Governments

UN United Nations

UNFPA United Nations Population Fund

UNICEF United Nations Children´s Fund

VNG International International Cooperation Agency of the Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG)

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Foreword

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Dear Colleagues and Friends,

It is our great pleasure, as technical chair and vice-chairof the UCLG Capacity and Institution Building (CIB)Working Group, to present to you the UCLG Position Paperon Aid Effectiveness and Local Government.

The position paper, adopted at the 2009 UCLG WorldCouncil in Guangzhou (China), is the result of a researchled by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities inpartnership with the CIB Working Group and the UCLGWorld Secretariat, and seeks to give voice to the localgovernment perspective on the emerging Aid Effectivenessagenda.

The document consists of three parts: the Position Paperwith political recommendations, a Technical BackgroundPaper providing arguments to support the recommendationsand more in-depth views on the key issues. In addition, anumber of illustrative case studies have been included todemonstrate the effectiveness of aid delivery in the localgovernment sector. The paper, which through the variousconsultation rounds received contributions from UCLGmembers and partners, emphasizes the need for the fullacknowledgement of local and regional governments asdevelopment partners occupying an equitable place in theinternational Aid Effectiveness debates. It highlights thelimitations of the Paris Declaration aid effectivenessprinciples in addressing local level development and setsout recommendations for the international community, aswell as national, regional and local governments.

Bringing together local government associations (LGAs)and individual local governments active in internationaldevelopment cooperation, the CIB Working Group wasmandated by the UCLG Executive Bureau to build acommon understanding and position among members anddevelop a formal policy position for international advocacy.

Particularly since the 1990s, local governments and theirassociations from Europe and North America have increasedand enhanced their international development cooperationprogramming. The overarching objective has been todevelop the capacity of local governments to facilitatelocal development processes, poverty reduction, and theattainment of the Millennium Development Goals.

Even though to date the most important documents relatedto the effective delivery of aid, such as the ParisDeclaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005), have been mainlydonor-driven and excluded other development actors intheir formulation, the donor community is slowlybeginning to recognize the considerable contributions thatlocal governments make to development assistance.Further, donors have acknowledged that, in order to makeaid more effective, all stakeholders, including localgovernments, should be consulted and taken into account.As highlighted in the discussions around the 3rd High LevelForum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra (September 2008),true ownership of national development strategies can onlybe effective if all stakeholders are being consulted on theneeds and constraints; and in order to ensure thisownership, the capacity of all stakeholders has to bedeveloped.

The efforts pursued thus far have led to the recognition ofUCLG as the voice of local and regional authorities in theOECD Working Party on Aid Effectiveness and as a memberof the Advisory Board of the United Nations DevelopmentCooperation Forum. Avoiding a top-down approach to thedelivery of international aid and boosting aid directlychannelled to local governments are both UCLG objectives.Within our World Organization, we will continue toadvocate for the involvement of local governments andtheir associations in the discussions around thedevelopment and implementation of sector policies andpoverty reduction strategies. At the same time, knowingthat only a very small percentage of Official Development


Peter Knip

Chair of the CIB Working Group

Director of VNG International, theInternational Cooperation Agency of the Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG)

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Assistance (ODA) is dedicated to local governments andeven less is managed by local governments directly, apriority for UCLG will be to demonstrate that a higherallocation of funds by donors and central governments forcreating stronger local governments and local governmentassociations is crucial to ensure real change.

We hope we can count on your support and participationin meeting the challenges that are detailed in the Positionand Background Papers, and we look forward to workingwith you towards achieving more effective developmentco-operation.

Sincerely,

Tim Kehoe

Vice-Chair of the CIB Working Group

Director, International, Federation of CanadianMunicipalities (FCM)


UCLG Position Paperon Aid Effectiveness andLocal Government


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UCLG Position Paper on Aid Effectiveness and Local Government

UCLG Position Paperon Aid Effectiveness andLocal Government1

Localizing the Aid Effectiveness Agenda: The Case forStronger Local Government Involvement in Development

The 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, signed byall OECD countries and endorsed by many developingcountries, reflects a consensus on a series of recommendedactions which official development agencies and partnercountries could undertake to enhance the delivery andmanagement of aid. These actions include, amongst otherthings: i) local ownership of development strategies; ii) alignment with national development strategies; iii) harmonization of development interventions; iv) managing for results; and v) mutual accountability andtransparency.2

This policy consensus is shaping the way that donorsdefine their priority sectors, focus countries, and selectthe mechanisms through which they deliver aid. There ishowever a growing consensus that the Paris Declarationhas fallen short in its objective of enhancing aideffectiveness. Part of this failure can be attributed tothe great emphasis placed by donors on the mechanicsof aid delivery rather than the development impactgenerated by aid. Another key weakness that has beenhighlighted is the absence of key developmentstakeholders (i.e. civil society and local governments) inthe policy discussions.

Local Governments are Agents of Development

Approximately half the world’s population currently lives inurban areas and it is estimated that this will grow to asmuch as 60% by 2015. Virtually all of this growth willoccur in the developing world, resulting in severe socialand economic inequities and escalating rates of poverty.This extraordinary rate of urban growth is transpiringalongside widespread rural exodus, placing an enormousburden upon both rural and urban local governments, asthey struggle to put in place responses to deal with theeffects of these unprecedented demographic shifts. In thiscontext, local and regional authorities will become bothkey development actors and the target of developmentcooperation.

In addition, fast growing urbanization is giving rise to amajor and pressing need for future infrastructure projectsthat are expected to cost some USD 200 billion per yearover the next 25 years. However, these infrastructure needsare currently being unmet. Failure to invest ininfrastructure has already impacted severely upon the dailylives of millions of citizens in developing countries. Theachievement of the main international developmentcommitments such as the Millennium Development Goals3

and the global fight against climate change and itsimpacts will be won or lost in the urban areas of theplanet and particularly in the slums where one out of fivepersons will live by 2020.

As politically legitimate and accountable communityleaders, local governments play a valuable convening rolethat brings together development stakeholders (civilsociety, community groups, policy makers) to help shapeand implement development policies and programs. Giventheir responsibility to ensure equitable delivery of essentialservices, including in many cases social services aroundhealth, welfare, and housing, combined with their abilityto replicate successes for community-wide benefit, local

1 In this paper, local government refers to a governing institutionwhich has authority over a sub national territorially defined area;in federal systems, a sub state territorially defined area. Theseinclude towns, cities, counties, districts and regions governed inmost cases by locally elected officials. Local governments’jurisdictional and administrative authority varies depending on thedegree of decentralization and the national governance structure ina given country.

2 Development Cooperation Directorate (OECD, March 2005).3 The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by the United

Nations in 2000 are eight time-bound targets to end extremepoverty by 2015.


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governments occupy an important niche and must berecognized as valued partners by the developmentcommunity.4

Furthermore, local governments, through decentralizedcooperation5, are playing an important role in the deliveryof aid through peer-to-peer cooperation. Localgovernments and their associations mobilize communityassets and significant resources that complement thefinancial contributions from donors. The delivery of theseresources through programs and projects that are co-managed by southern and northern partners promotemutual accountability and enhance local capacity to plan,manage, implement and report on results.

Awareness about the role of local governments indevelopment cooperation is gradually increasing. TheAccra Agenda for Action (AAA), which was the result ofthe mid-term 3rd High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness inAccra, Ghana (2-4 September 2008), includes specifictimelines and recognizes the importance of democracy,improvement of governance, social progress andenvironmental challenges as prime engines ofdevelopment. The role of local governments has explicitlybeen recognized in the development of nationaldevelopment policies. The AAA6 also recognizes the needto support capacity building initiatives of local authoritiesand emphasizes the importance of local resources in theprovision of technical cooperation. In recognition of thevalue added brought by local governments in these policydiscussions in Accra and New York, UCLG has been invitedto become a permanent member of the OECD/DAC WorkingParty on Aid Effectiveness and it will also be working with

the UN Development Cooperation Forum in an advisorycapacity.

Much remains to be done to translate this awareness intopolicy. The actions to be undertaken will need to betwofold: 1) inform donors, national partner governmentsand other development stakeholders on how localgovernments can contribute to aid effectiveness; and 2)identify key issues that should guide future discussionswith the international community. This document aims attackling both aspects.

Local Governments Call For Action

Donors, multilateral and bilateral financial institutions,central governments and international organizations arecalled on to:

1. Formally recognize local governments as developmentactors in future development compacts and promotetheir participation in a systematic way in all stages ofthe development process.

2. Support the recognition of local governments andtheir associations (LGAs) as legitimate developmentpartners in the 2008 Accra Agenda for Action, andwelcome the recognition of the World Organization ofUnited Cities and Local Governments to becomemembers of the OECD/DAC Working Party on AidEffectiveness and the Advisory Board of the UNDevelopment Cooperation Forum. This recognitionshould be expanded to all national and donor ledconsultations.

3. Attach a fundamental importance to decentralizationas an important building block for good governanceand effective development assistance at the locallevel.

4. Given its relevance as an indicator of a country’sdevelopment performance, governance7 should be across-cutting theme for central governments anddonors in the same manner as gender equality, humanrights and environmental sustainability so that itreceives greater consideration during policy andprogram development.

5. Adopt a more integrated approach to strengtheninglocal governance that combines working locally,nationally, regionally and globally. This approach will

4 United Nations Millennium Development Goal 8 calls for a globalpartnership that brings together the private sector, NGOs, civilsociety and foundations to help leverage resources for theimplementation of pro-poor urban and rural developmentstrategies. Local governments should play a central role as partnersin development.

5 Decentralized Cooperation is used here to describe the publicly andprivately funded aid provided by and through local authorities,local government associations, networks and other local actors.

6 Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, Accra Agenda ForAction, 2-4 September 2008, Accra – Ghana, art. 12 and 13.

7 Governance refers to the process or approach for managingpolitical, economic and administrative authority. The system ofgovernance will determine how governments are selected orchanged and the process through which citizens and groups definetheir interests and interact with institutions of authority, as wellas with each other. Good governance accomplishes this in a mannerthat is essentially free of abuse and corruption and with due regardfor the rule of law.


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facilitate the scaling-up of successful practices andenable local community leaders to engage in dialogueat the national level to positively influence publicpolicies that will lead to transformative change andsustainable development at the local level.

6. Put in place formal consultation mechanisms tostrengthen coordination between local and nationalgovernments and donors, particularly with respect topolicy formulation, planning, implementation,monitoring and evaluation of national developmentstrategies.8

7. Offer a balance of aid delivery mechanisms (e.g.projects, program based approaches, budget supportand technical assistance) to support governance anddecentralization that will ensure that local authoritieshave the mechanisms to respond with sufficientflexibility in different contexts. Aid channelledthrough budgetary support and sector-wide approaches(SWAps) must be designed in a manner thatrecognizes and reinforces the legitimate role of localauthorities as credible public institutions and agentsof development.

8. In the context of decentralized cooperation, put inplace mechanisms that allow local governmentsand/or local government associations to directlymanage international cooperation programs that focuson: strengthening the capacity of the localgovernment sector; promoting democracy at the locallevel, and; supporting decentralization.

9. Strengthen the capacity and strategic partnering roleof local governments to engage in multi-stakeholderdialogue on national development strategies and inpolicy discussions with the OECD Working Party on AidEffectiveness and the United Nations DevelopmentCooperation Forum.

10. Strengthen the resources accessible to localauthorities. It is proposed that 20 per cent ofinternational aid (currently provided in the form ofbudgetary support and sector wide approaches) beearmarked to support decentralization processesand the capacity building of local government.9

11. Improve the transparency of aid management, suchthat resource flows to various sectors, includinglocal government, can be monitored.

Local governments and local governmentassociations are called on to:

12. Engage in a dialogue with donors, and centralgovernments to ensure that the needs and concernsof local governments are clearly understood andsupported by relevant policies and programs.

13. Ensure that the voices of the full diversity of thecommunity are heard by promoting participatoryprocesses further applying this principle todecentralized co-operation which should be basedon strong demand from the beneficiary.

14. Ensure that decentralized cooperation approaches,such as municipal international cooperation (MIC)and association capacity building (ACB), are wellcoordinated and developed within the framework ofsouthern-driven agendas that take into account thelocal cultural context, country processes andgovernance reform programs, concretized incountry strategies for municipal sectordevelopment.

15. Strengthen the voice of national and regionalassociations, as well as the World Organization ofUnited Cities and Local Governments, to advocatelocal governments’ interests internationally.

16. Develop a community of practice that willfacilitate the sharing of knowledge, tools andlessons learned in the areas of MIC and ACB, whichbuilds on the experience of the existingCommittees and Working Groups of UCLG,particularly the CIB (Capacity and InstitutionBuilding Working Group).

17. Promote long-term partnerships between localgovernments and partner countries, international

8 Consultation with local government can help ensure closeralignment of central government and donors’ plans and programswith community needs, particularly where local governments areinvolved in participatory municipal planning and budgetaryprocesses.

9 UCLG proposes that at least 20% of public development aid (aboutUSD 20 billion) be allocated directly to local governments orthrough decentralized cooperation. UCLG Policy Paper on LocalFinances, UCLG (2008): p. 13.


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organizations, bilateral and multilateral donors, inaddition to other key stakeholders such asparliamentarians and civil society.

N.B. For a more detailed overview of the role of localgovernments and local government associations in each ofthe Paris Declaration principles, see chapter 4 of the SupportPaper.


Support Paper on AidEffectiveness and LocalGovernment

1. The policy context: an emerging consensuson Aid Effectiveness 16

2. Reviewing the progress of the ParisDeclaration 16

3. Local Governments as Development Actors 18

4. Principles of Aid Effectiveness: A LocalGovernment Perspective 20

5. Conclusions: Localizing the Aid EffectivenessAgenda 24

Bibliography 25


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Support Paper on Aid Effectiveness and Local Government

Support Paper on AidEffectiveness and LocalGovernment

1. The Policy Context: An Emerging Consensus on AidEffectiveness

Since the mid-1990s, official development agencies, underthe leadership of the Development Assistance Committee(DAC) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation andDevelopment (OECD), have been re-examining the way theydeliver aid in an effort to generate greater impact in termsof social and economic development.

The 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, signed byall OECD countries and endorsed by many developingcountries, reflects a consensus on a series of recommendedactions which official development agencies and partnercountries could undertake to enhance the delivery andmanagement of aid. These actions include, amongst otherthings: i) local ownership of development strategies;ii) alignment with national development strategies;iii) harmonization of development interventions;iv) managing for results; and v) mutual accountability andtransparency.10

This policy consensus is shaping the way that donorsdefine their priority sectors, focus countries, and select themechanisms through which they deliver aid. The drive toharmonize, align, and manage development assistance forgreater impact has been gaining momentum since theMonterrey Conference on International DevelopmentFinance in 2002 and subsequent high level forums in Rome(2003) and Marrakesh (2004) which focussed on issuesrelated to enhancing aid effectiveness (i.e. Harmonizationand Managing for Results respectively).

In Paris, donors resolved to take concrete, effective andtimely action in implementing all agreed commitments onaid effectiveness. The Declaration provides a well definedroad map (with performance indicators11) for increasingdevelopment effectiveness by enhancing partnershipcommitments, aligning donor support to partnercountries’ development strategies, harmonizing donoractions, and improving mutual accountability fordevelopment results.

The Aid Effectiveness agenda has been marked by asignificant shift in the methods by which developmentassistance funding is spent and managed. In an effort tomore effectively coordinate and harmonize developmentassistance, a much higher volume of funds are beingpooled in a comprehensive budgetary process (throughmechanisms such as Budgetary Support, Program BasedApproaches and Sector Wide Approaches) over which thecentral government, in collaboration with coalitions ofdonors, plays a leadership role in determining where andhow resources will be allocated. This is in contrast to moretraditional means where donors would plan projects andcontract the services of development partners, either fromtheir own country or third party countries, to providespecific goods or services to recipient countries. Theresult has been that in a growing number of countries thecentre of decision making and influence over the allocationof program funding is gradually shifting from donorheadquarters in the north to host governments in thesouth in an effort to strengthen local ownership.

2. Reviewing Progress of the Paris Declaration

As the mid-point in the implementation of the ParisDeclaration has recently been reached, donors, recipientgovernments and other development practitionersundertook a review of the agreement to assess whether ithas had the desired effect of fostering more effective andaccountable development.

10 Development Cooperation Directorate (OECD, March 2005).11 Indicators include, for example: “Partners have operational

development strategies”; the target for 2010 is that 75% ofSouthern partners will have operational strategies. Anotherindicator is the “use of common arrangements”. For this, the targetfor 2010 is that 66% of aid flows are provided in the context ofprogram-based approaches. (OECD, August 2005: 4).


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In preparation for the mid-term 3rd High Level Forum onAid Effectiveness in Accra, Ghana (2-4 September 2008),several consultative processes have taken place. At anAdvisory Group International Forum that was held inCanada in February 2008 to prepare civil society’s policyposition on aid effectiveness for the Accra High LevelForum, local government was represented by the Federationof Canadian Municipalities. Although local governments arenot seen as part of civil society, their involvement in theconsultations was well received given their shared interestsin promoting community development, providing essentialservices and fostering citizens’ engagement in localdecision making processes. As in the case of civil society,there has been no systematic process for engaging localauthorities in the dialogue and consultations that haveinformed the development of the Paris Declaration.

At a preparatory meeting for the United NationsDevelopment Cooperation Forum (DCF), a multi-stakeholderforum was organized in collaboration with UCLG, the Inter-Parliamentary Union and CIVICUS (the worldwide allianceof civil society). The stakeholder forum, which took placein Rome, Italy (June 12-13th, 2008) brought together localgovernments, parliamentarians and civil society in an openand interactive dialogue that reviewed their roles incontributing to effective development cooperation. For thefirst time local government had been given recognition asa partner in the aid effectiveness debate, and it providedan important venue to engage in a dialogue on key policyissues affecting the quality and impact of developmentcooperation. This involvement also led to the participationof UCLG in the DCF in New York (June 30-July 1st, 2008).

