2015 is an important year for development: it marks the end of the Millennium Development Goals and the shift towards the new Sustainable Development Goals, to be adopted in September by the General Assembly of the United Nations. At the same time, the European Union has declared 2015 as the “European Year for Development” to raise awareness of development across Europe. In this context, the European Committee of the Regions hosted Regional and Local authorities from around the world on June 1-2, 2015 in Brussels (Belgium) for the 4th edition of the Assises of Decentralized Cooperation.
The ART Initiative – Hub for Territorial Partnerships of the United Nations Development Programme, together with the European Commission, the Committee of the Regions, the Basque Government and the Conference of the Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) organized a round-table on “The Post-2015: Universality and the Territorial Approach to Development”.
The participants shared their perspective and proposed concrete initiatives for strengthening decentralized cooperation as an innovative partnership modality to implement the post-2015 development agenda at local level. Building on the results of the Dialogues on the Localization of the Post-2015 Development Agenda, the seminar provided an excellent opportunity to advance the discussion on key issues as: the mechanisms to facilitate a participatory, transformative and efficient (multi-level) governance systems, including the territorial dimension; how the territorial approach to development and decentralized cooperation actors can support the implementation of the future Sustainable Development Goals; and, finally, what is the specific role of decentralized cooperation in promoting the post-2015 development agenda.
The ART Initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), represented by Johannes Krassnitzer, highlighted that “decentralized cooperation is the new field of action characterized by seeking forms of consultation between social actors and local institutions. It acts as a laboratory where it is possible to give an innovative response to problems that are constantly at the core of development policies. For instance, the relations between governmental and non-governmental activities, between central and subnational levels of government, between market rules and the demand for social solidarity.”
“We are not only talking about decentralized cooperation, but cooperation that goes beyond that and brings together different stakeholders and levels of governance,” said Paul Ortega, Director of the Basque Government Cooperation Agency, representing also the CPMR External Cooperation Working Group. Mr. Ortega also underlined that “the territorial dimension and approach are at the core of the new alliance of decentralized cooperation.”
Guillermo Herrera Villareal, Prefect of the Carchi Province in Ecuador, called for a “Multilevel governance having universal objectives”, underlined the importance of “involving the whole civil society in the final decision making process” and pointed out that “territorial development should go beyond national borders especially in trans-border regions”.
The European Parliament, represented by its Rapporteur on the Post-2015 Agenda, Member of the European Parliament Davor Ivo Stier, recalled that it is important to “to see Local and Regional Authorities involved not only in the implementation, but also at the beginning of the process of decentralized cooperation. In this way the whole process is more inclusive and can bring more results”.
Related posts: Basque Country represents CPMR at the Assises of decentralised cooperation. CRPM website.
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