DIALOGUES WITH LOCAL AUTHORITIES
AND OTHER HABITAT AGENDA PARTNERS
Schedule
1. Dialogues with local authorities and other
Habitat Agenda partners will be held in plenary on Tuesday,
6 May, in the afternoon session, and the whole of Wednesday
7 May.
Format
The dialogues will be based on the innovative model launched
at the Habitat II Conference and successfully revived at the
seventeenth and eighteenth sessions of the Governing Council.
Accordingly, the Executive Director and designated representatives
of local authorities and other groups of Habitat Agenda partners
will make short substantive presentations followed by a discussion
between delegations and panellists.
The two dialogues will be conducted as open
discussions directly related to the themes of the dialogues.
The discussions will be inclusive and substantive, and their
results should be action-oriented. Delegations who wish to have
the written statements distributed can provide the secretariat
with 250 copies, which will be circulated and synthesized in
the Chair's summary to be adopted by the Governing Council.
Expected results
The main purpose of the two dialogues is to present and
discuss the planned contributions of local authorities and other
Habitat Agenda partners to the implementation of the Habitat
Agenda and the UN HABITAT work-programme and related outputs.
Accordingly, panellists and delegates are invited to focus their
interventions on both the conceptual and operational aspects
of the two dialogue themes. Once adopted, the Chair's conclusions
and the recommendations from the dialogues will serve as guidelines
for follow-up action by Governments, local authorities, other
partners and UN-HABITAT.
DIALOGUE I: EFFECTIVE DECENTRALIZATION AND THE STRENGTHENING
OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES
(Tuesday, 6 May 2003, afternoon and Wednesday, 7 May 2003,
morning)
Setting
The Commission on Human Settlements, by its resolution 18/11,
requested the Executive Director to intensify dialogue among
Governments at all levels and Habitat partners on issues related
to effective decentralization and the strengthening of local
authorities, including principles and legal frameworks, in support
of the implementation of the Habitat Agenda. It also called
upon the Executive Director to make this dialogue as open-ended
and inclusive as feasible. At the same time, by its resolution
18/10 on the role of local authorities, the Commission invited
Habitat Agenda partners, with the support of the secretariat,
to strengthen local authorities in their important role in implementing
the Habitat Agenda through, inter alia, improved training, peer
to peer learning, city-to-city transfers and international exchanges
based on documented best practices, good policies and action
plans.
Regarding “decentralization”, member States and other interested
partners, including representatives of local government, participated
in a dialogue session during the first World Urban Forum in
April-May 2002, on the basis of an issue paper presented by
the secretariat. In line with the conclusions of the dialogue
at the World Urban Forum, which confirmed that countries could
benefit from constructive guidelines on decentralization, but
with the provision that the guidelines should take into account
the diversity of member States, the secretariat produced a representative
set of national case studies from each of the regions. The case
studies document the current legislative and institutional set
up with regard to decentralization and the relationships among
local, subregional and national levels of government. On the
basis of these case studies, UN-HABITAT is submitting a report
to the 19th session of the Governing Council under agenda item
7, containing recommendations on the dialogue series on decentralization,
the possible scope and content of international guidelines on
decentralization, the strengthening of local authorities and
the time frame to achieve these goals.
Regarding strengthening of local authorities, a series of
half-day sessions was held during the first World Urban Forum.
The dialogues succeeded in preparing a common concept and mutually
supportive implementation initiatives for the World Summit on
Sustainable Development with the shared understanding that local
capacity development is a key prerequisite for sustainable urbanization
and the implementation of the Habitat Agenda. Among these, a
most significant initiative for strengthening local authorities
is the Partnership for Local Capacity Development joining some
20 Habitat Agenda partners under the leadership of the World
Association of Cities and Local Authorities Coordination (WACLAC)
and UN-HABITAT in a systematic effort to promote cohesion and
collective efficiency in the international support available
to the development of local capacities.
