UNITED CITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS OF AFRICA (UCLGA)

Governance, Advocacy & Decentralized Development Programme for Africa – GADDEPA 

Concept Paper for a long term strategic perspective of the United Cities and Local Governments of Africa - UCLGA

August 2007

 ‘The establishment, consolidation and sustainability of decentralized local government as a distinct sphere of government and the development of the UCLGA network, provide for the incorporation of the concerns of the African people in the development and cooperation agenda of Africa, in order to improve their livelihoods.’   

1. Introduction

1. The United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLGA) is the apex association giving a single voice to local governments on the continent and representing them on various relevant forums. It was founded on 18 May 2005 and was registered in the Republic of South Africa as a Non-Governmental Organization in March 2006.

2. By virtue of its founding statutes and establishment, the UCLGA is now recognized as the legitimate and unified voice of local governments on the continent. These steps have paved the way for local governments to intensify their role as a developmental agent within the ongoing re-founding and re-making of the African continent, as they are increasingly seen as the main conduits through which Millennium Development Goals can be achieved. 

3. The role of the UCLGA is to assist in the strengthening of local governments and their associations as means to improve local governance and service delivery through appropriate and sustainable local policies well articulated to national and regional policies and through capacitating local government institutions to carry out their mandates.

4. The Vision that UCLGA members have set to the organisation at its founding congress in Tshwane, on 15 to 18 May 2005 is the following: ‘Building African Unity from, and Driving African Development through the Grassroots’.

5. In order to achieve this vision, the Mission Statement of UCLGA is as follows:

1. Unite African local government, place it in the continental political and economic development context and represent it in all relevant forums
2. Strive for the establishment of local government as a distinct sphere of government, working in support of national and other sphere of governments in Africa
3. Ensure democracy, equality and respect for human rights at the local level
4. Promote sharing of human and intellectual capital as well as other resources among local authorities in Africa
5. Empower local governments through research, training and capacity development
6. Pursue sustainable development in partnership with institutions, structures and programmes of the same mission

6. Eleven Priority Areas were defined in order that UCLGA fulfils its mission:

1. decentralization and devolution of authority and responsibility to local governments
2. international relations
3. human capital development, capacity building and intellectual exchange
4. local economic development
5. basic services
6. funding and finance
7. promotion of equality, and mainstreaming of gender, youth and disabled issues
8. health and social wellbeing of local communities
9. public participation and local democracy
10. environmental sustainability
11. establishment and development of UCLGA as a network and corporate organ

7. The basic SWOT analysis of UCLGA revealed the following

     As Strengths
 
      -      the commitment to unity
      -      the political will to make a success of the organization
      -      the fact that UCLGA is set up at the right place at the right time
      -      the nature of local government as the sphere of government closest to the people

     As Weaknesses
 
      -      financial uncertainties at this nascent stage of UCLGA
      -      consequently, difficulties in the establishment of the organization

     As Opportunities
 
      -      the transformation of local governments in the governance system in Africa
      -      the setting up of a world organization of local governments, the United Cities and Local Government – UCLG, as a major league player on the international arena
      -      the symbiotic relationship that UCLGA can develop with the African Union, its member states and other bilateral and multilateral the continental bodies
      -      the involvement of local governments in and international effort to bridging the developmental and digital         divide

     As Threats
 
      -      misunderstanding of UCLGA intentions by African national governments
      -      domination by international world organizations and states and prioritization and imposition of their own agendas
      -      possible schism within UCLGA
      -      financial inadequacy of the organization
      -      conflicts/wars on the continent
      -      tribalism, racism, and xenophobia

8. The priority areas and the SWOT analysis should be put into the context of the emergence of the UCLGA on the continental and international scene, so as to identify key challenges facing the UCLGA and the way it should strive and strategize to take these challenges up.  

