|
When mayors and local leaders from around the world come together with leading figures from the United Nations and the World Bank in Paris between 2-5 May 2004, the occasion will mark a new era for local authorities with the launch of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), the global organisation representing cities and local governments from around the world.
Delivering on the promises made by mayors in response to the challenges of globalisation and urbanisation at the 1996 United Nations Habitat II conference, also known as the ‘City Summit’, UCLG provides its members with both a forum for identifying and implementing effective solutions to their common challenges, and a platform for engaging in dialogue with governments and organisations at national and supranational level.
Present in over 100 countries, UCLG’s members are elected representatives of cities and local governments, be they large or small, urban or rural. What unites its members is the core value of respect for democracy and the commitment to self-government and decentralisation. It is only through involving mayors and their local governments that international targets on issues like sustainable development, poverty alleviation, gender equality and clean water will become a reality.
For this reason, UCLG is working with international actors like UN-HABITAT, the focal point for local authorities within the UN system, on developing and implementing action-plans on key issues such as human rights, social inclusion and representation in local government, conflict resolution through city diplomacy, and innovation in local governance.
To facilitate the flow of information and heighten awareness of different actions on these issues, UCLG plans to launch, in cooperation with UN-HABITAT, Local Democracy Watch, a comprehensive database containing studies and further information on the issues affecting cities and local governments around the world.
With its commitment to meeting the challenges of globalisation at grass-roots level, the launch of the UCLG marks a turning point for citizens around the world.
Elisabeth Gateau is Secretary General of United Cities and Local Governments.
Local authorities and the information society
By Alain Kanyinda
At the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva in December 2003, local authorities from around the world presented a new declaration to UN-Secretary General, Kofi Annan aimed at bridging the digital divide and enhancing the partnership between local governments and the United Nations. The “Lyon Declaration” on Cities and Local Authorities on the Information Society was the main political outcome of the Summit of Cities and Local Authorities held in Lyon, France, from 4-5 December 2003. It highlights the role of cities in developing an effective information society and calls on the Secretary-General of the United Nations to strengthen the role of United Nations Advisory Committee on Local Authorities (UNACLA) as a mechanism for facilitating dialogue between local authorities and the UN system.
The Summit of Cities and Local Authorities on the Information Society enabled mayors and other local authorities from around the world to reach a consensus that the main features of the information society include Internet, mobile telephones, and satellite technology which have transformed society in the developed countries.
Local authorities have a decisive role to play in all these areas. World-wide, national governments have the power to decide on the main political agendas, but in most cases, it is the local governments who are in charge of implementation.
Local authorities took the opportunity in Lyon to examine key issues to be raised at Geneva during the first inter-governmental session of the World Summit on the Information Society. These included talks on how to manage and regulate ICT, by whom the Internet should be governed, and how, and preventing its exploitation by drug dealers, organised crime syndicates, purveyors of child pornography and terrorists. They also examined how national legislation could be introduced, how to prosecute abuses, and assist victims.
Given that technological progress can ease the transmission and management of knowledge, all citizens ought to be able to have an equal share of the benefits. But the widening digital divide between the rich north and the poor south is preventing this. The estimated 1 billion people living in the world’s slums have little or no access to clean water, sanitation, electricity or telephones – let alone any access to the Internet.
The local authorities gathered in Lyon thus agreed to focus on the fight against the digital divide, to support the creation of a solidarity fund suggested by the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), and to work and think together, with the United Nations, on ways of financing the fight to reduce the digital divide. A meeting will be held on this issue in Turin, Italy next year.
Alain Kanyinda is the executive officer of UN-HABITAT’s Local Authorities Coordination Group.
|