Following these interventions, a UCLG delegation was giventwo speaking slots at the Accra 3rd High Level Forum onAid Effectiveness. The final outcome of this Forum, TheAccra Agenda for Action (AAA), includes specific timelinesand recognizes the importance of democracy, improvementof governance, social progress and environmentalchallenges as prime engines of development. The role oflocal governments has explicitly been recognized in thedevelopment of national development policies. The AAA12

also recognizes the need to support capacity buildinginitiatives of local authorities and emphasizes theimportance of local resources in the provision of technicalcooperation. In recognition of the value added brought by

local governments in these policy discussions in Accra andNew York, UCLG has been invited to become a permanentmember of the OECD/DAC Working Party on AidEffectiveness and it will also be working with the UNDevelopment Cooperation Forum in an advisory capacity.

What has emerged from the discussions and consultationsis a growing consensus that the Paris Declaration hasfallen short in its objective of enhancing aid effectiveness.Part of this failure can be attributed to the great emphasisplaced by donors on the mechanics of aid delivery ratherthan the development impact generated by aid. Anotherkey weakness that has been highlighted is the absence ofkey development stakeholders (i.e. civil society and localgovernments) in the policy discussions. While many of theprinciples of the Paris Declaration (i.e. ownership,harmonization, better coordination) are widely supportedby the development community, there is a growing concernthat the Paris Declaration fails to recognize civil society,local governments or other non-state actors for their rolein development and the contribution they make to aideffectiveness.

From a local government perspective, there has beenlimited analysis on the impact that the Paris Declarationhas had on the relationship between national and localgovernments although the European Centre forDevelopment Policy Management (ECDPM) had conductedresearch on the impact from the increased usage by donorsof sector and budget support mechanisms. Based on theECDPM analysis there is some initial evidence that thesenew delivery mechanisms have reinforced the responsibilityof central governments in the planning andimplementation of sector policies and programs, whilemarginalizing the role of local governments. It has beensuggested that local governments have been relegated tothe role of an executing arm of line ministries, asinfluence and decision making authority is consolidatedwith national governments and donors. In countries wheresector and program based approaches are more prevalent,there is the risk of undermining decentralisation efforts iftoo much authority is consolidated in the hands of thenational administration. This trend may also compound thechallenge for local governments to establish themselves ascredible public institutions which can be a factor in thembecoming politically and administratively marginalized.13

Of equal concern is the lack of involvement of localgovernment representatives, or other non-state actors, inhelping to inform and shape the planning and design of

12 Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, Accra Agenda ForAction, 2-4 September 2008, Accra – Ghana, art. 12 and 13.

13 G. Kasumba, A. Land (January 2003).


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development policies and programs, such as nationalPoverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP). Civil society hasstrongly criticized the fact that the process of developingPRSPs has not been sufficiently inclusive and has notrecognized the important role played by non-state actorsin contributing to poverty reduction at the country level.This oversight has underlined the importance of localgovernments and civil society to work together in raisingawareness and building recognition of the roles they haveto play as development actors.

The historical lack of engagement of local governments inthe development dialogue has not gone unnoticed by theEuropean Commission which recently issued an officialCommunication on local authorities14 and their role asdevelopment actors. The Communication has twoobjectives: firstly, it seeks to recognize the significantexpertise of local authorities, not only in terms of servicedelivery but also as catalysts for change, conflictprevention, decentralization and confidence-building in thedevelopment process; secondly, it attempts to put in placea process for building a strategy that will allow localauthorities to more systematically participate in the designand implementation of development activities. To this end,the European Commission is taking the lead amongst theinternational development community in encouraging theengagement of local authorities in a more coordinated andstructured approach to shaping development policy and incoordinating local governments’ involvement in programimplementation15.

3. Local Governments as Development Actors

Although local government is a specific order ofgovernment, international organizations consider localgovernments as part of civil society. However, being partof the State, local governments are characterized by a levelof legitimacy and responsibility that is not shared by otherdevelopment actors. As democratic institutions comprised

of elected officials that are accountable to both theircitizens as well as to senior levels of government, localgovernments must maintain the trust and confidence ofthe electorate and operate with a high degree oftransparency.

As the order of government closest to the people, themunicipal sector has an acute awareness of the challengesand opportunities facing society. Local governments havedeep roots into the social, political and economic fabric ofcommunities, which has placed them in an advantageousposition to act as convenors of partners in the communitysuch as civil society, policy makers, power brokers, theprivate sector and other influential stakeholders. Localgovernments are uniquely positioned to promotedemocracy, contribute to poverty reduction, theachievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)and to empower citizens to improve the quality of life intheir communities.

Around the world, local governments have demonstratedthat they can provide an effective decision-makingframework for establishing social development priorities byfostering an environment of collaboration and dialoguewith their citizens. This collaboration enhances the capacityof local governments to engage marginalized groups,particularly women and youth, in municipal decision-makingprocesses that contribute to the formulation of moreinclusive public policies and programs. By enablingotherwise disenfranchised stakeholders to participate inshaping local development priorities and influence decision-making, local governments have the capacity to designservices that are more relevant and appropriate to theneeds of all their citizens. This is genuine local ownership.

14 The European Commission uses the term Local Authority to includethe large variety of sub-national levels and branches of governmenti.e. municipalities, communities, districts, counties, provinces,regions etc. Concerning development cooperation there issubstantial heterogeneity in the mandate, finance and functions ateach level and within each level.

15 European Commission, Communication from the Commission to theCouncil, the European Parliament and the European Economic andSocial Committee and the Committee of the Regions, LocalAuthorities: Actors for Development, Brussels, 2008, COM (2008)626 Final.

Box 1 – Local ownership and social mobilization inGuatemala

The Government of Guatemala introduced newlegislation in 2002 that aims to stimulate theparticipation of all communities – includingindigenous – in local government. The legislationregulates the process of decentralization, recognizingindigenous identity and the right to preserve andstrengthen indigenous forms of local authority. Ifcorrectly applied, the framework will eventually allowindigenous communities to directly managedevelopment funds earmarked to their communities,


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These conditions – good governance, democraticinstitutions, accountability and transparency, inclusivedecision making processes, equitable service delivery – arelargely determined by the social, economic and politicalcontext and the actions of local policy makers.

Building sustainable communities requires a strongfoundation, an enabling environment, which allows localgovernments to operate as agents of development, ascatalysts for economic growth, and as advocates for socialjustice and equity. In order to accomplish this, it isnecessary to have an efficient decentralization frameworkwith clear core competences and required transfer ofresources to local governments to carry out theirresponsibilities effectively and efficiently; strong localleadership that can build consensus on a vision for movingforward; and a strong management and administrativecapacity within an unambiguous policy environment thatprovides key stakeholder groups with a degree ofpredictability, transparency and accountability.

Clearly, the conditions required for local governance toflourish do not exist in all countries. The absence of aneffective local government structure that is capable ofplanning, managing and delivering essential services,developing long-term plans, coordinating inter-governmental relations, establishing policies andimplementing local programs creates an enormous barrierto addressing poverty and achieving developmentpriorities. The failure to create an enabling environmentfor strong local governance also fuels mistrust by citizens,civil society and the private sector.

Box 2 – Local Government support in conflict areas

Local governments can, and often do, contribute topeacebuilding and conflict management through theirdual role in promoting the democratic process at thelocal level and in delivering basic social services,which lie at the heart of building and maintainingsocial stability.

In September 1998, the mayors of the cities ofBarcelona, Tel Aviv-Yafo and Gaza signed a friendshipand cooperation agreement which sought to establisha bridge of union and joint work between theirinhabitants. A year later, in Barcelona, APLA(Association of Palestinian Local Authorities) andULAI (Union of Local Authorities of Israel) signedtheir first collaboration agreement as well.

Due to the context of the conflict, direct relationsbetween Gaza and Tel-Aviv have been extremelydifficult. The difficulties in visiting and leaving theGaza Strip, the military blockade that prevents theentry of numerous basic materials, and the internalpolitical instability of the area have been substantialbut fortunately not decisive obstacles. Despite thesechallenges, the partner local authorities have beenable to overcome the dynamic of the conflict andfocus their maximum interest on improving the livingconditions of the district's inhabitants. The politicaldetermination of both city councils and the supportand confidence shown by the Catalan DevelopmentCooperation Agency, APLA and ULAI, have beenindispensable elements for successful cooperation.

Source: case study 13

which take into account their own cultural identityand traditional values.

The Nimlaha´kok and Nimlasa´chal micro-regionsrequested support from and collaboration with Herent(Belgium) in order to strengthen their governance,local capacity and autonomy. They elaborated a set ofcriteria as pre-conditions for a good workingpartnership, which included support for theindigenous group of Maya-Q´eqchi´s who seekrecognition as a social entity and strive for self-governance. The most important claim is to return apercentage of the municipal tax revenue to the micro-regions so that they can decide where to allocateresources associated with their self-defineddevelopment priorities.

While the governance structure is quite complex andrelatively new in its set-up, the local communities arenow clearly represented in the micro-regions, whichenables them to have a voice in the municipality. Thepartnership is an excellent example of how thestrengthening of democratic local government canlead to real progress in achieving a locally owned,people-centred approach to development.



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For more than two decades, local governments haveplayed a key role as international development actors.Local governments, in collaboration with their national,regional and global associations, are playing a vital rolein the development process by sharing their experienceand approaches to assist others in finding appropriateways to solve their own issues and problems. Throughdecentralized cooperation programs that are built on thefoundation of partnerships and peer-to-peer exchange,local governments in the north and the south areworking together to reinforce the local capacity torespond to an unending series of development challengesincluding poverty and disease, environmentaldegradation, social decay, corruption and economiccollapse. These programs, for which part of the funds arebeing mobilized by the local authorities themselves16,commonly take the form of Municipal InternationalCooperation (MIC) or Association Capacity Building(ACB)17. In particular ACB programs involve activities thatstrengthen the ability of the local government sector toparticipate in national political dialogues, whichreinforces mutual understanding, strengthens publicpolicy and enhances accountability between local andnational governments.

Local governments are therefore important developmentactors, as partners, beneficiaries and donors. Asdevelopment actors, local governments, civil society andcentral governments must work together to cultivate theenabling framework for democratic governance which is afundamental building block for the achievement of theMillennium Development Goals.

4. Principles of Aid Effectiveness: A Local GovernmentPerspective

To understand how local governments could contribute toaid effectiveness, it is necessary to look at the fiveprinciples of the Paris Declaration (Ownership, Alignment,Harmonization, Managing for Results and MutualAccountability) through the lens of local governments. Asan order of government and as an agent of development,local governments can make a unique contribution inanalysing and strengthening the aid effectivenessprinciples. Below is a summary of some of the ways inwhich local governments and local governmentassociations (LGAs) can contribute to strengthening aideffectiveness:

4.1 Ownership – Democratization of the process:Development strategies require ownership by sub-national levels of government to advocate forcommunity interests

Local governments should:

• be involved more directly and systematically in allstages of the development process, from the designand implementation of policies and programs to themonitoring and evaluation, to strengthen

Box 3 – The local voice in national politicaldialogues in Sri Lanka

The establishment of the Federation of Sri Lanka LocalGovernment Authorities (FSLGA) brought all threetiers of local government together under one umbrellafor the first time in the country’s history. “The localgovernment association is an important structure todiscuss common issues and concerns. It helps us toaccess experience and knowledge from fellowmembers”, said Sampath Athukorola, Chairman of theNiyugama rural local authority and member of theGalle District Local Leaders Association.

The FSLGA is possibly the only truly national forum inSri Lanka that has brought local government voicestogether. The Ministry of Local Government Affairs

now seeks FSLGA´s assistance in selectingrepresentatives to sit on the national committeesestablished for local government policy reforms, andthe FSLGA is the sole association attending monthlycoordination meetings at the Ministry of LocalGovernment Affairs and Provincial Councils. Thesemeasures are helping to ensure that localgovernments and their communities are accounted forin the setting of national development policies andpriorities that affect them.


16 OECD, Aid Extended by Local and State Governments, DAC Journal,Vol. 6 No. 4.

17 Association Capacity Building is emerging as a strategicintervention by local government associations as they focus onstrengthening and enhancing the effectiveness of the localgovernment sector on a national scale.


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democratic ownership of development strategies atthe local level;

• demand, through their national associations, thattheir voice be heard in national consultationsleading to the preparation and monitoring ofnational development strategies, operational plansand PRSPs;

Example: Currently, in ACB programmes, localgovernment associations work towards ownershipthrough a system of co-management that promotesequitable and broad based ownership. This means thatnorthern and southern LGA partners share theresponsibility and accountability for planning,managing, implementing and reporting on results.

4.2 Alignment – Development cooperation and nationaldevelopment strategies must be aligned withexisting decentralization frameworks and mustcontribute to strengthening local autonomy andpromoting sustainable community development.

Local governments will cooperate to:

• strengthen southern local government capacities inplanning, budgeting and financial management andimprove public procurement systems to reinforce theirbasis for the implementation and management ofdevelopment programmes;

• support inter-governmental consensus-buildingmechanisms (local, regional and national) to ensuregreater coherence in the elaboration, planning andimplementation of development policies between localand national levels;

• strengthen the capacity of local governments toengage citizens, community organizations and theprivate sector in participatory municipal planning andbudgetary processes, and to help ensure closeralignment of central government and donors’ plansand programs with community needs;

• ensure that cooperation programs respectdecentralization processes and local autonomy:Sector Wide Approaches should involve localgovernments in the elaboration and implementation oftheir local components; budgetary support shouldpartly grant funds directly to the local level orcontribute to the strengthening of budget transfermechanisms at national level to ensure transparency,regularity and predictability of funding;

Box 5 – Sector Wide Health Approach in Tanzania

In 2000, eleven Development Partners (Canada,Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, OneUN, Switzerland, UNFPA, UNICEF and World Bank)

Box 4 – Involvement of LGAZ in nationalconsultations in Zambia

In early 2006, local governments were advised by theAfrican Caribbean Pacific (ACP) Local GovernmentPlatform to establish contacts with the Delegation ofthe European Commission in their country in order toparticipate in the dialogue on strategies andprogrammes of ACP-EU cooperation 2008-2013.

Despite the fact that the framework for internationalcooperation recognises local governments as keydevelopment actors that should participate in allaspects of the process, the efforts of the LocalGovernment Association of Zambia (LGAZ) to getinvolved in the process were initially rejected.

Both the Platform and LGAZ worked with the ACP EUinstitution headquarters and the EC delegation torectify the situation, which resulted in the formalinvitation for LGAZ to participate in a meeting withthe EC delegation. The LGAZ is now fully involved inall meetings related to the ACP-EU cooperation 2008-2013. Its comments on the Country Strategy Paperhave been taken into account in the finalisation ofthe document, and provisions have been made forlocal government priorities that are aligned with thestrategy.


• ensure social mobilization (particularly the poor,excluded and the discriminated) in a process to helpinform and articulate development priorities andstrategies at local and national levels;

• ensure that decentralized co-operation is demand-driven and based on a strong ownership andparticipation of local governments in the planning,management, implementation and monitoring of theprojects and programmes.


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• ensure that decentralized cooperation approaches(MIC/ACB) are developed within the framework ofsouthern-driven agendas that take into account thelocal cultural context, country processes andgovernance reform programs, concretized in countrystrategies for municipal sector development.

Example: With support from northern counterparts,many southern LGAs are developing nationalstrategies for municipal sector strengtheningthrough broad stakeholder processes. Aligned with thecountry’s Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRSP) andother national development strategies, these countrystrategies help focus (MIC) between southern andnorthern LG players and are a legitimate expression of“local ownership” and alignment.

4.3 Harmonization – Local governments should take thelead in harmonization of development cooperationin communities.

• Local governments can rely on the Aid Effectivenessprinciples as a basis to demand and develop a cleardivision of tasks at the local level that reflects thecomplementarities between the different developmentactors (States, cooperation agencies, NGOs etc.);

• Local governments of the South should promote actionplans in their communities that are based on prioritiesdefined in participatory planning processes, to favourcoordination and complementarity of action ofdifferent development actors;

• Decentralized cooperation actors should coordinatetheir interventions to enhance the efficiency of theircooperation, avoiding duplication, overlap andfragmentation of development aid.

began pooling un-earmarked resources in support ofTanzania’s Health Sector Strategic Plan (FY04-FY09)and its MKUKUTA (Poverty Reduction Strategy).Creating a common fund (known as the Health BasketFund) for the health system represented an effort toharmonize development cooperation in the sector andremove distortions in sector allocation priorities,which would commonly occur before the reforms,when there were multiple distinct healthinterventions.

A central feature of Tanzania’s Health Basked Fund isthat it places greater responsibility for, and controlof, health services planning and delivery in the handsof regional and local governments, while ensuringthat this planning is aligned with the Health SectorStrategic Plan and the Government of Tanzania’spoverty reduction strategy. The Fund has enabledresources to be redistributed in individual districts,providing additional funds per person. According tothe Joint External Evaluation of the Health Sector in2007, “The Health Basket Fund has played aparticularly important role in supporting themeaningful implementation of decentralization ofresponsibility for health services to Local GovernmentAuthorities”.

Tanzania’s sector wide approach to health care has,no doubt, achieved significant improvements inhealth outcomes that are unparalleled in othercountries – between 1990 and 2004, annual deathrates in children under five in Tanzania fell by 40percent and between 2000 and 2004 alone, by 24 percent. An April 2008 study published in the Britishmedical journal The Lancet showed that, if its trend ofimproved child survival is sustained, Tanzania couldreach the fourth Millennium Development Goal (MDG)— a reduction of mortality in children under five bytwo-thirds — during the period between 1990 and2015.

Currently, only a handful of countries request thatdonors give funds to their general budget rather thanto specific projects, and only 2% of donor moneydirected to maternal and child health is allocated thisway.