UCLGA in context: current situation and its evolution

9. The UCLGA was set up in 2005, after the decade of the nineties, when Africa has to face dramatic changes in its governance systems. It’s during these years that Africa overcame the last colonial regimes on the African soil, with the end of the apartheid system in South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe, and the end of Portuguese colonial ruling of Mozambique and Angola. From the end of the nineties on, Africa had made a steadily breakthrough towards democracy, turning out from the old single-party centralized state regimes to more open political and economic systems, by implementing democratic rules as means to designate African leaders, by implementing a free market economy, and by adopting human rights as basic requirements for any African political system across the continent.

10. Peace and security are making headway on the continent, with the end of civil wars in Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia and Sierra Leone (West Africa) and in the DRC and Burundi (Central Africa), even if some hotbeds of tensions are persisting in some parts of the continent such as Sudan, Somalia, Chad, and Niger. For more than ten years Africa has not experimented open conflicts between states, except the conflict between Nigeria and Cameroon about the Bakassi Peninsula which came to an end two years ago thanks to the judgement of the International Court of Justice. Another reason of optimism on the peace and security front is the demilitarization of African political life. Coup d’Etat which was the common way to accessing political power at the level of the states during the first years of independence had now been banned by the African Union according to the provisions of the Protocol on Governance adopted in Addis Ababa in 2002 by the AU Heads of State.

11. Whilst tensions can be happening here and there, globally, Africa is now enjoying a more peaceful environment than before. This in turn has an impact on the economic development of the continent.

12. In economic terms, after almost 20 years of implementation of structural adjustment policies, most of African countries seem to recover some relief in their economic situation. The annual growth rate is currently above 4% and it is forecast that most of African countries will experience a growth rate of 5% to 7% per year in medium and long terms.  The adoption of the new partnership for African development (NEPAD) indicates the engagement of African leaders towards placing the economic development of each African country within the development perspective of the entire continent, stressing the need for interstate and trans-border programs and projects contributing to the reinforcement of the economic integration of Africa. Under the NEPAD, African leaders pledged to “Promoting and protecting democracy and human rights in their respective countries and regions, by developing clear standards of accountability, transparency and participatory governance at the national and sub-national levels”[1]. [1] See: http://www.nepad.org/2005/files/documents/inbrief.pdf , p. 10

13. NEPAD also recognises the importance of addressing endemic diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis; and improving Information and communications technology.[1] Gender equality is also clearly articulated as a goal for African governments to pursue. Learning from each other under the African Peer Review Mechanism has been identified as an essential method to enhance opportunities for positive change. NEPAD’s thrust on democracy and political governance aims to “…contribute to strengthening the political and administrative framework of participating countries, in line with the principles of democracy, transparency, accountability, integrity, respect for human rights and promotion of the rule of law. It is strengthened by and supports the Economic Governance Initiative, with which it shares key features. Taken together, these initiatives will contribute to harnessing the energies of the continent towards development and the eradication of poverty.”[2] [1] Ibid, p. 55 [2] See: http://www.nepad.org/2005/files/documents/inbrief.pdf, p17  

14. With the improvement of the political and economic climate, one expects that decentralization and the strengthening of local governments will come at the fore of the African political agenda, so that people at local level can enjoy the benefits of peace, stability and development. Decentralization is gaining momentum throughout the continent. Almost all countries have adopted and implemented decentralization policies (the exception being a handful number of countries that are just getting out of internal socio-political crisis). Most of these countries have organized local elections in order to choose the local leaders that are charged to manage these local governments. And in most cases these local authorities are regrouped into national associations of local governments which represent the local government voice on the development challenges and which are tasked to conduct structured dialogues with the national governments and the other interested stakeholders. 

