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Pregnant girls have to leave school
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Municipalities are important partners in
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Development cooperation teaches
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01/2005 |
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[ International relations ]
Municipalities are important partners in
development cooperation
Town twinning and cooperation at local government level can help improve living conditions in North and South, underpin democratisation processes, promote innovative concepts and create understanding for different views in the debate on global issues. That was the conclusion reached by the 9th Federal Conference of Local Authorities and Initiatives in Magdeburg.
[ By Claudia Maurer and Ulrich Nitschke ]
Attended by 120 delegates, the 9th Federal Conference of Local Authorities and Initiatives was the first to be held in the new federal states – and it was an immediate success. The theme of the conference: “Globalisation shapes local communities – Local communities shape globalisation!” Hanover's mayor, Herbert Schmalstieg, summed up the mood of the conference: “International cooperation, exchange of expertise and active solidarity are prime requirements for solving social, economic and environmental problems. If we take international cooperation seriously, local authorities must also play a major role – and not just as agents of central government but as independent actors on a different political level.”
Magdeburg became a rendezvous point for representatives of local government and political parties, local authority associations and NGOs, service providers and research institutions. Assembling at St. John's Church, they not only tabled concrete ideas for making globalisation fairer but also discussed the diverse ways in which such ideas could be put into practice through development cooperation (DC) at the local level.
The “Magdeburg Recommendations” approved by the conference participants state: “The contribution which local authorities make to international development processes is substantial.” Despite limited local authority resources citizens, politicians and administrations work hard to help attain development policy goals: “Through town twinning arrangements and cooperation on projects at local level, living conditions in North and South are improved, democratic processes underpinned, innovative concepts promoted and understanding created for different views on global problems and the ways in which they can be solved.”
Nevertheless, as many conference speakers confirmed, local authorities have only recently and only gradually been perceived as a partner in international development cooperation. The merger of the umbrella organisations International Union of Local Authorities (IULA) and World Federation of United Cities and Towns (UTO) in May 2004, creating the Barcelona-based global umbrella organisation United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) is a response to this development. It is now down to the international DC organisations to cooperate closely with the UCLG. The Kommunen in der Einen Welt (“Municipalities in One World”) Service Bureau of InWEnt Capacity Building International is firmly resolved to do so.
“Development policy begins at home” said Erich Stather, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), in the speech that opened the conference. Processes for sustainable change are initiated and implemented at local community level. “Civic society and dialogue between civil society, business and politics can be realised most effectively within local communities.” Local decision-makers have played an increasingly important role in peacekeeping and crisis management, the politician stressed, because they can initiate and stabilise democratisation processes. Also, he added, networking state and local DC harnesses synergies and enhances the long-term impact of local action.
The Magdeburg Recommendations – which are endorsed by all German local authority associations as well as NGOs – call upon local authorities to build core capacities for development and show themselves to be dependable partners for civic groups, private enterprise and research institutions. To attain concrete development objectives, bureaucratic barriers need to be removed and civic commitment promoted. Migrants – the conference delegates agreed – need to be involved in the process of shaping local government policy and intercultural dialogue needs to be a mandatory task. To achieve fair and just development on a global scale, the myriad forms of cooperation in which the various actors engage at local level need to be promoted: through town twinning arrangements, project-based cooperation, the Climate Alliance of European Cities or support for Fair Trade. What experience has shown to be particularly successful is engagement backed by sound education and information work. More support from federal and state authorities is needed here.
“Globalisation can only be made fair and just by a joint effort at every political level”, said Dirk Messner, director of the German Development Institute (GDI) referring to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). By defining them more than 170 heads of state and government from developing and industrial countries have approved a first joint action programme geared to halving global poverty by 2015. First reports show that if those goals are to be attained, the efforts made so far need to be intensified. That is not conceivable without civic participation and the involvement of local authorities as primary promoters of social integration.
Further information:
The “Magdeburg Recommendations” are available (in German)
at http://www.service-eine-welt.de. A documentation on the conference will be published in 2005.
Ulrich Nitschke
is head of the Service Bureau “Municipalities in One World” and director of the Information and Education Division of InWEnt. ulrich.nitschke@inwent.org
Claudia Maurer
was project coordinator for the 9th Federal Conference.
claudia.maurer@inwent.org
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