Box 6 – Coordination by the UCLG CIB WorkingGroup

At the global level, through the UCLG Capacity andInstitution Building (CIB) Working Group, memberLGAs work to enhance program coherence andcoordination, promote collaboration on policyanalysis, share practical knowledge and lessonslearned from the collective experience of northernand southern LGAs, and reduce administrative burdenon local partners. Wherever feasible, they implementcoordinated diagnostic assessments, planning,


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Example: Northern local government associations,cooperation funds and platforms are trying to improvecoordination of decentralized cooperation efforts atthe national level in conjunction with localgovernment partners in the South, which arepromoting participatory planning with internationalpartners to define complementarities and a commonapproach. At the global level, through the UCLGCapacity and Institution Building (CIB) WorkingGroup, member LGAs work to enhance programcoherence and coordination, promote collaborationon policy analysis, share practical knowledge and

lessons learned from the collective experience ofnorthern and southern LGAs, and reduce administrativeburden on local partners. Wherever feasible, they willimplement coordinated diagnostic assessments,planning, information sharing, environmental impactassessments, and monitoring & evaluation missions.

4.4 Managing for results – Decentralization and localdevelopment as components of good localgovernance should be expected results ofdevelopment cooperation

• Local governments should advocate for localdevelopment and decentralization as important factorsto achieve poverty reduction and the MDG targets;

• Local governments and development actors shouldhave an enabling framework to develop, based onlocal plans defined in participatory processes,harmonized results-oriented reporting, andmonitoring frameworks;

• Decentralized Cooperation can be process or projectoriented, which contributes to long-term performanceenhancements.

Example: LGAs are compiling a common set of resultindicators that will make it easier to characterize andmeasure the development effectiveness of localgovernments.

4.5 Mutual Accountability - Strengthening transparencyand accountability for development results

• Northern and southern local governments should worktoward true co-management of MIC/ACB programs,holding each other mutually accountable for resultsof their cooperation through participatory approachesto planning and assessing progress in implementingcountry strategies and programs;

Box 7 – Mutual accountability in decentralizedcooperation between Finland and South Africa

The Bojanala Platinum District Municipality (SouthAfrica) and the City of Lahti (Finland) have beeninvolved in a municipal partnership for several yearsto encourage and facilitate the building ofenvironmental management that is adapted to localneeds. The partners have emphasized participatory

information sharing, environmental impactassessments, and monitoring & evaluation missions.

Northern LGAs have organized joint regionalworkshops in the various regions in which they areworking. This collaboration has facilitated theparticipation of a larger pool of LGAs from the regionsand has engaged expert capacity building resourceson various priority themes. Typically, these workshopsare co-organized with the regional section (member)of UCLG in order to strengthen its capacity, increaseits visibility as a provider of valued services to itsmembers, and ensure longer-term sustainability.

Partners of the National Association of Communes andSangkats (NLC/S) in Cambodia, such as FCM and VNGInternational, have also made a concerted effort towork with NLC/S in program coordination. Based onthe strategic plan of NLC/S, the partners are providingtechnical assistance in areas of comparative expertise.For example, while VNG International is focusing itscapacity building on member services and financialsustainability, FCM is helping to develop the systems,guidelines and tools to perform more effectivecommunications and advocacy on behalf of themembers of NLC/S. This has resulted in bettercoordinated, more efficient interventions that arecharacterized by strong ownership on the part ofNLC/S.

For more information on the harmonization effortscarried out by the CIB Working Group, please see casestudy 1.



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• Local governments should commit to increasing thepredictability, transparency and accountability ofdevelopment assistance for strengthening localgovernments.

Example: Through the CIB Working Group, northernand southern local government associations haveagreed to work toward a code of ethics reinforcingmutual accountability and transparency to each otheras partners, to their constituents and to donors.

5. Conclusions: Localizing the Aid EffectivenessAgenda

The challenges that lie ahead for local governments aremany. Whether it is meeting the pressures of rapidurbanization, advancing decentralization or mobilizing theenormous investments required to finance localinfrastructure, these are tasks that are beyond the meansand scope of responsibilities of many local governments.Solutions to these challenges can only be found through acollaborative effort that involves all levels of government,the private sector, civil society and international fundingorganizations. Local governments are uniquely positionedto create the space for citizens and community leaders toparticipate in decision making as a way to strengthen localownership in the development process.

An important first step to enable local governments toplay this facilitating role is for national governments anddonors to recognize them as key and legitimate agents oflocal development and welcome their participation in

development planning and policy discussions. Followingthe lobbying efforts of local governments in Europe, theEuropean Commission is encouraging greater involvementof local governments in development cooperation, basedon the realization that local governments are strategicallypositioned to contribute to reducing poverty andmainstream democratic governance18. Thanks to a sustainedeffort on the part of UCLG, local government has beeninvited to participate in the OECD/DAC Working Party onAid Effectiveness and the United Nations DevelopmentCooperation Forum. These policy forums will provide localgovernments with the opportunity to share theirknowledge and experience in international developmentwith other development practitioners and to demonstratetheir value added as development actors. Throughconstructive engagement in these policy forums, localgovernments will be able to build valuable alliances withother stakeholders, strengthen their overall effectivenessas development actors.

While these accomplishments represent significantprogress, it is not sufficient. It must also be accompaniedby policies that strengthen political, administrative andfiscal decentralization that support the devolution ofresponsibilities, as well as the financial resources, to localgovernments so that they can play a leadership role inpromoting development. The absence of a clear policyframework on decentralization can significantly impedeinter-governmental cooperation and lead to a morefragmented approach to development. Local governmentsare on the front lines in combating many developmentchallenges, yet in the majority of cases they are notinvolved in shaping development strategies. This mustchange if aid is to become truly effective.

Local governments are an important partner for nationalgovernments and donors and their collaboration isessential if countries hope to meet the MillenniumDevelopment Goals. Local governments occupy a criticalniche in the development of a country. They deliveressential services which respond to basic human needs andthey provide a vehicle to allow the collective concerns of acommunity to be heard and prioritized which makes formore inclusive and effective development. Empoweringlocal governments to fulfill their potential as developmentactors and allocating the resources required to lead changeand strengthen local governance must be given the priorityit deserves by both national governments and internationaldonors.

18 European Commission, Communication from the Commission to theCouncil, the European Parliament, the European Economic and SocialCommittee and the Committee of the Regions, Local Authorities:Actors for Development, Brussels, 2008, COM (2008) 626 Final.

approaches to cooperation, and in the spirit of mutualaccountability, planning and monitoring is donetogether annually with the partners’ local authorityofficers or elected representatives. Through a peer-review process, the development assistance hasincreased transparency and accountability in localgovernment and has produced positive results in thearea of environmental sustainability.



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Bibliography

Development Cooperation Directorate /OECD (March 2005),Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness

European Centre for Development Policy Management(January 2003), Sector-Wide Approaches andDecentralisation: Strategies pulling in Opposite Directions?,Kusumba, G. & Land, A.

European Commission, (2008), Communication from theCommission to the Council, the European Parliament, theEuropean Economic and Social Committee and theCommittee of the Regions Local Authorities: Actors forDevelopment, Brussels, COM (2008) 626 Final

IDS (2004), Decentralisation and poverty reduction inAfrica: the politic of local central relations, Richard C.Crook. Public Administration and Development, vol 23,January 2004

IDS (2007), Decentralisation and Service Delivery: Lessonsfrom Sub-Saharan Africa, Diana Conyers. IDS Bulletin 38(1)

OECD/DAC (August 2005), Baselines and Suggested Targetsfor the 12 Indicators of Progress – Paris Declaration on AidEffectiveness, Paris

UCLG (2008), UCLG Policy Paper on Local Finances,Barcelona


A Compilaton of CaseStudies

Overview of Case Studies 28

1 The CIB Working Group: Harmonizationof Municipal Development programmesUCLG Capacity and Institution Building WorkingGroup (2009) 29

2 Tanzania’s Health Basket Fund ImprovesDistrict Level Health ServiceFederation of Canadian Municipalities incollaboration with the Association of LocalAuthorities of Tanzania (2009) 34

3 The Establishment of the Federation of SriLankan Local Government AuthoritiesFederation of Canadian Municipalities incollaboration with the Federation of Sri LankanLocal Government Authorities (2009) 37

4 The Local Government Association ofZambia’s participation in the 10th EuropeanDevelopment Fund ProgrammingACP Platform (2007) 39

5 Coordination and complementarities: SpainUses Key Tools and Programmes to AchieveMore Effective AidSpanish Federation of Municipalities andProvinces (2009) 41

6 Harmonization of efforts to enlarge local taxbase and improve municipal service deliveryin GhanaVNG International (2009) 45

7 Alignment in strategies for housingdevelopment in South AfricaVNG International (2009) 47

8 Carbon Compensation Scheme with locallydesigned, owned and managed projectsLocal Government Association and theLancashire County Council (2009) 49

9 Municipal partnership between Herent(Flanders, Belgium) and Nimlaha’kok andNimlasa’chal (Guatemala) promotes localownership of development strategiesAssociation of Flemish Cities and Municipalities(2009) 53

10 Building the capacity of the localenvironmental administration in BojanalaPlatinum District Municipality, South AfricaAssociation of Finnish Local and RegionalAuthorities and the City of Lahti (2009) 56

11 Incentivizing performance: the Bosniaand Herzegovina Beacon SchemeLocal Government Association (2008) 59

12 The Twinning Cooperation between the Cityof Liege (Wallonia, Belgium) and the City ofLubumbashi (Congo)Union of Cities and Municipalities of Walloniaand the Association of the City and Municipalitiesof the Brussels-Capital Region (2008) 61

13 Urban Rehabilitation of the Al-NasserDistrict Gaza City, Occupied PalestinianTerritoriesCity Council of Barcelona (2009) 63


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A Compilation of Case Studies

Overview of Case Studies

The case studies included in this compilation providesome illustrative examples of how the local governmentsector can contribute to the effectiveness of aiddelivery. They explore how various interventions supportor are consistent with the Paris Declaration principles ofi) local ownership of development strategies; ii)alignment with national development strategies; iii)harmonization of development interventions; iv)managing for results; and v) mutual accountability andtransparency.

The CIB Working Group: Harmonization of MunicipalDevelopment Programmes describes how professionalpractitioners of local government associations (LGAs)and individual local governments active in internationalcooperation are working to improve the quality,coordination and alignment of their developmentcooperation interventions.

Tanzania’s Health Basket Fund Improves District LevelHealth Service illustrates how the implementation of asector-wide approach to planning and management ofthe health sector in Tanzania, which has included apooled fund from multiple donors, has improved districtlevel health service and health outcomes.

The Establishment of the Federation of Sri Lankan LocalGovernment Authorities demonstrates that developmentprogramming supporting the establishment of a nationallocal government association in Sri Lanka has led toimproved coordination of local governance interventionsand has enabled local governments and theircommunities to exert a greater voice and ownership overtheir own development.

The Local Government Association of Zambia’s Participationin the 10th EDF Programming illustrates the important rolethat a national local government association can play inensuring that local level development priorities areincorporated into, and aligned with, country leveldevelopment programming. It also highlights the essentialsupport and coordinating role that regional localgovernment networks play in ensuring that localgovernments access development funding andopportunities.

Coordination and Complementarities: Spain Uses Key Toolsand Programmes to Achieve More Effective Aid describeshow the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces(FEMP) and the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (inSpanish: MAEC) are collaborating to ensure that Spanishinternational cooperation in the local government sector isbetter coordinated and aligned with national levelpriorities in partner countries.

The last seven case studies explore the effectiveness ofvarious development interventions led and implemented,and in many cases, funded by, local governments and localgovernment associations. Local governments, throughmunicipal international cooperation programmes anddecentralized cooperation19, are playing an important rolein the delivery of aid through peer-to-peer cooperation.Local governments and their associations mobilizecommunity assets and significant resources thatcomplement the financial contributions from donors. Thedelivery of these resources through programs and projectsthat are co-managed by southern and northern partnerspromote mutual accountability and enhance local capacityto plan, manage, implement and report on results. This setof case studies provides some examples of the resultsgleaned from such initiatives.

19 Decentralized Cooperation is used here to describe the publicly andprivately funded aid provided by and through local authorities,local government associations, networks and other local actors.


1 The CIB Working Group:harmonization ofmunicipal developmentprogrammesPrepared by the UCLG Capacity and InstitutionBuilding Working Group, September 2009

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The UCLG CIB Working Group as a pool of informationand expertise

The UCLG’s Capacity and Institution Building (CIB) WorkingGroup is the successor of the CIB Platform which existedfor many years within the International Union of LocalAuthorities (IULA) as an informal gathering of staffmembers of local government associations (LGAs) involvedin the field of municipal international cooperation (MIC)and association capacity building (ACB). In addition toinformation exchange, the CIB Platform undertook specificinitiatives such as a World Bank-funded programsupporting ACB in several countries. With the founding ofUCLG in May 2004, the CIB was integrated into thestructures of the new world organization, and itsmembership was expanded to also include staff members ofinternational departments of cities active in internationalcooperation.

In 2007, the CIB members20 decided to bring greaterstructure and rigor to the group’s work in order to ensureconcrete results and increased aid effectiveness throughbetter harmonization of the initiatives of localgovernments and their national associations. Terms ofreference and a three-year work plan were adopted, and aproject officer position was established in UCLG’s WorldSecretariat in Barcelona21.

The UCLG Capacity and Institution Building (CIB) WorkingGroup gathers professional practitioners of LocalGovernment Associations (LGAs) and individual localgovernments active in international cooperation, with theoverall objective to improve the quality, coordination andalignment of their development cooperation interventions.

The CIB set out to tackle four main areas: i) exchange ofexperiences, best practices and work methods; ii) programcoordination to harmonize interventions and promotecollaboration among LGA implementing agencies workingin the same southern country or region; iii) preparation oftechnical papers to inform UCLG policy related to MIC andACB and its advocacy with multilateral donor institutions;and iv) development of an international professional codefor local government organizations involved indevelopment cooperation.

Information sharing

In the Working Group’s annual meetings, members notedthat a lack of information on each other’s work inmunicipal international cooperation (MIC) and associationcapacity building (ACB) had led to duplication or overlapin programming. For example, two or more northern LGAswould be working in a given country with a southern LGApartner on the same topic without even being aware of theother’s work. This, of course, has led to inefficiencies suchas separate workshops being organized with the samepartners around the same dates.

As an important first step towards harmonization ofefforts, a CIB website was designed to foster informationexchange and to identify opportunities for collaboration22.The CIB website tracks “who is doing what and where” interms of municipal development programmes (i.e.association capacity building, decentralized cooperationand municipal international cooperation) and maps theinterventions of all CIB members and their mainpublications and tools. Within the website, a membership-only area has been created to enable online discussionsand exchange of more sensitive documents: i.e. monitoringand evaluation tools, impact indicators, financialinformation and contact details.

Programme coordination – concrete examples

In addition to the regular exchange of information, theWorking Group has selected five pilot countries in whichCIB members have agreed to pay special attention toharmonizing their ACB and MIC programmes. In thesecountries (Mali, Ghana, Nicaragua, Burkina Faso andZimbabwe), one CIB member together with the partnercountry LGA serves as the focal point for strengtheningcoordination and harmonization.23 It was further agreedthat the partners would work within programmecoordination guidelines adopted by the CIB at its annual


20 See annex 121 Funded by VNG International22 http://www.cities-localgovernments.org/cib


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meeting in July, 2008. These guidelines outline acontinuum of options ranging from straightforwarddocumentation and sharing of information on each other’sprograms, to eliminating overlaps, identifying concreteopportunities for collaboration, and organizing with thesouthern LGA partner a formal table for dialogue withdonors and implementing organisations. This could lead tousing the outcome of projects of one organisation as thestarting point for the project of another organisation,pooling expertise and financial resources for the technicalassistance offered to the partner organisation(s), poolinglocal human resources, co-organising of workshops,development of joint information material, jointapproaches to donor organisations, and so on.

Program coordination in the five pilot countries beginswith the identification of possible overlap or duplication ofactivities. The lead CIB partner, together with the partnercountry LGA, assembles information on ACB and MICactivities and identifies opportunities for collaboration. Theobjective of these exchanges, mainly through coordinationsheets and regular contact, is to be able to pool expertiseand financial resources for technical assistance, localhuman resources, and the co-organization of workshops.

For example, in Ghana, VNG International and the NationalAssociation of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG)undertook an analysis of current cooperation with northernpartners. Upon learning of the multiple interventionsrelated to waste management in Ghana, VNG International,the German aid agency GTZ, and NALAG have harmonizedtheir efforts such that they are enlarging the local taxbase, while improving municipal waste managementservices. (For more information see case studyHarmonization of efforts to enlarge local tax base andimprove municipal service delivery in Ghana, page 45)

Coordination does not only occur within the selected pilotcases. The connections made between organizationsthrough the CIB Working Group has enabled coordinationto become more frequent and gives some inspiringexamples of harmonization. VNG International and FCMhave organized joint regional workshops in the variousregions in which they are working. Typically, these are co-organized with the regional section of UCLG in order tostrengthen its capacity, increase its visibility as a providerof valued services to its members, and ensure longer-termsustainability.

For example, in February 2009, FCM and VNG Internationalco-organized with the Association of Cities of Vietnam(AVCN) and UCLG ASPAC the 3rd Asia Pacific LocalGovernment Association Partners Workshop in Hanoi,Vietnam.24 This collaboration facilitated the participationof a larger pool of LGAs (14 LGAs from the region) as wellas engaged expert capacity building resources from thetwo northern partners on two themes: policy advocacy andfinancial sustainability planning.

In addition, CIB members have found opportunities tocoordinate the planning of projects and programmes innon-pilot countries. For example, when FCM and VNGInternational learned that they both had a commonpartner in Cambodia, the National Association ofCommunes and Sangkats (NLC/S), they made a concertedeffort to design projects in a coordinated way. Thestrategic plan of NLC/S was taken as the point of referencefor design, with each organization providing technicalassistance in areas of comparative expertise – i.e. VNGInternational on member services and financialsustainability and FCM on developing the systems,guidelines and tools to perform more effectivecommunications and advocacy on behalf of its members.This has resulted in better coordinated, more efficientinterventions by the two northern partners and greaterownership of the initiatives on the part of NLC/S.