15. The will to keep decentralization on top of the political agenda of the African Union is translated in the setting up by national governments, of the All Africa Ministerial Conference on Decentralization and Local Development (AMCOD), and its recognition as a specialized technical committee of the AU by the AU Heads of State in their meeting in Addis Ababa in January 2007.  On the same vein, the creation of the UCLGA as the unified voice of African local governments across the continent expresses the firm intention of local authorities to fully participate to the dialogues on the unity, development of and cooperation with Africa; hence the request by the UCLGA to be recognized by the African Union as the authorized representative of local governments in the AU system, and to constitute the second pillar of the decentralisation dynamic on the continent, beside the AMCOD.

16. The situation is also favourable at the international level. The international community just adopted the Millennium Development Goals as a way to addressing the huge challenge of poverty alleviation worldwide. The MDGs set precise targets to be met by 2015. There are clear indications that most of the MDG targets could not be met without the strong involvement and commitment of local governments, since at least 70% of the MDG targets fall under their competences.

17. The critical role of local governments in dealing with international agendas is further recognized thank to the lobbying capacity of the world organisation of united cities and local governments (UCLG) set up by the local government fraternity in 2004, with the intention to promote the contribution of local authorities in the definition, implementation and evaluation of global agendas which impact on the day to day life of the people at the local level. UCLGA is the African chapter of UCLG and therefore has the responsibility to keep Africa at the forefront of UCLG interventions, with the argument that Africa is the place where the most dramatic changes are occurring in terms of demographic, democratic, economic, social and cultural scopes, but it is also at the same time in the most difficult situation in terms of wealth and capacity, especially at the local level.

The key challenges ahead

18. In spite of the positive signs mentioned previously, the reality is also that the continent still has many areas of concern: Africa represents 15% of the world population but its weight in the world trade amounts only 2.4% in 2005, against 4% in 1990. The continent collects only 4% of the foreign direct investments against 22% for China. Experts estimate that 40% of the African savings are not invested in the continent. The challenge is therefore to make African economies more attractive to African investors and to investors abroad, and to see how best local governments can participate in this effort.

19. Another unknown factor relates to the impact of HIV/AIDS and other pandemic diseases on the human capital of the continent. The average life expectancy has lost two to three years in countries most affected by HIV. In the worse situations, access to primary education is now handicapped by lack of teachers due to the impact of HIV. The rate of progression of HIV is not reversing in many regions. However evidence from the experience of some countries of the region shows that the implication of local governments in the fight against HIV and AIDS and the other pandemic diseases can be one of the way to making prevention and curative actions and care for infected and affected people more efficient.

20. What appears also risky for the human capital of the continent is the issue of migrations. This issue is looked at from two different perspectives: in the one hand some people see migrations as an adjustment variable to keep a balance between populations and territories. For these people, migrations have many positive effects. For example experts assess that financial transfers from African immigrants’ remittances represent more than twice the amount of the annual official development aid provided to the African countries by the North.

21. In the other hand migrations are looked at with a pessimistic view. Other people estimate that emigration of young people especially the young graduates represents a risk for the sustainable development of the region, not only because it would contribute to weaken the human base of growth, but also because it tends to transmit the messages that hope for the African young people is elsewhere than on the continent.  It is therefore important to consider the psychological dimension of migrations together with their other dimensions (demographic, economic, social, and cultural). Local governments should play an important role here, being the place of origin and destination of migrations flows.

22. Migrations are often also the cause of most conflicts affecting the communities within the African countries. Because of the restrictive policies pertaining to the reception of migrants in the countries of the North, Africa will probably witness an increase in internal migrations from rural to urban areas, from poor countries to wealthier, from the interior of the continent to the coast. The management of internal migrations within the continent but also abroad will consequently become a stake for the sustainable development of the region, and local governments should obviously take their part in the response to the migrations challenge.

23. African local governments are particularly challenged in their capacity to address the impacts of urbanization and globalization at the local level. Rapid urbanization is changing drastically the settlement pattern in all African countries. Experts forecast that by 2015, most of African people will live in urban centres. African cities will become true engines of growth insofar that they succeed to building strong local economies connecting urban and rural markets, and animate the urban-rural linkages in a way that the shift to a more urbanized Africa benefits to the two areas. Moreover the speed of the urbanization trend is such that in most cities, including the smaller ones, four out of ten people were not living in the city ten years ago. In such a situation local governments are challenged in their capacity to build a common vision on how to go about the city future and how to develop a sense of oneness and belonging within the city community. 

