|
120
city consultations have been undertaken during Phase 3,
and these consultations represent a major achievement of
the programme at the country and city level. The underlying
premise of a UMP City Consultation (CC) is that poor city
administration is often the result of weak rapport with
civil society, particularly where bureaucratic and unresponsive
modes of administration are the norm. The UMP City Consultation
approach has been designed to bridge this gap so that city
administration and key stakeholders in the civil society
can participate in decision-making. The aim of a city consultation
is to institutionalise the participatory decision making
process.
City
consultations bring together local authorities, the private
sector, community representatives and other stakeholders
within a city to discuss specific issues and solutions to
key urban problems. They are a continuous process of dialogue
among stakeholders and the city government. While there
are differences in the city consultation process from region
to region and even from city to city, an important outcome
of this dialogue is an action plan that has citywide support.
From
the 120 UMP City Consultations underway during the current Programme
Phase 3, some key lessons have also emerged, despite different circumstances
under which local governments operate. Strong leadership was part of
every successful city consultation, and the sustainability of the process
was directly linked to the existence of well-organised stakeholder groups.
A strong sense of ownership in the process is also required – and given
the relatively short tenure of local governments it is critical to ensure
there is ownership at various levels of government and civil society.
Capacity-building at both the local and higher levels of government
and the capacity of civil society organisations and the private sector
needs to be strengthened. There is now a perceived need to scale-up
the efforts initiated at the city level to the national level, involving
many more cities and influencing national decentralisation policies.
A synthesis of these city
consultation experiences and lessons learned has been prepared by
the Urban Management Programme. For tools and methodology on
pro-Poor Participatory governance see the PUDM toolkit.
|