Policy and advocacy

The CIB Working Group serves as a technical resource basefor the political committees of UCLG on issues related toMIC and ACB, in particular the Committees onDecentralised Co-operation, City Diplomacy, and theMillennium Development Goals (MDGs). In this capacity, ithas been supporting the development of three policypapers: (1) aid effectiveness and local government, (2)local government and development cooperation25, and (3)

23 i) Mali, Cites Unies France (CUF) /Association of Municipalities ofMali (AMM); ii) Ghana, VNG International,/National Association ofLocal Authorities of Ghana (NALAG); iii) Nicaragua, Federation ofCanadian Municipalities (FCM)/Association of Municipalities ofNicaragua (AMUNIC); iv) Burkina Faso, Union of Cities andCommunes of Wallonia/ Association of Municipalities of BurkinaFaso (AMBF); v) Zimbabwe, Local Government Association (Englandand Wales)/Urban Councils Association of Zimbabwe (UCAZ).

24 This workshop built on a similarly co-organized workshop withassociations in Asia in Manila in May, 2008.

25 This paper will present the experience and expertise of local andregional governments in the area of decentralized cooperation andoutline principles and guidelines for the international action oflocal governments and their associations in the field ofdevelopment cooperation.


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local government and economic stimulus26. These papersare meant to inform the practice of UCLG members andprovide a policy basis for dialogue with the internationaldonor community and multilateral institutions.

The aid effectiveness paper is a good case in point. The2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, signed by allOECD countries and endorsed by many developingcountries, reflects a policy consensus that is shaping theway that donors define their priority sectors and focuscountries, and select the mechanisms through which theydeliver aid. Although potentially local governments areimpacted significantly by this new approach to aiddelivery, they were not included in these policydiscussions.

Mandated by UCLG’s Executive Bureau, the CIB WorkingGroup in collaboration with the UCLG World Secretariatconsulted UCLG members worldwide and developed a formalpolicy position for international advocacy as well as tobuild a common understanding and position amongmembers. This position paper calls for the fullacknowledgement of local and regional governments asdevelopment partners and outlines a number of policyrecommendations directed to donors and centralgovernments as well as to local governments and theirassociations on improving aid effectiveness.

The emerging local government position on aideffectiveness enabled UCLG to participate with an informedvoice in multilateral discussions assessing progress on aideffectiveness, chiefly with the OECD/DAC (Working Party onAid Effectiveness) and the United Nations DevelopmentCooperation Forum (including parliamentarians, localgovernments and civil society).

Already we are beginning to see modest progress. Forexample, the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA), which was theresult of the mid-term 3rd High Level Forum on AidEffectiveness in Accra, Ghana (2-4 September 2008),includes explicit recognition of the role of local governmentsin the development of national development policies. TheAAA also recognizes the need to support capacity buildinginitiatives of local authorities and emphasizes the

importance of local resources in the provision of technicalcooperation. In recognition of the value-added brought bylocal governments to these policy discussions in Accra andNew York, UCLG has been invited to become a permanentmember of the OECD/DAC Working Party on Aid Effectivenessand it will also be working with the UN DevelopmentCooperation Forum in an advisory capacity.

Challenges in Coordination

Even though work has progressed since 2007, the CIBmembers face significant challenges to ensure trueharmonization of efforts. First of all, most northern LGAsreceive funds for MIC and ACB programmes through theirrespective Ministries of Foreign Affairs or Agenciesresponsible for official development assistance. Due to theoften rigid regulations that accompany these funds (i.e.specific reporting requirements, eligible thematic areas offocus, geographic concentration and types of capacitybuilding assistance), it is not always possible tocoordinate with other LGAs or to pool financial and humanresources. This creates a gap between the enthusiasm ofCIB members to coordinate and the reality of programmingand contractual restrictions. It is therefore recommendedthat, in order to increase aid effectiveness, donors shouldallow for increased flexibility in the implementation ofODA programs delivered through LGAs.

Secondly, to ensure real ownership of the programmes,coordination of northern partner interventions shouldideally be initiated and led by the southern partner LGAsand local governments. Clearly, a stronger southern LGAvoice is needed at the CIB table, but additional financialresources are required to facilitate the participation ofpartner country/regional LGAs. It is important to raisedonors’ appreciation of the importance of providingfunding for partner country participation in multilateralcommittees and forums addressing aid effectiveness.

Finally, CIB members themselves also need to investgreater efforts and resources in the sharing of informationand program coordination. While LGAs in both the southand the north are growing in their understanding andappreciation of the principles of aid effectiveness, muchmore must be done to change entrenched approacheswhich lead to good results in the local-level projects butwhich often do not add up to broader sectoral andcountry-level impacts due to a lack of alignment withnational development priorities and harmonization withthe investments of other actors.

26 UCLG has collected case studies from its developing countrynetwork on the impact of the global financial crisis on local andregional governments. This paper will help support internationaladvocacy, arguing for increased investment at the local level bynational governments and international institutions (i.e. UN,financial institutions and development banks)


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Much already has been done within the international localgovernment family to work toward greater coherence in theimplementation of MIC and ACB programmes. The CIBWorking Group has been and continues to play a key rolein the identification of overlap and opportunities forcooperation as well as in providing an opportunity forstrengthening relations amongst its members. We mustbuild on the modest but real successes to date throughrefining our coordination of development cooperation –including new tools and indicators to measure our work –in order to more successfully apply the principles of aideffectiveness.

For more information, please contact the CIB Working GroupSecretariat,[email protected]


Annex 1 – CIB Membership

Though there has never been a formal membership list, the following local government associations and individual citiesare regularly participating with their staff members in the CIB meetings:

PRESIDENT VNG International, the International Co-operation Agency of the Association of NetherlandsMunicipalities (VNG)

VICE-PRESIDENT FCM International, Federation of Canadian Municipalities

AFRICABurkina Faso Association of Municipalities of Burkina Faso (AMBF)

City of OuagadougouKenya Association of Local Government Authorities of Kenya (ALGAK)South Africa South African Local Government Association (SALGA)Zimbabwe Urban Council Association of Zimbabwe (UCAZ)

ASIA UCLG Asia PacificPakistan Local Councils Association of the Punjab (LCAP)South Korea Korean Local Authorities Foundation for International Relations (KLAFIR)

EUROPE Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR)Belgium Union of Cities and Municipalities of Wallonia (UVCW)

Association of Flemish Cities and Municipalities (VVSG)Denmark Local Government Denmark (LGDK)Finland Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities (AFLRA)France Cités Unies France (CUF)

City of LyonRegional Council of Pays de la Loire

Italy European Association of Communes, Provinces and Regions (AICCRE)City of Rome

Netherlands VNG International (Chair)Norway Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS)Spain Andalusian Fund of Municipalities for International Solidarity (FAMSI)

Catalan Fund of Cooperation and Development City of BarcelonaProvince of BarcelonaSpanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP)

Sweden SKL International Development Agency (SKL International)Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR)

United Kingdom Local Government Association (LGA)

LATIN AMERICA Latin American Federation of Cities, Municipalities and Associations (FLACMA)Brazil National Confederation of Municipalities (CNM)Chile Chilean Association of Municipalities (AChM)

Municipality of El BosqueColombia Federation of Colombian Municipalities (FCM)Ecuador Association of Ecuadorian Municipalities (AME)Mexico Association of Municipalities of Mexico (AMMAC)

MIDDLE EAST-WEST ASIA UCLG Middle East and West Asia

NORTH AMERICACanada Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM)United States of America National League of Cities (NLC)

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2 Tanzania’s Health BasketFund Improves DistrictLevel Health ServicePrepared by the Federation of CanadianMunicipalities (FCM) in collaboration with theAssociation of Local Authorities of Tanzania(ALAT), September 2009

Tanzania has developed a strong reputation for its goodmanagement of aid and investment in its healthcaresystem. Between 1990 and 2004, annual death rates inchildren under five in Tanzania fell by 40 percent andbetween 2000 and 2004 alone, by 24 per cent. An April2008 study published in the British medical journal TheLancet28 showed that if its trend of improved child survivalis sustained, Tanzania could reach the fourth MillenniumDevelopment Goal (MDG) — a reduction of mortality inchildren under five by two-thirds, in the period between1990 and 2015.

Much of the gains in health outcomes in Tanzania havebeen attributed to health system reforms that wereinitiated in 1999. The reforms feature a sector-wideapproach (SWAP) for planning and managing resources inthe sector, and include an agreement between theGovernment of Tanzania and international donors throughwhich they pool their funds into what is commonlyreferred to as the Health Basket Fund.

Approach – How the Health Basket Fund Works

Since 2000, eleven Development Partners (Canada,Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, One UN,Switzerland, UNFPA, UNICEF and World Bank) beganpooling un-earmarked resources in support of Tanzania’sHealth Sector Strategic Plan (FY04-FY09) and itsMKUKUTA (Poverty Reduction Strategy).29 Creating acommon fund for the health system represented an effortto harmonize development cooperation in the sector andremove distortions in sector allocation priorities, whichwould commonly occur before the reforms, when therewere multiple distinct health interventions. Thewillingness to pool funds also demonstrated acommitment by both the international community andthe Government of Tanzania (GOT) towards a moreeffective and efficient use of aid resources that is linewith the Paris Declaration.30

The Basket Fund mechanism has ensured that ownershipof health sector planning and implementation rests withthe GOT. Basket resources complement the GOT’s ownresources and are planned, budgeted and reported usingGovernment procedures. While partners meet with the GOTon a regular basis to review progress through the semi-annual basket financing meetings and through the moregeneral Sector Wide Approach meetings involving allstakeholders in the health sector, they do not engage inhow such resources should be programmed. Their maininterests lie in ensuring that funds are being targeted tothe agreed priority interventions as elaborated in theHealth Sector Strategic Plan and the poverty reductionstrategy.

A central feature of the basket fund is that it placesgreater responsibility for and control of health serviceplanning and delivery in the hands of regional and localgovernments, while ensuring that this planning is alignedwith the national Health Sector Strategic Plan and theGOT’s poverty reduction strategy. Responsibility foroversight and co-ordination of the implementation restswith the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, in closecollaboration with the Prime Minister's Office RegionalAdministration and Local Government. At the local level,the Councils and District Executive Directors areresponsible for preparing the Comprehensive CouncilHealth Plans and their subsequent implementation. TheMinistry of Finance and the Ministry of Planning,Economy and Empowerment (now under one Ministry ofFinance, Planning and Economic Empowerment) are

This case study illustrates how the implementation of asector-wide approach to planning and management of thehealth sector in Tanzania, which has included a pooledfund from multiple donors, has improved district levelhealth service and health outcomes. The case study drawsheavily on the information found on the Tanzania HealthDevelopment Partners Group website.27

27 See Tanzania Health Development Partners Group website:http://hdptz.esealtd.com/index.php?id=4

28 Child survival gains in Tanzania: analysis of data from demographicand health surveys, The Lancet, Volume 371, Issue 9620, Pages1276-1283, April 2008.

29 http://hdptz.esealtd.com/fileadmin/documents/Key_Sector_Documents/Induction_Pack/MKUKUTA_FINAL.pdf

30 http://hdptz.esealtd.com/index.php?id=4.


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responsible for allocating the annual financial ceilings,approving the plans, and releasing the resources on aregular basis to the health sector.

Between 2002 and 2007, the basket fund has channelledapproximately USD $234 million in support of the healthsector, and has provided both recurrent budget support toMinistry of Health & Social Welfare headquarters as well asrecurrent grants to Local Government Authorities. The fundhas also supported day-to-day operations within the healthsector and various projects within the development budget.

Between 1999 and 2004, public expenditure in healthdoubled and the sector was decentralized. The 'basket fund'has enabled resources to be redistributed in individualdistricts, providing additional funds per person. Some ofthe improvements have included increased coverage of keychild-survival interventions, such as integratedmanagement of childhood illness, insecticide-treated nets,vitamin A supplementation against blindness, oralrehydration therapy against diarrhea, immunization, andexclusive breastfeeding.31

Experts say the reforms have worked because they’re basedon an investment in health systems, instead of specifichealth intervention projects. According to the JointExternal Evaluation of the Health Sector, 2007, “The HealthBasket Fund has played a particularly important role insupporting the meaningful implementation ofdecentralization of responsibility for health services toLocal Government Authorities.” The Evaluationrecommended that the basket fund and direct Governmentof Tanzania grants to councils for the operation of healthservices, based on a transparent resource allocationformula, should remain a feature of the sector during thenext Health Sector Strategic Plan. In 2008, theGovernment of Tanzania and Development Partnerssubsequently signed a new Memorandum of Understandingfor a Health Basket Fund.

Currently, only a handful of countries request that donorsgive funds to their general budget rather than to specific

projects. Liz Mason, director of the Department of Childand Adolescent Health and Development at the WHO, saidonly 2% of donor money to maternal and child health isgiven in this way, even though Tanzania's success hasshown that through this approach the authorities wereable to secure a much more reliable source of support.32

For more information, please contact ALAT,[email protected]

31 Other determinants of child survival that are not related to thehealth system did not change between 1999 and 2004, except for aslow increase in the HIV/AIDS burden.

32 From April 21 2008 website article “Tanzania uses health fundswell,” hc2d.co.UK,http://www.hc2d.co.uk/content.php?contentId=6442. hc2d aims toprovide a single repository of healthcare news and comment from awide range of news sources.


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Issue and Approach

In 2005, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities launchedthe Canada/Sri Lanka Municipal Cooperation Program (MCP)to support the reconstruction and rehabilitation ofcommunities affected by the 2004 tsunami. While MCPfocussed initially on strengthening municipal service deliverythat was disrupted as a result of the tsunami, it alsoidentified the need to bolster inter-governmental relationsto enhance coordination, collaboration and communicationamong local, provincial and central governments involved inreconstruction, and to help ensure that donor aid would bewell-targeted and more effective. With three localgovernment associations operating in the project area, thisproved extremely challenging, especially as there was noformal mechanism for them to communicate with each other.Recognizing the need for greater harmonization of activitiesat the local level, MCP launched a consultative process toexplore how these three associations could evolve frombeing individual forums for discussion into one organizationwith a collective strategy for strengthening the voice andinfluence of local government at the national level.

Analysis

MCP provided a platform to bring together the NationalChapter of Mayors, the Sri Lanka Pradeshiya Sabha (PS, or

rural local authority) Chairman’s Association and the UrbanCouncil Chairman’s Association to exchange informationand identify issues of common concern around which theycould build a national association to represent localgovernments’ interests and engage in policy dialogue withthe central and provincial governments. This resulted inthe creation of the Federation of Sri Lanka LocalGovernment Authorities (FSLGA), which for the first time inthe country’s history brought all three tiers of localgovernment together under one umbrella. “The localgovernment association is an important structure todiscuss common issues and concerns,” said Chairman ofthe Niyugama PS and member of the Galle District LocalLeaders Association Sampath Athukorola. “It helps us toaccess experience and knowledge from fellow members…The MCP model has been a good one because it’s not aboutwhat MCP wants to do, but about the needs of thecommunity.”

The creation of the national association was complementedby the strengthening of local groups as well, which helpedto build broad based ownership over development plansand programs. In the eastern district of Trincomalee, theLocal Government Chairman’s Association supported by MCPwas able to work across the region’s delicate ethnic andlinguistic lines. An area often caught in the middle of SriLanka’s 26-year civil war, the population is made up ofTamil and Sinhalese communities. Here, with the supportof MCP, the local leaders set an ambitious target: to gobeyond traditional party lines and build more inclusivestrategies that respond to the needs and prioritiesarticulated by the community. Destroyed by the tsunamiand still rebuilding from the destruction left behind by theconflict, local leaders agreed that if they could takepositions as one body instead of through disparate voices,it would enhance the transparency and accountability ofthe decision-making process which would give themgreater legitimacy and influence in dealing with policymakers at the national level. This was a particularlyattractive feature for the smaller, more rural localauthorities with less power and resources.

“We were challenging the notion that when one Chairmansays something that it’s a party position, when normallyit’s not,” said Adam Bawa Thawfeek, Vice Secretary of theAssociation and Chairman of PS Kuchcheveli. “With theAssociation, it’s our common view. Now when we deal withother levels of government they can’t dismiss it as being aparty issue.” Association Vice President and Chairman of PSPadavi-Sripura, MG Thilakaratne agrees: “We want to tell

3 The Establishment ofthe Federation of SriLankan LocalGovernment AuthoritiesPrepared by the Federation of CanadianMunicipalities (FCM) in collaboration with theFederation of Sri Lankan Local GovernmentAuthorities (2009)

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A case study of Aid Effective Programming in the LocalGovernment SectorThis case study illustrates how programming that supportedthe establishment of a national local governmentassociation in Sri Lanka has resulted in improvedcoordination of local governance interventions and hasenabled local governments and their communities to exerta greater voice and ownership over their own development.


the public that we’re not about our language or religion: atthe end of the day it’s that we want to support ourcommunities. As an Association we can have a strongervoice.” Already the Association has advocated for and wonseats on the District Development Council after years oftrying to have the Council recognize the importance oflocal governments in the planning and implementation ofdevelopment policies and programs.

Results and Lessons Learned

The FSLGA is possibly the only truly national forum in SriLanka that has brought local government voices together.There was historically very little eastern (or northern)participation in the associations, mainly due to languagebarriers (primarily Sinhala and Tamil, with Sinhala beingthe most widely spoken in the country). Through itsinclusive governance structures, the FSLGA hasmembership from every province in the country, includingthe north. The Ministry of Local Government Affairs nowseeks FSLGA’s assistance in selecting representatives to siton the national committees established for localgovernment policy reforms, and the FSLGA is the soleassociation attending monthly coordination meetings atthe Ministry of Local Government Affairs and ProvincialCouncils.

The FLSGA has also become a key focal point forcoordination of aid in the local government sector in SriLanka, and serves as a hub of knowledge on localgovernance issues in Sri Lanka, housing and distributing arange of information and knowledge products. Since itsestablishment in 2007, the FSLGA has been approached byseveral organizations to partner on local governancestrengthening in Sri Lanka:

• the Commonwealth Local Government Forum andUnited Nations-Habitat approached FSLGA to organizeworkshops and study visits to local authorities,recognizing that it was the best network to reachlocal authorities across the country;

• LirnAsia, a regional based organization supporting theestablishment of regional solid waste managementtraining centers and development of curriculum forsolid waste management workers, identified FSLGA asthe coordinating unit of local government in SriLanka. FSLGA will help identify local governmentinnovations in solid waste management in Sri Lankaand will support national level knowledge sharing onthe initiative;

• FSLGA is providing information and networkingsupport to a professional women’s volunteer groupwhose goal is to increase women’s representation inlocal government in 2010; and

• VNG (the Association of Netherlands Municipalities)partnered with FSLGA to establish a young councillorsnational platform (launched in May 2009), for whichFSLGA maintains a database.