24. Globalization is also challenging the African cities and local governments in terms of their competitiveness. Globalization tends to project every city and local government of the continent in the global market of goods, services, expertise, etc. The extent to which African cities and local governments will be able to cope with this competition would define who will be the winners or the losers of the globalization trend among the African countries, the reason being that local places are where development and competition are experienced concretely.

25. When observed from the local level, urbanization and globalization are linked to one another through the emergence of what is now known as global cities. These global cities are the driving forces of the global economy. Being part of the network of global cities or being efficiently connected to it insures any city, country or region a competitive advantage compared to those who are not. Africa cannot shy away from addressing this critical issue, and to have a strategy on how to deal with the creation and strengthening of a network of cities being part or connected to the global cities network. The drive of the African unity and economic integration depends also on the way this network will be structured across the continent.  Putting urbanization and globalization impact on the agenda of UCLGA is just appropriate in order that local authorities have an upfront impetus in addressing the urban agenda in Africa.

26. As stated earlier, the adoption of decentralization policies is no longer an issue in most African countries. What remains problematic is the extent to which local governments are fully recognized by the appropriate legal instruments as a distinct and autonomous sphere of government. There is not yet a shared understanding among African countries on the content of decentralization policies and the way to implement them. Countries may take different routes according to their own geographical, historical, economic and socio-political context. But the good news is that the UN has adopted general guidelines on decentralization and strengthening of local authorities. This therefore paves the way to the elaboration of an African charter on local governance as a way to implement the UN guidelines in the African context.

27. If decentralization is no longer a non option, a lot remains to be done in order that local governments acquire the needed credibility in the eyes of the citizen. The challenge here is to improve the capacities of local governments to deliver on their mandates, and primarily to improve service delivery to the constituencies. This is far from being the case for most African local governments.

28. This situation is sometimes explained by the resistance encountered within the national administration in the enforcement of decentralisation laws. But it can also be the result of the fierce competition that some local governments face on this front by local traditional rulers whose legitimacy can be higher than that of the local authorities for some local communities. It can also be related to the weak capacities of local governments themselves which lack the needed skills and methods to raise sufficient own resources or to plan for an improved and sustainable way to deliver basic services to the people. Finally whilst stating that most of the MDG targets fall under local governments competences, one hardly finds African local governments really aware of the MDGs and having specific plans and strategies to address their realization.

29. Improved governance at local level is another area where African local governments need to make progress. Gender inequality is still a challenge to be addressed in most of African local governments, both in terms of securing equal roles and responsibilities in their governing bodies and administration and in mainstreaming the concerns of women in the overall local policies adopted and implemented by local governments. The same apply to the youth which forms the majority of local governments’ constituency, but which interests are barely taken into account in the local policies. Also most African local governments are failing to address the needs of the disabled citizen. As stated previously, in some cases, local authorities need also to consider how best they can interact in the local governance with traditional rulers whose influence on the local communities is quite significant. The issues of inclusiveness, participatory governance, reference to solidarity, tolerance, brotherhood, and care that are so characteristic of the African culture, heritage and values remain a challenge for most African local governments.

30. To address the context and key challenges facing African local governments, in consistency with the vision, mission and priority intervention areas defined by its constituency, the UCLGA has adopted the following overall strategic intent:

‘The establishment, consolidation and sustainability of decentralized local government as a distinct sphere of government and the development of the UCLGA network, provide for the incorporation of the concerns of the African people in the development and cooperation agenda of Africa, in order to improve their livelihoods.’