The dialogue on effective decentralization and the strengthening
of local authorities will provide an opportunity first to illustrate
the regional diversities and commonalties with regard to the
various legislative frameworks and practices of decentralization,
prior to the deliberations by the Governing Council on the policy
recommendations and operational elements of the case studies
report referred to in paragraph 2 above; and secondly to review
ongoing efforts for strengthening local authorities and discuss
future direction. The first part of the dialogue (Tuesday, 6
May 2003) will address decentralization. During this part, regional
experts and Habitat Partners, including the contributors to
the secretariat's inter-regional survey, will make introductory
presentations as a basis for an interactive dialogue on the
diversity of national and regional experience in decentralization.
The second part of the dialogue (Wednesday, 7 May 2003) will
address the strengthening of local authorities. During this
part, representatives of international associations of local
authorities will brief the session on concepts and progress
in the Partnership for Local Capacity Development as a background
for a discussion on the way forward. Both of these open discussions
will serve as a prologue to the subsequent and more formal deliberations
on agenda item 7 by the Committee of the Whole, and it will
allow member States to gauge the opinions of local authorities
and other partners on the subject.
Background documentation
(a) Resolution 18/11 - Intensifying dialogue on effective
decentralization and strengthening of local authorities within
the framework of implementing the Habitat Agenda;
(b) Resolution 18/10 - The role of local authorities;
(c) HSP/GC/19/7 - Report of the Executive Director on the
dialogues on effective decentralization and the strengthening
of local authorities;
(d) HSP/GC/19/2 – Activities of the United Nations Human Settlements
Programme: Progress report of the Executive Director;
(e) HSP/GC/19/2/Add.2 – Report of the Executive Director on
the outcome of the World Summit on Sustainable Development;
(f) Background paper on decentralization and global perspectives:
Central themes and country experiences;
(g) Background paper on the Partnership for Local Capacity
Development (update to be available in April 2003).
Panellists
Part one: Regional experts on decentralization and contributors
to the secretariat’s survey;
Part two: Representatives of international associations of local
authorities.
DIALOGUE II: FINANCING SLUM UPGRADING
(Wednesday, 7 May 2003, afternoon)
Setting
Member States have adopted and are actively seeking to implement
the United Nations millennium developments goals, together with
the commitments made in the Monterrey Consensus adopted at the
International Conference on Financing for Development and in
the Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development adopted
at the World Summit on sustainable Development. Collectively,
these provide the priorities for development cooperation for
the first two decades of the new millennium.
Target 11 of the millennium development goals is the resolution
made by Heads of State and Government to have achieved by 2020
a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million
slum dwellers. UN-HABITAT is the focal point within the United
Nations system for the implementation of this target.
UN-HABITAT convened, in October 2002, an international
meeting of professionals to develop indicators that measure
improvement in the lives of slum dwellers. Indicators identified
at the meeting were access to safe water, access to sanitation,
security of tenure, quality of housing structure, and housing
density.
One of the key challenges in meeting target 11 of the millennium
development goals is the provision of adequate financial resources.
Dialogue II will look at the sums required to meet target 11,
and at ways to increase the scale and stability of funding for
slum upgrading. It will highlight sustainable approaches to
financing, including mobilization of domestic resources (national,
municipal and private, including individual savings) and support
for income generation activities.
Background documentation
(a) Report of the Secretary-General: Road map towards the
implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration
(A/56/326);
(b) Monterrey Consensus of the Intenrational Conference of
Financing for Development;
(c) Urban development strategies and shelter strategies favouring
the poor (HSP/GC/19/5);
Activities of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme:
Progress report of the Executive Director (HSP/GC/19/2);
(d) Cities Without Slums Action Plan (Cities Alliance).
Panelists
Representatives of international, domestic and private sector
financial institutions;
Representatives of external support agencies;
Representatives of local government, civil society organizations,
slum-dwellers and professionals.
|