As the above examples attest, FSLGA has become a keyactor in reforming and strengthening the local governmentsector in Sri Lanka, and will likely play a leading role inensuring that local government service provision andimproved governance is on the agendas of provincial andcentral governments, and international assistance directedtowards the country.

For more information about FCM's post-tsunami programmingin Sri Lanka (2005-2009), please contact FCM [email protected]

For more information about the Federation of Sri LankanLocal Government Authorities, please contact FSLGA [email protected]

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Background

The Cotonou Agreement, signed between the AfricanCaribbean Pacific (ACP) states and the European Union in2005, provides a framework for international cooperationbetween the parties. The European Development Fund(EDF) is the financial instrument of ACP-EU cooperationwithin the Cotonou Agreement framework. Each EDF coversa period of 5 or 6 years. The 10th EDF was underpreparation until the end 2007 and will cover the 2008-2013 period. The preparation process started with theprogramming phase, in the course of 2006 and early 2007,which consisted of defining the strategies and programmesof ACP-EU cooperation in each ACP country. Theprogramming phase is followed by the formulation,implementation and evaluation phases.

The revised text in the Cotonou Agreement clearly recogniseslocal governments as key actors of development that shouldparticipate in all aspects of development cooperation, i.e.programming, formulation, implementation and evaluation ofthe ACP-EU cooperation programmes and policies.

Issue

The ACP Local Government Platform (ACPLGP) is an umbrellaorganisation established in 2001 by mayors and

representatives of existing local government associationsacross the ACP countries. Its mission is to promote ACPlocal government’s role in the cooperation strategies andprogrammes supported under the Cotonou Agreement. ThePlatform plays three major roles for its members:representation and advocacy; information and networkservices; and technical support. Through its quarterlynewsletter the Platform keeps ACP local governmentsinformed of the evolution of the 10th EDF exercise and ofany other opportunities for participation under other EUinstruments.

In early 2006, at the beginning of the 10th EDF programmingexercise, the ACP Local Government Platform (ACPLGP)advised ACP local governments to establish contacts withthe National Authorising Officer (NAO) and the Delegationof the European Commission (EC) of their country in orderto participate in the dialogue taking place in each ACPcountry, regarding the strategies and programmes of ACP-EUcooperation under the 10th EDF (2008-2013).

Following this Platform instruction, the Local GovernmentAssociation of Zambia (LGAZ) sent a first letter to the NAOinforming of their desire to participate in the programmingprocess. They received a negative response explaining thatdespite the recognition of local governments as importantactors in development, there existed no provision for themin the EDF.

LGAZ informed the ACP LG Platform about thesedevelopments. In its supporting role, the Platform contactedthe EC headquarters (DG-Development and EuropeAid) andthe ACP Secretariat, and took issue with the fact thatalthough local governments are encouraged to be involvedin the cooperation process, in practice they were beingexcluded from the process. The Platform then requested thatthe official parties instruct the NAOs/EC Delegations on thenew provisions for local governments and send a strongpolitical signal to the latter to change the situation.

The Zambian case rapidly became “the ACP LG case” andserved as an example to other national associations of localgovernments to encourage them to undertake similarinitiatives. While the Platform was dealing with the ACP-EUinstitution headquarters, the LGAZ sent a formal letter tothe EC Delegation.

The fruit of the Platform’s and LGAZ’s efforts came a fewweeks later when the LGAZ was formally invited by the ECDelegation to a first meeting with high level

4 The Local GovernmentAssociation of Zambia’sparticipationin the 10th EuropeanDevelopment FundProgrammingPrepared by the ACP Platform, September 2007

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This case study illustrates the important role that anational local government association can play in ensuringthat local level development priorities are incorporatedinto, and aligned with, country level developmentprogramming. It also highlights the essential support andcoordinating role that regional local government networksplay in ensuring that local governments accessdevelopment funding and opportunities.


representatives of the NAO and the Delegation. Variouspoints were agreed upon during the meeting, of which themost important were: i) LGAZ will be involved in all futuremeetings of the 10th EDF programming; ii) considerationwill be given to extending EDF support to localgovernments through the focal areas relating to districtinfrastructure and through the non focal sectors-agriculture and food security; iii) consideration will also begiven to support selected urban local governments withrespect to appropriate planning and upgrading of roadinfrastructure; iv) the EC will support good governance andin particular decentralisation and lastly, v) both partiesagreed that the LGAZ will be supported in lobbying forincreased allocation of budget resources to localgovernment funds out of EU direct budget support.

Results and Lessons Learned

The LGAZ is now fully involved in all meetings related tothe 10th EDF exercise. Its comments on the CountryStrategy Paper have been taken into account in thefinalisation of the document, and provisions have beenmade for local government priorities that are aligned withthe strategy. Recently the LGAZ has been invited toanother meeting with the Delegation to discuss possiblespecific areas of assistance they could benefit from in thedecentralisation implementation process.

The LGAZ case has served as stimulus to other ACP LGnational associations, which contacted the Platform inorder to receive similar support. Some of them havestarted the process and are making progress in achievingsimilar results. For those national local governmentassociations wishing to be involved in the ACP-ECcooperation processes, it is never too late to enter intocontact with their respective NAO/Delegation.33

For more information, please contact the ACP Platform atwww.acplgp.net, [email protected]

33 Useful information per country is available at http://www.acp-programming.eu/wcm/index.php?option=com_content&task=section&id=24&Itemid=177

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5 Coordination andcomplementarities:Spain Uses Key Tools andProgrammes to AchieveMore Effective AidPrepared by the Spanish Federation ofMunicipalities and Provinces (FEMP), September2009

Background

Development cooperation of Spanish local authorities is aphenomenon characterized by a remarkable dynamism, due

not only to the volume of funds, but also to the highnumber of interventions (mainly supported by the localbudget). In the 1980s, public local decentralizedcooperation was born through the creation of stablesolidarity links of Spanish City and Provincial Councils(Ayuntamientos and Diputaciones) with municipalities fromthe South (sometimes through twinning). In the 1990s,decentralized cooperation increased through cooperationwith civil society, represented by NGOs. It was at this time,when an important number of City Councils answered theNGOs’ demand to commit to allocating 0.7% of their ownbudget to cooperation actions.

Spanish development cooperation therefore disposes of alarge experience in supporting the processes of capacitybuilding of local governments from the South; City andProvincial Councils have developed many programmes inwhich they have shared their experience and specificknowledge of the last 30 years in promoting localautonomy. In Latin America in particular, there is a verypositive influence of local cooperation on thedecentralization processes, the strengthening of localadministrations and the support to managing the powersand responsibilities that correspond to the local level. Thisis one of FEMP´s cooperation aims: to promote theinvolvement of local governments.

Representing Spanish local authorities, the SpanishFederation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) soonreceived demands from the City Councils involved indevelopment cooperation and, as early as 1989, celebratedits first meeting on local development cooperation. Duringthe 1990s, FEMP strengthened its work as a space fordebate and representation of local solidarity and in 1999created the Committee on Development Cooperation(composed of 25 local authorities). Among the objectivesof this Committee the promotion of informationcoordination, the elaboration of analysis and studiesabout the focal areas of local aid, and the encouragementof harmonization to reach more effective aid, should behighlighted.

In the same decade, in the framework of variousagreements with the Spanish Agency for InternationalDevelopment Cooperation (in Spanish: AECID34), FEMPdeveloped data collection systems which allowed FEMP toprovide information on local ODA, as well as to analyzethe focus areas of local solidarity. This work stream wasreinforced from 2005 with the signature of a specificagreement between MAEC and FEMP “in favour of

The principle of harmonization addressed in the ParisDeclaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005) states that in orderto improve the coherence and therefore the effectiveness ofdevelopment policies, it is necessary for the stakeholdersinvolved to work in a more coordinated way. Suchcoordination concerns both stakeholders from donor countriesand stakeholders from partner countries and it requires,above all, the sharing of information and knowledge toachieve complementarity and to avoid duplication of tasks.

Being aware that the plurality of cooperation stakeholders(a distinctive characteristic of the Spanish ODA) requires areal joint effort, the Spanish Federation of Municipalitiesand Provinces (in Spanish: FEMP) maintains an agreementwith the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs andCooperation (in Spanish: MAEC). The aim of the agreementis i) to reinforce the cooperation structures of localauthorities, and ii) to improve the mechanisms of sharedinformation, as well as iii) to develop joint programmeswith the Spanish public administrations involved indevelopment cooperation –like the new Municipiaprogramme– to achieve practical results in terms ofcoordination, ownership and alignment. From datacollection of the local ODA (a key element in coordination),cooperation at multiple levels and, ultimately, policiescoordination and field action are made possible.

34 AECID is the management organ of Spanish internationalcooperation policy and it is attached to the Ministry of ForeignAffairs and Cooperation through the State Secretary forInternational Cooperation (SECI).

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strengthening the structures for cooperation of localauthorities and the mechanisms of mutual information”.

At the same time, due to the high number of cooperationinitiatives to strengthen local administrations, it becamenecessary to articulate innovative formulas for greater aideffectiveness on Spanish state level, in line with the aideffectiveness principles. So that, with the aim ofpromoting, coordinating and facilitating the efforts of theSpanish cooperation in this field, the Spanish centralgovernment and local authorities agreed in 2007 to launchthe Municipia programme. AECID, the Ministry of PublicAdministrations (in Spanish: MAP), the FEMP and theConfederation of Cooperation and Solidarity Funds (inSpanish: CONFOCOS)35 are part of this programme.

According to the constitutive declaration of theprogramme, “Municipia is an initiative to coordinate theefforts of different stakeholders of Spanish cooperation inorder to encourage and strengthen the local world andthe municipal processes in every country wherecooperation is being carried out”. The programme aims atcreating space for shared action that allows publicSpanish cooperation stakeholders (both central anddecentralized) to set up a municipal cooperation projectin developing countries.

Both the data collection agreement and the Municipiainitiative demonstrate important steps forward in aligningwith the Paris Declaration principles; achieving realcoordination, more information sharing and knowledgeexchange among local public administrations, as well as abetter link between these efforts and the state levelcooperation.

Approach

i) Data collection resultsAs a result of the agreement with MAEC, FEMP collects theinformation concerning local authorities´ ODA on an annualbasis. Among the results of this collection, the followingcan be emphasized:

• Data of the local ODA: Local cooperation isappropriately illustrated in the planning and

evaluation documents of the Spanish cooperation andin the information sent to the Committee onDevelopment Cooperation. According to the latestdata, the ODA of Spanish local authorities in 2008reached the amount of 148 million Euros.

• Study on local cooperation: The reports prepared byFEMP which analyze the data of the collectedinformation provide a description of the maincharacteristics of local government developmentcooperation (targeted sectors, partner countries,management modalities, etc.). In accordance with the2007 information, 19% of the funds were dedicated tointerventions in Education, 16% to Health andreproductive health, 15% to Government and civilsociety and 7% to Water and drainage. Geographicallyspeaking, 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 fivemain receiving countries.

• On-line platform: From the collected information, FEMPdeveloped an on-line application that aims at being akey space to favour local aid coordination. In thisplatform, which will be available during the fall of2009, information can be found on more than 15,000contributions from Spanish local authorities tocooperation projects (information from 2005-2008).Therefore the platform works as an organizedcatalogue of projects and allows local publicadministrations to contact one another to exchangeinformation, complement activities and developinitiatives of mutual interest. The platform givesvisibility to the local ODA and stands as aninformation reference for the entirety of thecooperation stakeholders.

• Network: As a transversal result, the informationsharing enables the exchange of knowledge andcooperation initiatives and it facilitates thedevelopment of common action strategies andcomplementary activities.

ii) Municipia programme in relation with the ParisDeclaration principles

The main guidelines for the Municipia´s projects aredirectly linked to the principles of the Paris Declaration onaid effectiveness and, in particular, to the principles ofownership and alignment. The programme supports projectsthat strengthen decentralization processes that focus oncapacity development of local public administrations toimprove basic local service delivery. The methodology used

35 CONFOCOS is the entity that gathers part of the Local Funds forCooperation, which themselves reunite City Councils and otherentities with the aim of creating an economic fund contribution tothe development of developing countries.

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is directly related to the principles of mutualaccountability and managing for results. Hence, amongstthe steps taken so far, the following points are worthmentioning:

• Debate and coordination in the donor country. Variousmeetings have been held in order to compileexperiences and to define common priorities betweenlocal authorities and the central government regardinginternational cooperation.

• Diagnostic work and field planning with local partners.Regional and/or national meetings have taken place,with the participation of stakeholders, local partnersand the Spanish cooperation agency, about theworking method. These meetings try to bring about afluid dialogue between the Spanish publicadministrations and the local ones in order toappropriately focus the aid destined to localgovernment capacity building. The criteria ofalignment and ownership articulate this diagnosticwork and planning.

• Development of projects within a joint action strategy.Once the action strategy of projects is defined andagreed upon by the local partners, the latter are theones who take the lead in the implementation of thefunded interventions.

The programme focuses specifically on the local sphere,but offers a double level of extensive reach (which can beextrapolated): i) it favours the development of a jointstrategy of Spanish public administrations active in thisfield; ii) it sets out a policy exchange with partnercountries which should channel the aid destined to localgovernance.

Levels of coordination and harmonization

The data collection and the programme Municipia showthat coordinating information is crucial for buildingbroader coordination. This is why it is necessary todistinguish the distinct stages of coordination:

• Information coordination, as a basic tool to define theorientation of aid, avoiding repetitions and adoptingpotential agreements of common action.

• Coordination of tools through harmonization of criteria,as a mechanism to optimize procedures of concessionand management of aid as well as of follow-up ofprojects and actions.

• Policy coordination, as a space for debate and

definition of strategies in favour of complementaritiesof the interventions.

• Action coordination, as a working method to fosterefficient field collaboration between developmentcooperation stakeholders and mutual reinforcement oftheir specific roles.

Conclusion

Coordination can be understood as a complex process thatmakes progress towards harmonization in terms of thedesign of programmes, and therefore towards aideffectiveness, possible. The Municipia programmedemonstrates the possibility of better policy coordinationof the Spanish cooperation initiatives destined to the localgovernance sector.

Among the lessons learnt as a result of the data collectiontools and the programme, the following can be underlined:

• Coordination processes, when aiming at achievingpractical and comparable results, are complex andrequire the forecast of adequate resources.

• Respecting the singularity of each and every one ofthe stakeholders and of the specific role they maydevelop is a key factor for coordination processes tofavour the enrichment of the collective action.

• In no case should harmonization of interventions leadto a homogenization of methods nor to a uniformityof contents. It is necessary to safeguard the pluralityof stakeholders.

• It is essential to provide stakeholders with usefultools that give proof of the benefits of workingjointly.

It is still premature to evaluate the results of the Municipiaprogramme in the field, but a notable improvement can befound in the communication and dialogue channels of thevarious actors.

For more information, please contact [email protected]

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6 Harmonization of effortsto enlarge local tax baseand improve municipalservice delivery in GhanaPrepared by VNG International, the InternationalCooperation Agency of the Association ofNetherlands Municipalities (VNG), September 2009

Issue and approach

Waste collection is one of the main issues and duties ofDistrict Assemblies in Ghana. Large parts of the budgetare dedicated to refuse removal. Despite the many donorprojects over many years, collecting waste is still astruggle for the Districts. The silent witnesses of thedonor interventions can be seen in the wastemanagement departments of the Districts: abandoned,rusty trucks without tires, motor blocks and otheressential parts. For the Districts the situation is veryclear: equipment is not the main concern, budget tomake the system of refuse collection operational, day inand day out, that is the actual challenge. A steadyincome is needed to run the system and to besustainable.

For this reason, the Districts involved and the associationof local governments in Ghana, NALAG, decided in 2004to work towards the introduction of fee collection forrefuse removal. Payment for waste collection is a systemin itself that is sustainable when run properly. The localgovernment partners in the Netherlands were part of thedecision making process to prioritize this issue in theirdecentralized cooperation with Ghana.

Four District Assemblies in Ghana have a longstandingrelation with four local governments in the Netherlands.Since 2005 they have all targeted one issue: to implementa district database system (DDS) allowing the districts toinstall fee collection, and revenue raising mechanisms forthe refuse removal implemented by the Districts. Streetmapping and street naming and sensitization of the publicare essential steps before a fee collection system can runeffectively. In this regard harmonization of efforts of GTZ,the local governments involved and VNG International tookplace.

Within the capacity development program LOGO South ofVNG International, the project related to the introductionof a fee collection system for refuse removal began in2005 and will run until 2011. The general purpose of LOGOSouth is to strengthen local governments in developingcountries and their enabling institutions, which includelocal government associations, training institutions forlocal government, but also national ministries of localgovernment and trade unions for local governmentemployees. The capacity development approachdistinguishes three levels: the individual level, theinstitutional level and the system level. At the first levellocal government officials and politicians are addressed.The institutional level targets a local governmentdepartment or a full council. The system level includes alllocal governments, but also local government associations,a ministry for local government, training institutions forlocal government etc.

It is obvious that a fee collection system will not workwithout proper preparation. Waste management plansshould be in place in District Assemblies. Informationshould be available where people live and what amount ofrefuse can be expected, mapping of the areas to be servedneeds to be finalised, and last but not least, the publicshould be sensitized on the issue of payment of fee for thecollection of waste. Four Districts in Ghana are involved inthis process: Kumasi Municipal Assembly, Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem District Assembly, Kadjebi District Assemblyand Twifo Hemang Lower Denkyira District Assembly. Theyare – for many years already– twinned to the Dutch localgovernments Almere, Gouda, Kaag en Braassem andWormerland respectively and financially supported by VNGInternational.