31. In order to translate this overall strategic intent into results oriented interventions, the UCLGA seeks to undertake the following:

a)    Lobby for local government to be recognised as a distinct order of government in the framework of the decentralization policies to be adopted and implemented by all African countries;

b)    Support the creation and strengthening of national associations of local authorities in all African countries as well as their regrouping at regional level according to the Regional Economic Communities (REC) of the African Union;       c)    Improve the quality and profile of local governance throughout Africa, in particular through the participation and effectiveness of women and youth, an increased participation of communities, civil society and private sector, both in governance and in a better provision of services at the local level;

d)    Increase the responsiveness of local governments to the demands of their citizenry including vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in society;

e)    Better the policy and development implementation environment at the local level through facilitating effective and competent voice and influence of local governments at the national, regional and continental levels.

f)    Foster the recognition and expression of African culture and heritage as key identity icons in value systems of local government’s development work.

The GADDEPA, an appropriate response to the Challenges facing african local governments

32. The above strategic intent and UCLGA correlative objectives will be implemented through an overall development programme with the following name: ‘Governance, Advocacy & Decentralized Development Programme for Africa (GADDEPA)’. The strategic framework of GADDEPA is composed of three major segments: The Upstream, Downstream and Corporate Learning and Institutional Development segments.

33. The Upstream Segment encompasses advocacy programmes targeted at political and economic bodies at continental, international, regional and national levels. Recognizing the importance of national governments in providing an enabling environment for local governance, it is important to strengthen the relationship between these two spheres.  The Downstream Segment is about strengthening of local governments, their national and regional associations to deliver as per their mandates.  The Corporate Learning and Institutional Capacity Segment cuts across upstream and downstream segments and comprises of all measures aimed at knowledge management and institutional capacity development.

The Strategic Framework of the GADDEPA Programme

34. This framework document sets out the strategic scope of UCLGA’s work and aspirations for the next 15 years. The key issues that need to be addressed in order to improve livelihoods at the local level as presented above are drawn from a range of consultations with African Local Governments and their associations. These consultations have further informed the development of UCLGA’s Corporate Strategy and the formulation of its regional programmes of action. At the programmatic level, lessons gleaned from different programs implemented throughout Africa in support of decentralization processes and the strengthening of local governments (such as the Africa Local Governance Programme –ALGP- , a programme which was implemented between 2004 and 2007 focussing on Ghana, Mali, Mozambique and Tanzania) were also taken into account and incorporated in this document.

With the above background in mind, the GADDEPA entails three key components representing each a particular pillar of UCLGA’s core business, which comprises (i) Advocacy and lobbying, (ii) Corporate learning and knowledge management; and (iii) Institutional capacity development.

PILLAR 1: Advocacy, lobbying and engagement

Problem statement:

35. One of the main factors igniting the emergence of local governments coalitions continentally and internationally is the growing recognition of the fact that many problems affecting local governments have their origins in wider and global structural forces which individual local governments cannot solve on their own because of their limited realm of influence on global, continental and national decision-making processes. Chief amongst many examples is the provision under HIPC which compels national governments to ‘convert’ relieved debt in development projects at the local level within the jurisdictions of local governments. Yet, the respective local authorities are still to see these resources complementing the stretched budgets available to them for service delivery. A similar analogy can be drawn from negotiations on the international and continental development agenda on issues such as climate change, trade, development, finance as well as peace and security.

36. Ultimately, there is a need for local government to articulate how decisions taken at the above global and continental platforms are affecting local governance systems and the emancipation of the citizenry at the local level. To do so requires strong political advocacy, lobbying and engagement work in order to achieve effective representation of united local governments in pan African processes, one form of which is UCLGA’s pledge to be recognized by the AU as the ‘High Council of Local Governments’. It also requires improving the voice of local government to better articulate their demand to national governments on issues that are critical to the fulfillment of their mandate to the citizens, such as municipal finance and borrowing. Central to the sustainability of local government is also the consolidation of their agency role to effectively mediate citizens’ demands through a decisive engagement with national and international agencies and the private sector to unlock support to local development programmes in the individual countries. This will include mobilizing support and resources for UCLGA members, especially those who are pioneering flagship innovations in areas such as social inclusiveness, peace and security, local economic development and human settlements improvement.