In the implementation of the fee collection system, theinstallation of a District Database System is essential toensure the success of the fee collection. The Germandevelopment organization GTZ supports a project to installthe Database System throughout Ghana. In closecooperation with NALAG, VNG International and the fourDistricts involved, the District Data System is in theprocess of installation in an earlier stage than planned.There has been regular exchange and discussions betweenthe four participating Districts, NALAG and representativesat the National level on service provision and revenueraising mechanisms by Districts. It has proved to be afruitful cooperation between Donors and participatingDistricts, including the local government associationNALAG.

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Analysis

The harmonization of the GTZ support to the DistrictDatabase System and the capacity development programfor the introduction of a fee collection system met eachother by putting time schedules together. The DistrictDatabase System could profit from the capacitydevelopment program because the system was put inpractice immediately. The capacity development programgained from the District Database System becausestructured information could be made available. Althoughthe harmonization of donor efforts went very well, moresteps need to be taken before a fee collection system canbe operational. As said before, first of all, a wastemanagement plan is needed. Three of the participatingAssemblies have Waste Management Plans but the fee-based collection systems are not in operation. Thechallenge is to make waste management sustainable byintroducing a fee collection system in the districts tomaintain the collection. A good start has been made bydesigning the basics for the District Database System andby creating awareness of the broader public about theneed to pay for the services received. Sensitizationtrainings have taken place for politicians and local staff ofthe four districts, though more awareness needs to beraised to cover a larger community, including members ofthe urban/town councils, unit committees, chiefs andopinion leaders, market women and other stakeholders.These sensitization trainings will focus on theimplementation of the District Database System in thecoming years.

As the work progresses it is becoming clear that there aremany obstacles to be overcome as it is a new system toGhana which makes it necessary to provide additionaltraining to the municipalities on the details of the system.But above all the introduction of a fee collection systemneeds political courage. This needs attention too.

Results and lessons learned

Three of the participating Assemblies have WasteManagement Plans in place. Procedures, checks andbalances as well as job descriptions are in place at thelocal level to make an effective functioning of the wastemanagement and fee collection. Assemblies are alsopassing by-laws to make it unattractive for people todefault in the payment of fees. Street mapping and streetnaming as a result of this, is taking place. Awarenessraising is still in progress, but the fee collection is not in

operation yet. More time is needed– to reach the resultdesired– and this is available; the program comes to anend by 2011. Nevertheless, by now NALAG already hasgained further knowledge on waste management practices,fee collection, and revenue raising mechanisms and sharesthem with other Districts. It is envisioned the results andlessons learned will be disseminated to all DistrictsAssemblies in Ghana; a role that will be taken up byNALAG.

For more information, please contact VNG International,[email protected]

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7 Alignment in strategiesfor housing developmentin South AfricaPrepared by VNG International, the InternationalCooperation Agency of the Association ofNetherlands Municipalities (VNG), September 2009

Issue

The housing back log in South Africa is very high and everincreasing. Over ten years the national government targetsto build millions of houses in towns and cities. Socialhousing policy is one of the several strategies that arebeing developed. The aim is that 10% of the housingmarket will be covered by social housing. Although homeownership is very common and desired by those who donot own a house, there is a need for rental houses that areaffordable. Social Housing institutions rent houses out andtake care of the maintenance on a non-profit basis. Inurbanized areas in particular there is a need for rentalhouses to be occupied for some years by renters. Therenting of the housing units acts as a tool for local area

This case study illustrates how the VNG Internationalprogramme LOGO South has served to align local leveldevelopment programming related to housing with nationalhousing development strategies in South Africa.

As part of the housing development strategy of the SouthAfrican government, social housing was one of the areasthat needed attention. Social housing is a new concept inthe South African context, but far from new in theNetherlands. It is a form of rental housing in which theowner of the houses is a not for profit organization.Through VNG’s LOGO South Programme, eight different citytwinnings are addressing the issue of social housing inprojects that started in 2005/2006 and will end by 2011.As a first step, the projects aim to elaborate a draft oflocal housing strategies and policies. Support is also givento Social Housing Institutions that play a pivotal role inthe South African social housing strategy. Since theprojects started, new legislation has been drafted andadopted, local housing policies have been adopted by localcouncils and practical implementation will take place inthe coming years.

improvement and for regeneration of inner city areas. Thehousing stock is principally made up of converted flats andin-fill developments.

The concept of rental or social housing is very new toSouth Africa. Renting is not common and the experienceswith rental housing are mostly negative. The willingness topay rent is very low. In this challenging context eight localgovernments in South Africa worked together with theircounterpart local governments in the Netherlands to makethis concept work in practice. At the national level theSouth African Local Government Association (SALGA) workstogether with VNG International, the internationalcooperation agency of the Association of NetherlandsMunicipalities (VNG).

A very practical toolkit on Social Housing Policy wasdeveloped by SALGA with assistance of VNG International.The first edition was presented in 2005 and in 2007 asecond edition was required due to the significantlychanged policy context. The toolkit provides the localgovernments in South Africa with a very practical outlineon how to set up a local social housing policy, how tomake a needs analysis and how to identify thestakeholders.

Approach

The eight local governments involved in South Africa andthe Netherlands made use of the capacity developmentprogramme LOGO South. The purpose of this programme isto strengthen not only local governments but also what iscalled the local government sector that includes localgovernment associations (SALGA), as well as nationalministries involved (the National Department of HumanSettlements) and other institutions (Social HousingInstitutions at the local level and the national body calledSocial Housing Institution). In the LOGO South programme,capacity development is addressed at three levels(individual, institutional and system level) by determiningone main issue that shapes the framework for several cityto city cooperations. For South Africa this issue is social orrental housing. The decision to take up this topic wasdefined in a participative manner by all involved localgovernments in South Africa and the Netherlands in 2004,including also national based organisations like SALGA.During the implementation, this theme focus allowsexchanges of experiences among the stakeholders involvedand dissemination of results to others. Several times ayear, meetings of the South African local governments are

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planned, as is the case in the Netherlands. Commonchallenges are addressed at a national level, for instancehow to set up a housing institution as a public limitedcompany, which is called a municipal entity in SouthAfrica. A major challenge arose in the lack of power thatwas felt at the local level. In 2009, SALGA developed aposition paper to advocate for the transfer of more powersto local governments in housing policy.

The eight projects dealing with social housing developmentin South Africa all fit into the national strategy in SouthAfrica in trying to overcome the huge housing back log. Atthe local level experiences started with the implementationof the national policy. The toolkit for social housing playedan important role in addressing the issue and to guidelocal governments in policy making. LOGO South made itpossible that over 50 experts from the Netherlandscontributed to the capacity development of theircolleagues in South African cities. Exchanges took placebetween the local governments involved in both countriesto make the contribution to capacity development moreeffective. The national framework and legislation wasconsidered incomplete by the local governments in SouthAfrica and the national association SALGA.

A concrete example

The position paper SALGA produced was based on theexperiences of local governments on the ground. Thefollowing example of one of the eight local governmentprojects provides insight into the results and lessonslearned from the programme.

The local governments of Govan Mbeki Municipality inSouth Africa and the municipality of Vlissingen in theNetherlands have a twinning relation since 2000. Animportant part of the relationship is the LOGO Southproject ‘Increase of living environment and spatialplanning’ that targets structured plans for different partsof the Govan Mbeki Municipality, reconverting hosteldwelling in upgraded family units and the establishment ofa Social Housing Institution that delivers and maintainshouses. Starting in 2005, –a year before the actual projectstarted– in an open discussion on motives and objectives,a joint analysis of the local housing situation was realized.A clear strategy was discussed before talks on cooperationin the framework of the project started. The definedpurpose and results were shared by both parties. Everystep in the implementation has been taken together. Everyvisit of Vlissingen to Govan Mbeki Municipality or vice

versa is based on a Terms of Reference that had an inputfrom both sides. Reviews of the previous visit take place atthe beginning of the next visit. Reports are being written– and eventually these are being discussed. Reviews of theimplementation are held once a year; a list of attentionpoints to be addressed is drafted afterwards.

The outcome is that a structured plan has been developedwith support of staff from Vlissingen. Staff of the GovanMbeki Municipality is now able to draft spatial plansindependently. A housing institution was set up – againwith support of Vlissingen. Hostel dwellings wereconverted and upgraded into family units. Over onehundred houses are being built in 2009 for high and lowincome groups. Through a process of cross subsidizing, thehigh income groups pay indirectly for the low rent of thelow income groups.

Conclusion

Not all projects have been comparably successful. Somefailed even, notwithstanding the efforts that were made atboth sides. External factors have had a negative influence.For example, staff turnover is a major challenge for localgovernments in South Africa and have meant that capacitydevelopment efforts have not been successful in somecases. In addition, political support for social housingdevelopments is very much needed, but not alwayspresent.

Out of this practical experience and the experiences ofother local governments SALGA drafted its position paper,because the national framework and legislation wasconsidered incomplete. SALGA’s contributions to thenational strategy were made to give shape to the policyand change it. In this way the circle becomes closedagain: starting from the national strategy, through thelocal government experience, and based on that back to acontribution to the necessary change of the nationalstrategy. The local level interventions and technicalassistance provided have been an important factor in thedevelopment of a relevant and appropriate nationalstrategy, and the role of local government has becomemore prominent and will continue to be so in the future.

For more information, please contact VNG International,[email protected]

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8 Carbon CompensationScheme with locallydesigned, owned andmanaged projectsPrepared by the Local Government Association(LGA) and the Lancashire County Council,September 2009

Background

Connections were established between the LancashireCounty Council, UK and Gulu Municipal Council, Ugandafifteen years ago, when they began cooperating on LocalAgenda 2136 issues. In 1997, the Councils devolvedresponsibility to two community-based charities (theLancashire-Gulu LA21 Link, and the Gulu Link Association),which represent a wide range of community interests. Both

Local and regional governments face increasing risks,brought about by the effects of climate change. Disasterrisk management, energy efficiency incentives and urbanadaptation measures feature among the responses thatcities big and small, from the North and the South, willneed to plan for. There is increasing evidence that well-designed and well-governed cities can lead the way in theimplementation of climate strategies, including mitigationand adaptation efforts. Climate change strategies willneed to take into account development needs and turndeveloping country mitigation actions into something thatboth serves and boosts their long-term economicdevelopment goals. Local action will be instrumental toachieving concrete results.

This case study illustrates how decentralized cooperation isproducing positive and concrete sustainable developmentresults. A partnership between two municipalities hasbrought local governments and their communities togetherto simultaneously bolster local economic development,improve municipal service delivery and deal with localchallenges associated with climate change.

Councils have maintained their involvement as majorpartners via representation on their respective charity, andcontinue to play a key role by offering financial support,expertise, advice and facilitation.

This case study explores the results of the four partners’project Climate Change Compensation & Resilience allied toCommunity Reconstruction. The Gulu Carbon CompensationScheme is the latest, and one of the most successful “Link”collaborations, where the Links' role is to foster andsupport collaboration between groups on mutually-beneficial actions that will further advance sustainabledevelopment in Gulu and Lancashire. To encourage this,both Links engage with local people and organizations,raise resources, offer advice, provide training, and organizeexchange visits that will facilitate small-scale projects, self-help, the exchange of ideas, the sharing of experiences,and the raising of awareness about the common interest weall have in working together for a more sustainable future.Previous collaborations have included projects betweenschools, groups of disadvantaged youths, elderly people,technical experts and community artists.

Project Aims: the Gulu Carbon Compensation Scheme

The Climate Compensation Scheme (CCS) was set up in2008 as a four-way partnership between the two Links andthe two Councils. At its core is the premise thatLancastrians can compensate for some of their carbonemissions by helping those most affected to deal betterwith the consequences of climate change. Lancashire doesthis by supporting practical, small-scale, locally-determined and managed projects in Gulu, Uganda thatwill make it easier for local residents to deal with climatechange. Added value accrues from designing projects thatbring wider social, economic and environmental benefits.

Climate change is having a big impact on Northern Uganda.The CCS comprises a set of projects drawn up through aconsultative and participatory process, and designed toassist people in Gulu district adapt to and mitigate thefuture impacts of climate change. These projects also bringconsiderable added value and benefits in terms of improvingthe environment, boosting the economy and increasingopportunities for social cohesion at a time when Guludistrict is emerging from two decades of armed conflicts.

Funding

To get the Scheme started, Lancashire County Council has

36 Agenda 21 is a comprehensive blueprint of action to be takenglobally, nationally and locally by organizations of the UN,governments, and major groups in every area in which humansimpact on the environment.

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provided £47,000, spread over three years, as part of itsClimate Change Programme37, which is transferred to adedicated CCS account managed by Gulu Municipal Council.With low administrative costs, most of the budget is spentdirectly on projects.

Other Support

Other support comes in-kind from Scheme partners. GuluMunicipal council provides a dedicated Environment Officerto oversee the management of the Scheme. The councilinvolves local groups and schools and applies lessonslearned to other council services. Gulu Link members areresponsible for choosing and carrying out the projects, aswell as promoting to the wider community.

In Lancashire, the council also provides technical adviceon climate change issues and, like Gulu, promotes theScheme in schools. They are also looking at applying othercouncil skills to develop the Scheme. Lancashire Linkprovides voluntary project and annual monitoring supportto Gulu. The Lancashire partners jointly promote theScheme around Lancashire and the UK and are currentlyexploring opportunities for raising extra money to placethe CCS on a longer-term footing.

The Project

The CCS was launched in Preston (Lancashire, UnitedKingdom), in June 2008, when all four partners signed aPartnership Agreement. The delegation from Gulu thenundertook a study programme, which included visits acrossLancashire to recycling companies, charities, bee-keepinggroups, a bio-diesel manufacturer, wetlands, youth groups,schools, forestry sites, agricultural colleges, cultural andcommunity groups and the County Council.

There are six projects in the initial phase. All developed indiscussion with local people to ensure that each projectmeets CCS criteria, as well as local needs and priorities.Each also fosters community participation and helps localgroups to work together for mutual benefit.

1. Integrated Wetland Conservation and ManagementGulu’s four major wetlands are important for regulatingwater supplies, biodiversity, and environmental goods, like

fish, papyrus and brick-making clay. They are, however,largely unmanaged and unprotected. The introduction of acommunity wetland management system aims to preventfloods; combat drought; conserve water supply; improvefood security; prevent malnutrition; raise incomes; preservehabitats and endangered species; increase above-groundbiomass and carbon storage capacity.

2. Bio-diesel ProductionJatropha curcas grows abundantly in the wild. Generallyregarded as a weed, it is often uprooted and burnt,causing deforestation. This project explores the potentialfor small-scale enterprises to convert Jatropha seeds intobio-diesel for powering electricity generators and agro-processing machinery in an area where only 6% ofhouseholds have access to electricity. In addition, theproject helps to maintain vegetation cover to prevent soilerosion and landslides; prevent desertification bypreserving the forest canopy; increase carbon absorption;protect biodiversity, because Jatropha will become avalued raw material; increase household incomes andemployment and raise environmental awareness.

3. Smallholder Timber PlantationsLocally produced timber is a vital resource for building,fuel and other industry. Tree planting also brings benefitssuch as increased carbon storage; shelter from wind andshade for people, livestock and other crops; wildlifehabitats and forage for bees; improvement of thetraditional landscapes; control and prevention of winderosion. A minimum of 100 hectares of small-holder timberplantations will be planted a year, growing high-value,indigenous, endangered species like mahogany, teak,umbrella and shea butter trees. Activities include: free treeseedlings for schools, farmers and community groups;technical support for those who wish to establishplantations; training in agro-forestry practices & plantationmanagement; and raising awareness about the environmentand climate change.

4. Integrated Bee Keeping Honey is a locally valuable source of naturally occurringfood and raw material. This project aims to improve thelivelihoods of local communities by promoting modernbeekeeping practices as a viable conservation businessenterprise. This will generate income while ensuring thesustainable use of the natural forest ecosystem, whichregenerated during the civil war. This project will helpcommunities ensure food security, currently threatened bythe extinction of pollinator species due to climate change.

37 Lancashire’s CCCP is a £multi-million action programme to reduceemissions in the County at source. The Council sees the CCS as asmall recognition of the wider implications of these emissions.

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5. Agro-Forestry and Organic FarmingNearly all of the food and timber crops grown in Gulu areconsumed or used locally. Climate change threatenstraditional farming techniques, upon which people’slivelihoods depend. Farmers are helped to boost timber andfood production through affordable organic farmingtechniques, including the use of organic manure & naturalpesticides to protect crops from new pests resulting fromclimate change.

The project will improve crop vigour and pest resistance;raise soil carbon content; increase carbon storage; spreadawareness of how organic farming helps to conserve soiland water; increase community involvement; improvenutrition and public health; improve food security; andenhance rural livelihoods.

6. Community Recycling and ReuseGulu has very basic waste management facilities. Whatlittle is collected is burned at a single site on the edge oftown. There is a considerable fly-tipping causing publichealth and pollution hazard. The project is part of a largerCouncil effort to introduce a waste management system,based on collecting and sorting domestic and businesswaste at source. This includes: sensitizing communities onwaste sorting, maintaining hygiene and preventingpollution; training community groups to recycle plasticwaste into saleable products like handicraft chairs andhand-made ceiling boards; recycling organic waste intocompost manure; buying waste collection vehicles;introducing bye-laws to prosecute improper waste disposal.

The project will help to lower carbon and methaneemissions created by garbage burning and landfill; preventtown-centre flooding with less waste blocking stormdrains; improve soil water retention and plant growth, tooffset increased water stress due to climate change; createcleaner public areas; improve public health and hygiene;raise community awareness about waste issues andcomposting; increase re-use and recycling; create incomefrom recycled plastic goods; increase food production andsecurity.

Working together with Community Groups

“Involving community groups brought in valuable knowledgeand reduced the workload of council officers…we also foundthat members of the public and businesses were moresupportive of the project”Derek Taylor, Lancashire-Gulu Link

The work in Lancashire was steered by a 100+ stakeholderforum of public, private and voluntary organisations. Thelink was endorsed by this forum, and Lancashire CountyCouncil took it on board as a result. In 1997, the Linkchanged from a Council-to-Council to a community-based,charitable operation which meant that clear ownership ofthe process lay with the community. However, the countycouncil has retained its involvement ever since, bynominating a Councillor to the Link's board of trustees andby providing small-scale financial and in-kind support forprojects.

Conclusion

The success of the Gulu Carbon Compensation Projectdemonstrates how great achievements can be realisedwhen municipalities and community groups work togetheron international development projects.

Local government is uniquely placed to look for, andpromote, collaborations of this kind. Its leadership bringslegitimacy and assurance to the venture, and citizens andstakeholders have confidence that their contributions aresecure. Importantly, local government can raise the profileof communities in developing countries and their needs.

The role of community groups is vital in deliveringsuccessful projects. Lancashire County Council engagedwith 2 Link groups, who provided ready-made, directaccess to the right kind of community groups for deliveringthe projects. Groups with which the council might notnormally deal, and a self-help delivery mechanism that itcouldn't, and wouldn't want to, replicate.

The project shows that relatively small amounts of moneycan generate much larger benefits when the money isspent on community owned, designed and deliveredprojects like these.

Also, Lancashire County Council and Gulu Municipal Councilobjectives have been met efficiently, and in ways thatspread awareness and raise the skills of local people.

For more information, please [email protected]

Websites: www.lancashire.gov.uk/climatechange orhttp://gulucarbonscheme.blogspot.com/

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9 Municipal partnershipbetween Herent(Flanders, Belgium) andNimlaha’kokand Nimlasa’chal(Guatemala) promoteslocal ownership ofdevelopment strategiesPrepared by the Association of Flemish Cities andMunicipalities (VVSG), September 2009

Background

Since 2002 the municipality of Herent, in the Flemishregion of Belgium, has been involved in a partnershipwith the municipality of Cobán, the largest of 15municipalities of the department (province) of AltaVerapaz in Guatemala. With 160,000 inhabitants, Cobán isdivided into six micro-regions that are legally recognisedas local entities (Municipal Codex, decree 2002). These sixmicro-regions account for 317 local communities scatteredover the territory. Access to these remote communities isnot easy due to the lack of road infrastructure andgeography of the area.

Local governments have an important role to play in socialmobilization, particularly to help poor, excluded and thediscriminated people in a process of informing andarticulating development priorities at the local andnational levels. This case-study illustrates how theinternational municipal partnership between the Belgianmunicipality of Herent and the Guatemalan Q’eqchi’ micro-regions Nimlaha’kok and Nimlasa’chal has helped tostrengthen the voice of these micro-regions in the formallocal government system that exists within the Guatemalanlegal framework, while supporting their claim forindigenous self-governance that is respectful of theircultural identity.

At the start of the collaboration, the municipal partners inGuatemala elaborated a set of criteria as pre-conditions fora good working partnership with a European municipality,in this case, Herent. An important criterion was to includework with various local communities to avoid limiting thepartnership to one single local entity. Another crucialcriterion was to support the indigenous group of Maya-Q’eqchi’s who seek recognition as a social entity and strivefor self-governance.

With these criteria in mind, Herent began collaboratingwith two of Cobán’s micro-regions: Nimlaha’kok andNimlasa’chal with 7,670 and 4,800 inhabitants,respectively. These are historically, culturally, socially andgeographically the most forgotten and isolated areas ofAlta Verapaz, and the only ones excluded from regionaldevelopmental plans implemented by national andinternational NGOs. In both micro-regions, poverty isstriking and there are problems at all levels. Children leaveprimary school at an early age to work alongside theirparents and help to support the family. Illiteracy is high;access to health care is scarce. The micro-regionsthemselves consist of 44 and 22 small local communities,respectively, that are living scattered in the hills andvalleys. They remained excluded from all developmentassistance programmes.

On the other hand, both regions possess diversity innatural resources, have strong leaders and a goodcommunity organisation. Furthermore, the Q’eqchi’ in bothregions are very aware of the strengths and richness oftheir own cultural identity. This context contributedfundamentally to Herent’s decision to concentrate its focuson both micro-regions and provides the internationalmunicipal partnership with a strong basis.

The Issue

The Government of Guatemala introduced new legislationin 2002 that aims to stimulate the participation of allcommunities – including indigenous – in local government.The legislation regulates the process of decentralization,recognizing indigenous identity and the right to preserveand strengthen indigenous forms of local authority.Combined with international agreements and declarations(i.e. Convention 169 of the International LabourOrganisation and the United Nations Declaration of theRights of the Indigenous People38), the legislation providesthe legal framework for the right of self-governance forindigenous peoples. If correctly applied, the framework will

38 This Declaration was adopted by the UN General Assembly onSeptember 13, 2007.

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eventually allow indigenous communities to directlymanage development funds earmarked to theircommunities, which take into account their own culturalidentity and traditional values.

This legislation exists alongside a local governancestructure that was developed following the 1996 PeaceAgreements in Guatemala, designed to stimulate theparticipation of local communities in municipaldevelopment plans. Through their participation inCOCODEs (Community Committees for Development, thatexist on different levels) and COMUDEs (MunicipalCommittees for Development), communities are given theopportunity to establish local priorities for communitydevelopment, voice their concerns regarding municipalplans and even participate in the consultation andbudgeting process.

In this system, each micro-region proposes coordinators ascandidates to the main municipality on the basis of anelection in the local communities. The municipality, in thiscase Cobán, appoints these candidates. Micro-regioncoordinators participate in the municipal committee(COMUDE) of the Cobán region, whose mandate is to adviseon developmental plans and budgets. The Nimlaha’kok andNimlasa’chal micro-regions have a community council ofsecond degree (COCODE of the second level). Thesecouncils consist of representatives of the coordinationteams of all the local community councils (COCODE of firstlevel). The coordination team of the second level COCODE,chaired and lead by the micro-region coordinator, takescare of the daily running of the region, of coordinationand execution of projects in line with the priorities putforward by the community council and it looks afterfinancial control.

In practice, however, the central authorities have notyet fully applied the promising possibilities of the legalframework regarding indigenous communities’ self-governance, and the micro-regions receive very littletechnical and financial support from the municipalauthority in Cobán. About 99% of the population isindigenous, namely Q’eqchi’, and they are oftenforgotten or left behind by the central municipality,which is run mainly by the Ladino population (non-indigenous population of Guatemala). In fact, theIndian elderly councils are also seeking integration inthese relatively new governance structures. In this way,their voice can be heard in the COCODE of the first andsecond level.

The Nimlaha’kok and Nimlasa’chal micro-regions requestedsupport from and collaboration with Herent in order tostrengthen their governance, local capacity and autonomy.Herent has been very positive about its provencommitment and motivation regarding the partnership andthe agreements made.

Analysis

The micro-region coordinators or community mayors needhelp identifying local needs and solutions; they coordinateprograms and projects aimed at the integral developmentof the local communities and supervise the protection anddevelopment of the natural resources within their area. Thecoordinators are assisted by the community councils. Theseare directly elected and in charge of the design anddevelopment of local plans and programs based on localpriorities. All of these plans need to be presented to thecentral municipal council in order to be integrated into themunicipal development plan for the whole area. Thisensures the link between the micro-regions and the centralmunicipal government in Cobán and the exchange ofinformation and communication. The community councilsof the micro-regions are entitled to manage technical andfinancial resources that they have received from thecentral municipal council though they can acquire financialresources on their own as well.

Initially, the partnership between Herent and the centralmunicipality of Cobán focused on several of the micro-regions as beneficiary communities, but some of thetechnical and financial support for the strengthening ofthe administrative capacities was directed through thecentral municipality of Cobán. Still, the implementation ofthe partnership agreements proved to cause unnecessarydelays and was not at all inclusive towards the micro-regions. There were no provisions made in the centralbudget for the micro-regions in spite of former and formalagreements made beforehand.

Gradually, the micro-regions started receiving financialresources from Herent to contract the necessary technicalassistance within the area directly. The ongoing process ofstrengthening the community organisation, and theadministrative and political capacities of the leaders, hasbeen strongly facilitated by the fact that the civil servantsfrom the municipality in Herent who are directly involvedin the partnership, have lived in the Q’eqchi’ region forseveral years. They fully understand the Q’eqchi’ languageand the indigenous cultural identity. This has been crucial

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in helping to translate the local demands of the indigenouscommunities in the micro-regions to the municipal realityof Herent, leading to a better understanding of theirneeds. This strong understanding and relationship betweenthe partners has helped the micro-regions develop a newform of self-governance that is based on the indigenouscultural identity and proposes an all-inclusive alternativeto the existing (more Western inspired) forms ofgovernance.

The Q’eqchi’ are using the existing legal framework topresent these new alternatives to the government. WhileHerent is now focusing on two micro-regions directly, thelink with Cobán is ongoing. The coordinators of the micro-regions act as the communication channel between theinhabitants of the micro-regions and the centralmunicipality of Cobán. Despite these efforts though, themicro-regions continue to struggle to have their needsaddressed by the larger municipality. Their first and mostimportant claim to the Cobán municipality is to return apercentage of municipal tax revenue to the micro-regionsso that they can decide where to allocate resourcesassociated with their self-defined development priorities.

The fundamental understanding of the cultural context byHerent and the claim of the indigenous reality has provenvery helpful in enabling the micro-regions to access thedevelopment funds provided by both the federal Belgianand regional Flemish government for this internationalmunicipal partnership. Within this context, programmesregarding local economic development and thestrengthening of administrative capacities have beendeveloped to support Nimlaha’kok.

Finally, in its collaboration with the two micro-regions ofNimlaha’kok and Nimlasa’chal, Herent has worked closelywith a local NGO, Adici. Due to the problems of distanceand lack of infrastructure, Herent needs to communicateon a daily basis with Adici, which acts as an interface withthe micro-regions. Adici has an excellent knowledge of thearea and its communities and has acquired expertise incapacity building, environmental policy and local economy.In former projects, Adici has also proved to be a very loyaland good partner, both to the micro-regions and themunicipality of Herent. It is very clear that the finalresponsibility of the collaboration lies with Herent and thetwo micro-regions. The tasks confined to Adici aredescribed in details in a covenant between at the onehand, Herent and the micro-regions and at the other handbetween Adici and the two micro-regions.

One of the innovative features of the technical assistanceprovided by Adici is the creation of a training commissionthat has travelled from community to community in orderto strengthen the communities’ organisation. This form ofrural and decentralized training (instead of organizing thetrainings in one central urban location) in administrativeand governance matters, has strengthened the indigenouscommunities in a way that respected their cultural identityand overcame barriers to access to training.

Conclusion

While the governance structure is quite complex andrelatively new in its set-up, the local communities of theQ’eqchi’ are now clearly represented in the micro-regions,which enables them to have a voice in the centralmunicipality. Capacity building and social mobilisation ofthese citizens via the community mayors, the coordinationteam and the community councils is vital for thesustainable development of the area. It is also crucial forthe building of self-esteem and dignity of the Q’eqchi’ andtheir recognition. These objectives are centre-stage withinthe partnership between Herent and the two micro-regions,making it an excellent example of how local ownership canlead to a people’s centred approach and to a process ofreal progress, step by step.

Ultimately, Nimlaha’kok and Nimlasa’chal are seeking asustainable and future oriented policy for environment andsocial-economic development, and are leading the waytowards greater self-governance in the Guatemalancontext. In doing so, they are setting an example forother indigenous regions in the country.

For more information, please contact VVSG,[email protected]

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10 Building Capacity of theLocal EnvironmentalAdministration inBojanala PlatinumDistrict Municipality,South AfricaPrepared by the Association of Finnish Local andRegional Authorities and the City of Lahti(Finland), September 2009

Background

The City of Lahti in Finland and Bojanala PlatinumDistrict Municipality (BPDM) in South-Africa have beencooperating for over 10 years. Since 2002, thecooperation has been a part of the North-South LocalGovernment Co-operation Programme administrated andcoordinated by the Association of Finnish Local andRegional Authorities. The funds for the Programme comefrom the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. Since2008 Lahti-BPDM co-operation has involved also theMunicipality of Hollola, Finland and five local BPDMSouth African municipalities: Kgetlengrivier, Madibeng,Moretele, Moses Kotane and Rustenburg. The main long-term development goal of this co-operation has been tostrengthen the local environmental administration, andmore precisely, the capacity building of the municipalenvironmental authorities and the development of bettersystems and practices in the administration. Promotionof sustainable development and tolerance education areother overall objectives. Technical expertise is transferredand best practices are shared between the partners.Emphasis has been put on mutual learning and reciprocalactivities. The cooperation has achieved results in thefollowing areas: developing environmental management,

This case study highlights the development effectivenessof a municipal international cooperation betweenmunicipalities in Finland and Africa. Working under amodel of peer-to-peer exchange, the partners havedeveloped mechanisms for cooperation that are based onmutual learning, mutual accountability and transparency.This approach is yielding improvements in environmentalmanagement in both North and South.

increasing awareness of inhabitants about environmentalissues including sustainable development and transferringand exchanging technical expertise.

In the beginning of the co-operation, the first prioritywas to support creating a functional environmentaladministration in Bojanala Platinum District Municipalityand then to support building its capacity. In order toachieve this, an environmental management system(EMS) was built in BPDM with feedback and support fromLahti. In South-Africa, the environmental managementsystems are required to be developed by the industries tocontrol their pollution levels. However, with theincreasing pressure to effectively manage theenvironmental challenges in the area of BojanalaPlatinum District Municipality, the development of theEMS for the district was seen as a necessary tool toassist in developing a dialogue with the surroundingindustry and to look at the internal function of eachDirectorate on how to collectively take responsibility onsaving scarce resources. Another reason for the localadministration’s activity in developing environmentalmanagement was the strategic importance of tourism forthe district. In addition to building an effective EMS,other key objectives of the co-operation have been todevelop environmental awareness and transfer technicalexpertise and best practices.

Approach

An important part of the co-operation strategy has been tobuild capacity and support the local administration to planand implement the new environmental policies. This helpsto involve the local administrators in the environmentalwork and build environmental management skills in thelocal administration. The aim is not to bring ready-madesolutions and technologies from North to South, but toencourage and facilitate the building of environmentalmanagement that is adapted to local needs. When thelocal administration is strongly involved, the effectivenessof the co-operation is considerably higher with betterlong-term results.

Due to the strategic importance placed on localmunicipal involvement, partners have emphasizedparticipatory approaches to co-operation. In the spirit ofmutual accountability, planning and monitoring progressis done together with the Northern and Southern localauthority officers or elected representatives during yearlyvisits.

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The cooperation has not only been focusing on buildingcapacity of the partners in the South. Exchange of skillsand knowledge has also flowed from South to North. Oneof the tools used to capacitate Northern partners has beena peer review through which officials from the Southernpartner municipalities have had the opportunity to analyzeand to be a “critical friend” when conducting evaluationson Lahti’s environmental administrations. It has been amutual learning experience that promotes theincorporation of new perspectives and uncovers overlookedaspects of the daily environmental work. Another tool usedhas been Integrated Development Planning, an approachthat BPDM uses and that is gradually adopted in Lahti aswell. Furthermore, the co-operation capacitates theNorthern partners in international co-operation and projectcoordination and gives valuable cultural diversity andtolerance education.

The peer review process mentioned above has increasedtransparency and accountability of the developmentassistance. First of all, several peer reviews have beenconducted from South to North and vice versa over theyears. During a peer review, officials from one partnermunicipality visit another and evaluate the state of acertain environmental aspect of the administration. Thereviewer then gives feedback, for instance in a form of aSWOT analysis. The evaluation is done by gettingacquainted with official documents, observing theoperation in practice and by conducting interviews withrelevant personnel.

The process has been mutually beneficial, as can be seenfrom the case of the peer review conducted by South toNorth during 2009. The topic of this review was the newclimate program of the Lahti Region. From this review,Lahti will gain timely feedback and ideas for improvementin a stage where it is just starting to draw the concreteaction plans. On the other hand, the Southern partnergains valuable insight on adapting urban planning and themaking of baseline inventories which will be useful lateron when outlining their own climate change adaptationplan.

Peer reviews have also been conducted on wastemanagement activities (from South to North), waterprotection (from North to South) and environmentalmanagement systems (from South to North). This activitywill continue to be one of the core cooperation tools. Inaddition to greater transparency and accountability, thismethod is vital to understanding the local situation. With

good insight and sensitivity of local issues, the actionplanning can be done better.

Similar benefits have been gained when an employee ofone administration has spent some time working in acorresponding role in the other partner’s administration toexchange expertise. The exchange of expertise is conductedaround a certain theme, such as spatial development orwaste management. The method provides an effective wayto share knowledge, working methods and experiences.

Transparency has also increased with development of aninteractive website that was successfully completed during2008. The website allows for more frequent communicationbetween partners, assists in overall communication andplanning as well as in joint net meetings of steeringcommittees. The website includes a discussion forum whichserves as a meeting place for the cooperation. The websitealso allows for videoconferencing, which offers thepartners an opportunity to meet whenever relevant issuesarise. The enhanced opportunities for mutual planning andexchange of information enable a wider and more efficientinvolvement of the officials, politicians and relevantparties in the local administration.

Finally, cooperation in the area of water monitoring hasimproved accountability for water management whileempowering the local administration. Through the transferof a portable water testing laboratory and the provision oftraining to relevant personnel, Moses Kotane LocalMunicipality (under the jurisdiction of Bojanala PlatinumDistrict Municipality) has developed capacity and theability to independently test its groundwater. Thecooperation has also created a platform for other localmunicipalities to observe the importance of independentwater monitoring and to become proactive against cases ofwater contamination.

Results and Analysis

The first objective of the cooperation, the development ofthe EMS, has been reached successfully. The EMSimplementation process was completed by the June 2009and the EMS work was elevated to a level where it is partof the daily performance of each Directorate. All in all, thedevelopment of the environmental administration has beenpromising.

Progress has also been made concerning the secondobjective, to increase awareness about environmental

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issues and sustainable development, among both decisionmakers and inhabitants. One of the most successful andvisible results related to this has been the implementationof Environmental Awareness Week in Bojanala PlatinumDistrict Municipality. The event was first kick started in2003 as a part of the activities identified under the NorthSouth Local Government Cooperation Programme. The eventfollows the same principles that guide the environmentalweek in Lahti initiated in 1997. The purpose is to bringenvironmental awareness to the communities and residentsthrough different environmentally related themes. TheEnvironmental Week is now implemented and funded bythe Bojanala Platinum District Municipality and localsponsorship. This success now serves as an educatingexample for the Northern partner as a community-driven,grassroots approach to address environmental issues. All inall, it is a good case example of mutual learning in co-operation.