37. The ultimate outcome of activities aimed at advocacy, voice articulation, and support mobilization will be geared at ensuring that:

‘A sustained advocacy, lobbying and engagement promote the representation and voice of local government in the international cooperation agenda as well as in the continental and national decision-making processes in a fashion which maximises the benefits of decentralised governance to the citizenry’. 

Remedial interventions and outputs:

38. In order to achieve the above outcome, the following outputs and products will be developed for use by UCLGA members and /or their partners:  

-  Engagement with the AU, NEPAD, REC, UCLG and Partners, including advocacy and lobbying on international, continental arenas and national platforms in order to raise awareness on decentralization, local development and local governance issues and to improve the profile of African local governments in the definition and implementation of the political, developmental and cooperation agenda of Africa;  

-  The Africities Summit, a triennial platform for dialogue and exchange of knowledge on decentralization policies implementation, assessment of progress, and evaluation of cooperation coordination efforts aiming at  supporting decentralization and local governments in Africa; 

-  A local governance barometer on the four elements to be considered for a performing local government: local competitiveness, social inclusiveness, sustainable living environment, well managed local governments, to be used for baseline information and benchmarking purposes, but also for the production of comprehensive materials for advocacy and lobbying; 

-  A Support program to national dialogues on decentralization. Progress in the decentralization policies will be witnessed and sustained only if a structured dialogue is organized mainly between the central government and the local governments represented by their national associations. This dialogue will address such critical issues as the definition and exercise of competences, fiscal decentralization, human capacities of local governments, the relations between national administration and local governments, etc. The organization of a local government day will offer the opportunity to local governments associations to table a Memorandum on the implementation of the national decentralization policy to the government, and to highlight the improvements needed and the way to further them. This structured dialogue will also benefit from the existence the AMCOD (All Africa Ministerial Conference on Decentralization) which can relay it at the continental level with UCLGA. 

-  A communication package combining written, television and radio program targeting a bigger audience than UCLGA members, aiming mainly to reach out to the communities and the citizen; 

-  An award scheme for excellence  in promoting role models in local governance and flagship projects for social inclusiveness, LED, peace and security, habitable living environments, culture and innovations in service delivery; 

-  An African Local Government Internet Portal as a central repository for the UCLGA network aiming at becoming a virtual information and resources centre of excellence on decentralization and local governments in Africa. The Portal will provide a corporate identity to the organization, a gateway into the world of local governments of Africa and a one-stop shop for all data and information concerning services and functions of local governments throughout the continent. The Portal will also provide a forum where national and local governments’ decision-makers interact with business organizations, NGOs and CBOs, researchers and academics, and citizen including the poor. 

PILLAR 2: Corporate Learning & Knowledge Management

Problem statement:

39. As a relatively young and emerging network, the UCLGA still has a long way to go in meeting the networking requirements of ‘productive local governments’ in today’s knowledge society. That is, using existing knowledge as a means of enhancing the productivity of local government to satisfy the aspirations of its citizenry. Some of the manifold constraints are the limited awareness of members about their internal potentials and the constraints in research and access to technological innovations.

40. As a matter of fact, many individual members lack information about existing competitive factors they can exploit to respond to the developmental aspirations of their populations. This poor state of self-awareness severely limits their ability to engage in any meaningful form with potential investors, nor does it allow African local governments to elevate the, yet abundant, cultural heritage as a defining feature of competitiveness.  Linked to this is also the cultural, ethnic and language diversity, which often poses a communication challenge when it comes to rooting local governance systems (such as development planning tools) in local populations as part of the general rules of engagement. African local governments also lack systems for benchmarking good performance amongst themselves that can be utilized to promote standards for good practice in linking knowledge management with delivery capacity.