The work done to reach the third objective, transferringand exchanging technical expertise, has had importantresults in water management and monitoring, air qualityand monitoring, climate protection assessment andimplementation of methods, waste management as well asdevelopment of information technology by videoconferences and staff training to upgrade the existing websites. For example, waste management was identified asone of the areas of co-operation in 2005 when adelegation from the local municipalities of BojanalaPlatinum District Municipality visited the local waste sitein Lahti and became familiar with the waste disposalstrategies and programs in operation. The lessons learnedfrom Lahti’s waste reduction, land filling and the handlingof recyclables and hazardous waste materials have beensince incorporated into the Rustenburg Local Municipality’snew waste transfer stations and the new regional landfillsite. Similarly, the water protection efforts of BojanalaPlatinum District Municipality have been benefiting fromsharing the experiences gained in the lake remediationprocesses conducted in the Lahti Region over the years.The co-operation has supported the rehabilitationprocesses of the Bospoort and Hartbeespoort Dams. Bothdams currently suffer from severe eutrophication, but aretargeted in the development strategies for recreation,housing, fishing and tourism.

Conclusion

The long-term municipal international cooperationapproach around the theme of environmental management

has increased the effectiveness of the cooperation betweenLahti and BPDM. The partners have been able toaccumulate knowledge of each other’s working methodsand operations over the years through long-term personalcontacts. This decreases cultural miscommunication andhelps in planning and implementing activities. Another keylesson learned is the importance of involving the municipaladministration as broadly as possible, and especiallygetting the involvement of the top-level management. Thedevelopment of effective cooperation takes time and is acontinuous learning process. It is good to start with thebasic information, to create contacts and to learn tounderstand the differences in local administrative culturesand working methods. The cooperation between Lahti andBojanala Platinum District Municipality has been developedfurther by taking lessons learned into account duringyearly meetings.

For more information about the Partnership of Lahti andBojanala Platinum District Municipality, please [email protected].

For more information about the North-South LocalGovernment Co-operation Programme, please contact theAssociation of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities(AFLRA), [email protected]

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Background

After the war in the 1990s, the governance structures ofBosnia and Herzegovina significantly changed and arequite complex. As agreed by the 1996 Dayton Agreement,Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of two entities, and onedistrict39. The first entity is the Federation of Bosnia andHerzegovina (the FBiH) and the second is the Republic ofSrpska (the RS). Each of these levels of authority (the FBiHand the RS) have established bodies of legislative, judicialand executive authority.

While the governance structures within the municipalitiesin both entities are essentially the same and reflect thepre-war Yugoslav system, in the FBiH there is a two tierstructure that includes cantons (10) and, within these,municipalities. The primary administrative responsibility forlocal governments resides with the cantons, under theoverall responsibility of the Ministry of Justice. In the RS,there is only one sub-national, or municipal level governedby the relevant entity’s government ministry.

BiH has had considerable experience in local governanceand service delivery with pockets of particular excellence.In order to strengthen the sector more broadly, the Councilof Europe (CoE), the Organisation for Security Cooperation

11 Incentivizingperformance: the Bosniaand Herzegovina (BiH)Beacon SchemePrepared by the Local Government Association(LGA), October 2009

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in Europe (OSCE), and Local Government Association (LGA)decided to jointly support a mechanism similar to one usedin the UK, which recognises best practices in servicedelivery and enables local authorities to learn from eachother.

Approach

The mechanism is based on the English Beacon CouncilScheme that has been operational since 1999. The BeaconScheme was set up to disseminate excellence in servicedelivery across local government, whereby best practicesare identified within 8 – 10 different local governmentthemes which represent issues of importance in the day today life of the public and reflect key government priorities.It is a cyclical system, so that each year beacon status isawarded to the local authorities, within a new set ofthemes. In 2009 the Beacon Scheme was upgraded andreplaced by the Local Innovation Awards Scheme.

‘Beacon status’ has been awarded to councils who havedemonstrated a clear vision, excellent service andwillingness to innovate within the theme. Awarded“beacons” were then responsible for disseminating theirknowledge and expertise to all other interested authoritiesand helping them to improve quality of their services tocitizens.

The Beacon scheme in Bosnia and Herzegovina was set upin 2005 and is now in its fourth year. The scheme has beenslightly modified to reflect Bosnian realities andcomplexities. The BiH Beacon Scheme identifies threethemes annually with usually two local authoritiesawarded. BiH beacons have been able to travel to the UKto exchange experiences and learn from English beaconcouncils awarded within the same or similar themes.

Initially, the implementing team, which included OSCE, CoEand LGA, the UK Improvement and Development Agencyand the UK Department for Communities and LocalGovernments, faced various challenges. Firstly, thestructure of the country’s governing apparatus reflectedthe fact that in Bosnia and Herzegovina there are twoentities (Republika Srpska and Federation of BiH) plusDistrict Brcko with entirely different governing structures.Secondly, there were two different local governmentassociations from two state entities. To overcome theseissues, the decision was made that the project be run andowned by the “International Community” and practicallymanaged by the OSCE office in Sarajevo (BiH). Neutrality

The Council of Europe (CoE) and the Organisation forSecurity Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and LocalGovernment Association (LGA) have established amechanism in Bosnia and Herzegovina to identify, rewardand disseminate good practice in service delivery at thelocal government level.

39 District Brcko is a self-governing, entity-neutral, administrativeunit under the sovereignty of the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina.It is formally part of both the Republic of Srpska (RS) and theFederation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBH).


of selection panel and governing board was achievedthrough careful selection of distinguished individualsacross the country, with the participation of internationalexperts.

Results

It is clear that the scheme has been a great success. TheBiH municipalities take pride in being awarded withBeacon status and being recognised as the best in thecountry. The award has boosted morale in local authoritiesand helped attract international organisations to workmore closely with local authorities who have won theawards. Dissemination of best practices has enabled otherlocal authorities to improve their services and encouragethem to apply for the Beacon status. In addition, thescheme has served to promote peace-building by bringingtogether people from local authorities who were on theopposite sides in the recent war. It was noticed that post-war rapprochement was much easier at the local levelrather than on the level of central authorities.

The third year of the scheme brought new a challenge.Following the initial period of “international management”it was jointly agreed that scheme should be locally ownedand managed to be sustainable. However, lack of a centralgovernment ministry (department) responsible formunicipal affairs led to negotiation between entityministers, who recognised the value of having a schemethat works across the country. They agreed to worktogether in taking over the running of the mechanismfollowing the example of the local government associationswhich have been doing so from the very beginning. As aresult, the Bosnian Beacon Scheme is now completely self-sufficient and producing excellent results. It is funded bythe ministries of the two entities in the country and isoperationally managed jointly by the two local governmentassociations.

For more information please contact [email protected]

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12 The TwinningCooperation between theCity of Liege (Walloon,Belgium) and the Cityof Lubumbashi (Congo)Prepared by the Union of Cities andMunicipalities of Wallonia and the Association ofthe City and Municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region (UVCW-AVCB), November 2008

Background

Already active in institutional and capacity building since2001, Liège and Lubumbashi, joined the new MunicipalInternational Cooperation Programme (2008-2012),funded by Belgian Federal Cooperation. To date, throughthis Programme, twelve Belgian-Congolese municipalpartnerships have agreed to collaborate to meet a keyobjective of the Congo: to increase the coverage of thepopulation with registered birth, marriage and deathcertificates. This area of cooperation had been identifiedduring a planning workshop organized by the associationsof municipalities of Brussels and Wallonia in February2007. All Congolese and Belgian municipalities involvedin the programme (eight partnerships at the time of the

event) were represented at this working session, duringwhich careful consideration was given to the existingnational programmes and sectoral priorities of local andnational governments in Congo.

Issue

The areas identified (birth, marriage and death registriesrehabilitation) in 2007 were the same that Liège andLubumbashi were already working on in 2001. Thisunderlines the fact that the creation and rehabilitation ofthese registries were considered essential as a source ofinformation, and as a tool for reconstruction planningfollowing the massive destruction caused by the conflictsin Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The registrywas seen as a first step an essential means to ensure therecognition of inhabitants' rights.

The Cities of Liège and Lubumbashi have aimed atcooperating in the most tangible and practical way in thisarea, through the development of a census, the creationof the birth, marriage and death registries, theinstallation of the required office equipment, includingthe introduction of computers to back up handwrittendocuments and files, and maintenance of the archives.

Results

The general computerization of registry offices in 2006has allowed entry into a new phase. Almost 1.2 millionpeople have been registered manually between 2001 and2006, which was a first for the entire Congolese territory.The former census was conducted in 1984, with anestimated population in Lubumbashi at that time ofabout 800.000. The birth, marriage and death registersare now kept up to date and the population recorded atthe beginning of 2009 has escalated to 1.4 millioninhabitants.

Mrs Nelly Nzeba Mwa Musadi, Head of the Central RegistryOffice of the City, explains: "The best relay is actually thelocal authority", evoking the African oral tradition:"Because the local authority gets in touch every day withthe population and the people in charge of all themunicipalities forming the City of Lubumbashi. The Mayor,for example, communicates directly with the seven othermayors, who can themselves increase the street leaders'awareness. It is eventually buzz marketing which worksout best. The churches, law and healthcare centres arealso among our communication partners."

The Cities of Liège and Lubumbashi have been twinnedsince 1961. But until the Municipal InternationalCooperation (MIC) Programme was launched in 2001, fewinteractions existed.

This Programme, which aims at providing institutionalsupport to municipalities in the South, has been designedby the associations of cities and municipalities (Union ofCities and Municipalities of Wallonia and Association of theCity and the Municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region),at the request of and with the financing of the BelgianFederal Cooperation. It was first based on annual calls forproposals but has evolved since then, after an assessmentwas made, towards a multi-year programme (2008-2012).The multi-annual scheme, the sectoral and geographicalconcentrations, and the exchange of experiences andcollective capitalization represent the main improvementsof this programme.

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Since 2001, and in addition to the new 2008-12programme, the cooperation between the Cities of Liègeand Lubumbashi has been extended to other areas toaddress locally defined needs related to improved servicedelivery and quality of life, and the promotion of localeconomic development:

• Environment: in 2003, first steps have been taken tocreate a municipal service dedicated to theenvironment. Thousands of seedlings of trees andflowers are now cultivated each year for theembellishment and the reforestation of the City. Wastefrom these activities is recycled in compost heaps andthe cooperation looks towards the implementation ofa larger waste collection and management system.

• Youth: the municipal Children Council of Liège hassupplied a rural school of Lubumbashi with schoolequipment and financed a well to improve its accessto water.

• Socio-economics: with the assistance of theInternational Association of French-Speaking Mayors, amarket hall which can accommodate 400 saleswomenand men has been built in a district of the towncalled Luwowoshi.

Conclusion

In this case study, shared planning of the activities by themunicipal partners and the fact that the municipal level isclosest to citizens has allowed for the optimization of thecooperation aid. The relationship between the differentareas of intervention, organized by the municipality, hasallowed for improved coordination and harmonization ofthe assistance, as recommended in the principles of theParis Declaration and, more recently, the Accra Agenda forAction. The ability of decentralized cooperation to addressthe Millennium Development Goals is well highlighted inthis Liège-Lubumbashi partnership, which has broughtbenefits to both the northern and southern municipalities.

Ms. Carmen Fernandez, Coordinator of internationalprojects in the City of Liège, says:“We also get a lot from this cooperation. At the beginning,we were not even aware ourselves that we had such anexpertise. This programme has allowed us to display it. Anadded value is thus given to the northern municipalitythat gets into cooperation.”

For more information, please contact UVCW,[email protected]

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13 Urban Rehabilitation ofthe Al-Nasser DistrictGaza City, OccupiedPalestinian TerritoriesPrepared by the City Council of Barcelona,November 2009

Background

Local governments can, and often do, contribute topeace-building and conflict management through theirdual role in promoting the democratic process at the locallevel and in delivering basic social services, which lie atthe heart of building and maintaining social stability.

Because they have a good understanding of the dilemmasof managing a local government, of strengthening localdemocracy, and of fostering a local community, localgovernments from abroad can be good partners in helpingto set up peace-building activities. This is particularlytrue because the local community and its authoritiesoften perceive the involvement of foreign municipalitiesas more neutral than the national government orinternational bodies, thereby ensuring better localownership over the process.

This project is a good practice in two of its dimensions.First, because it represents an example of the enormouspotential of the collaboration between local authoritiesfor peace building and post conflict reconstruction,particularly when based on a culturally appropriate,southern-partner led local agenda for development.Second, because it is an example of intergovernmentalcollaboration between local administrations andautonomous governments. This project would not havebeen possible without the participation of the Governmentof Catalonia through the Catalan Development CooperationAgency. In a politically convulsive and violent scenario,the local authorities have striven to overcome thedynamic of the conflict to work to improve the citizens'quality of life.

Local government peace-building interventions take placein the form of lobbying activities, technical assistanceand immaterial support. Technical assistance, in the formof concrete activities on the ground, can achievepractical results for the local population. Even when notdirectly targeted at peace-building, it often contributesto post-conflict reconstruction by strengtheningmunicipal functioning.

It was with these objectives in mind that, following thesigning of the Oslo Agreements, the European Union'sthen special envoy for the Middle East, Miguel ÁngelMoratinos, proposed to reinforce the Agreements with theestablishment of city to city relations. In September1998, after lengthy groundwork, the mayors of the citiesof Barcelona, Tel Aviv-Yafo and Gaza signed a friendshipand cooperation agreement which sought to establish abridge of union and joint work between their inhabitants.A year later, in Barcelona, APLA (Association ofPalestinian Local Authorities) and ULAI (Union of LocalAuthorities of Israel) signed their first collaborationagreement.

The cities of Gaza and Barcelona have carried outmunicipal cooperation under this framework; however,due to the context of the conflict, direct relationsbetween Gaza and Tel-Aviv have been extremely difficult.Since the start of the project, both parties have beenfully informed about the bilateral activities between Gazaand Barcelona. Both cities have always supported thiskind of activity, and APLA and ULAI have been informedabout all the process. All the parties involved in thisagreement are fully convinced that, in future, trilateralactivities will be possible.

The difficulties in visiting and leaving the Gaza Strip, themilitary blockade that prevents the entry of numerousbasic materials, and the internal political instability ofthe area have been substantial but fortunately notdecisive obstacles

The Al-Nasser East district

Gaza City is one of the oldest cities in the world, andthroughout its history it has been a very important focalpoint of trade and exchange in the Middle East. It has anestimated population of 400,000 inhabitants, of which80% are refugees, according to the criteria established bythe UNRWA40.40 United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in

the Near East.


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The Al Nasser district is situated in the north of the city,very close to the coastline and also near the refugeecamp known as 'Beach Camp'. Many of the inhabitants ofthe district are Palestinian refugee families from 1948,who have managed to obtain homes outside the camp.According to the census done by the Gaza City Council,the number of inhabitants in the district amounts tomore than 12,000.

The town’s infrastructure is inadequate and many of thestreets are still not urbanised. Large areas of the citydisplay great deficiencies in public services, such asinadequate drinking water supply, sewerage andrainwater collection. There are also serious problems inelectricity supply, public lighting, solid waste collectionand public telephone service. Further, the limitedservices that are available are in very poor condition andcause both health and environmental problems.

Goals of the Project

The main goal of the project is to improve theinhabitants' living conditions through the developmentof the district’s necessary infrastructure. The projectaims to improve the health, welfare and mobility of thepopulation and access to the district. As well, theproject is improving the social environment of theneighbourhood by creating spaces for neighbours tointeract. This is being done through the creation ofbroad, tree-lined pavements and by recovering squaresto establish play and leisure programmes. At themunicipal management level, the project has alsofacilitated the exchange of experiences and know-howbetween the technicians of the cities of Gaza andBarcelona.

Technical Description of the Project

To improve the infrastructure, the project is focusing onthe installation of drinking water networks andwastewater drains and sewers, public lighting and streetpaving, along with the incorporation of trees on thepavements. At the same time, the telephone network hasbeen installed by a Palestinian company.

The public space has been completed with two modest-sized squares (4,563 and 3,019 m2), one of which wasalready laid out according to a project drawn up by thetechnical services of the Gaza City Council. These spacesincorporate children's play areas, urban furniture and

gardening, which are necessary to convert them intospaces for neighbours to socialise, so inherent toMediterranean city culture.

In addition to the external improvement of the publicspaces, sanitation in the area was one of the projectpriorities. Both a drinking water supply grid and sewersand rainwater drains were installed.

The process of drawing up the construction project andthe subsequent contracting and execution of worksconsisted of several phases, all jointly directed by themunicipal technicians of the two cities.

Conclusion

The urbanisation project in the Al-Nasser district is thevisible part of a challenging, wide-reaching cooperationprocess between local authorities. During the design andimplementation phases, the exchange of technicalexperiences and methodologies of participation has beenvery intense and was a central factor in the success ofthe final project. By means of this project, the technicalservices of the Gaza City Council have been able toincorporate the latest experiences in social townplanning and treatment of the public space.

Socially, the inhabitants of East Al-Nasser haverecovered the public space as an environment forinterrelating and have made it their own space, with itsown intrinsic value that has to be cared for andrespected. The revitalisation of the district has given anew impulse to trade, rejuvenating existing activitiesand stimulating new commercial initiatives.

This case study demonstrates that tangibleimprovements in people’s quality of life can be madepossible through international cooperation at themunicipal level, even in challenging conflict situations.Further, it highlights the strengthening of municipalmanagement as a key entry point for interventionsfocused on post-conflict reconstruction andrehabilitation. The East Al-Nasser process has beencarried out under very arduous political and securityconditions, yet the local authorities in Gaza andBarcelona have been able to overcome the dynamic ofthe conflict and focus their maximum interest onimproving the living conditions of the district'sinhabitants. The political determination of both citycouncils and the support and confidence shown by the


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Catalan Development Cooperation Agency, APLA andULAI have been the indispensable elements for makingthis process a successful reality.

For more information, please contact the City Councilof Barcelona,[email protected]


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