41. With the above background in mind, the outcome of the knowledge management strategic pillar is to ensure that:

‘Greater access to relevant knowledge, acquisition of skills, participation in networking and peer learning activities increasingly enhances the quality of demand articulation, the problem solving abilities and innovation capacities of local government’.  

Remedial interventions and outputs:

 42. UCLGA views knowledge production and dissemination as a means to enhance the capacity of its network to deliver on their mandate more effectively. Linked to this credo is the imperative to promote ONLY those modes of knowledge production and dissemination that will assist members to achieve higher levels of productivity in serving their constituencies. Also implicit to this is the notion that once produced and disseminated knowledge must be applicable for problem solving in the immediate environment of service delivery. This approach to knowledge management compels UCLGA members to the development of a variety of outputs that will include the following:

 -  A peer learning and review mechanism program among members, linked to the African peer review mechanism of the NEPAD, that will include observation of local elections through which UCLGA wishes to contribute to pushing the democratic local governance agenda in the different countries of the continent;  

q  A resources mobilization and management program for local governments and their associations through which UCLGA will gather and disseminate existing tools and best practices on resource mobilization and management;  

 q  An efficient basic services delivery program through which UCLGA will identify and/or develop methods and tools that can help African local governments to boost their delivery capacity and adopt a people oriented delivery system. This program will particularly focus on the implementation of the MDGs;  

 q  A reporting mechanism on the way African local governments take up the challenge of the rapid urbanization of the continent termed as ‘the State of the African Cities and local governments Report’. The process culminating to the release of the report will be used to raise the profile of the urban agenda in the political agenda at local, national, regional and continental levels. It will also offer the opportunity to focus attention on the need to take firm stands on the adoption of new planning approaches and the implementation of inclusive urban policies, and to promote participatory and partnership methods in order to have positive sustainable results.  

 q  Regional information and resources centers that will service local governments in the respective regions, taking into account the regional, national and local peculiarities, and contributing to the building of a strong learning network at local governments’ level in each region. Regional information and resources centers will also serve as a clearing house for the identification of contextual tools development and technical services needs to help the national associations and individual local governments to formalize their demands for assistance and partnerships;  

 q  An African Observatory on Decentralization and Local Democracy as a research, benchmarking and evaluation mechanism on the status of local democracy in each African country gearing towards comparative assessment of progress in the implementation of the decentralization policies continent-wide, feeding into the UCLG Global Observatory on Decentralization and Local Democracy. Through the African Observatory on Decentralization and Local Democracy will publish on a triennial basis starting from 2009 a State of Decentralization and Local Democracy in Africa;  

 q  A Local Economy Development Network of Africa (LEDNA), initiated by the UCLGA as a way to contribute to the development and dissemination of LED approaches, good practices and lessons learn throughout the continent. This will be facilitated through a LEDNA Knowledge Hub which key element will be the creation of an Internet platform for: collection of a critical mass of global standard knowledge on LED; a first stocktaking of LED experience in Africa; the incremental development of networks of local, national and regional and/or thematic communities of LED practitioners and experts that will facilitate knowledge acquisition and sharing. The LEDNA Hub will also serve as an on the job learning platform for local governments LED practitioners and as a platform to link local entrepreneurs to potential investors.  

 q  A continental knowledge and skills acquisition program implemented through the UCLGA African Local Government Academy which will address the challenge of professionalism of local government leaders and practitioners to be able to manage effectively Africa’s urbanization and local governments’ challenges. The program will include the setting up and implementation of an accreditation system for on job training of local government professionals in partnership with research and academic institutions.

PILLAR 3: Institutional capacity development

43. Institutional capacity development aims at building and strengthening local authorities, their national associations, regional offices and headquarters to carry out their mandates. It is also about structuring the UCLGA as a strong network beside its corporate organization. The guiding principle is that of subsidiarity whereby the centre recognizes and promotes the local level as agents for implementation and change for the improvement of people’s livelihoods.

Problem statement:

 44. Despite the widely accepted legitimacy of UCLGA as a unified body representing all African local governments, many of its members are still not able to access the services of their network. These members are not in the position to participate in the advancement of democracy and continental development on account of constraints in communication, logistics and technology. Nor are they able to reap the benefits of continental dialogue and engagement in order to better respond to the aspirations of their constituencies.

45. This endurance of ‘governance enclaves’ is in sharp contrast with the notion of ‘African Renaissance’ which has been gaining momentum over the past years through a noticeable increase in developmental engagements amongst African countries and their continental political and economic organizations. Even though some conditions are in place, numerous countries (some of which are recovering slowly from a painful and devastating history of wars and conflicts) do not have national associations.

46. Yet, national associations are the backbone of the network when it comes to interfacing with local and national governments within the individual countries. Regional dynamics are also pointing to the need to establish coordination offices throughout the five AU regions, but only East Africa sufficiently advanced in this regard. The permanence of headquarters is still protracted because of capacity constraints in servicing the regions in an equitable fashion.

47. Measures envisaged to tackle the above problems will be focusing on the following outcome:

‘An increased capacity of the UCLGA network (Headquarters, Regions, And National Associations) leads to improvements in communication and operational efficiency in executing their functional mandates towards constituencies’.

Remedial interventions and outputs:

48. Remedial interventions to the above problems will be geared at ensuring that: (i) a permanent and functional head office with core functions is established, (ii) regional offices are also established whilst fully discharging their functions and (iii) vibrant, functional and sustainable local government associations are established and fully operational in all countries. This will be supported through the following outputs:

-  Establishing the governance policies and procedures of the UCLGA. This will be translated into a manual of operations for UCLGA interventions, including human resources, finance management, procurement policies, and definition of standards for implementation and performance management that will be leaned on results based management.  

-  Setting up, staffing and equipping the UCLGA Headquarters and Regional offices  

-  Holding regular Meetings of the UCLGA bodies (General Assembly, Council, Executive committee, meetings of the UCLG Regions)  

-  National associations of local governments support program. The support package will be differentiated depending on the stage of their development. The support package will distinguish between mature national associations that are well established and operate in a national environment conducive to effective decentralization; national associations already up and running, but in a poor national enabling environment; and countries where national associations are yet to be established after the setting up of local governments. 

-  Peace and security program. This program will address the contribution of African local governments to conflicts prevention and to the improvement of integration on the continent. This will be realized through the development of decentralized cross-borders partnerships whereby local governments across the borders will cooperate for economic development purposes, sharing of social facilities and equipments, managing of the migrations flows, and building cultural exchanges in order to strengthen the sense of brotherhood and oneness.  Such cross-borders partnerships will be tested in three regions, West Africa, East Africa and Southern Africa, in close cooperation with the national governments and the Regional Economic Communities. The peace and security program will also entail the involvement of local governments into the early warning mechanism on conflicts prevention established by the African Union and implemented by the Regional Economic Communities, and the setting up of an African local government facility to address the issue of disasters emergency support to members.  

-  Women in Local Government Program. One of the urgent missions that the founding congress defined to the leadership of UCLGA is to be particularly pro-active on gender equality, and to translate it primarily in the better involvement and empowerment of women in local governments. To that effect, the UCLGA is determined to help set up a strong network of African Women Mayors and local Councilors, as well to push for a better representation of women in local governments’ leadership as well as in the municipal administrations. The UCLGA has also set up a committee on women in local governments which is in charge of assessing progress made in this front and proposing corrective measures to further progress.  

-  A Youth empowerment program. The youth forms the majority of the constituency in any local government in Africa. But it is noteworthy that most of African local governments do not have actions addressing specifically the youth concerns, nor are they mobilizing them properly for the developmental agenda. The MDGs offer a golden opportunity to start this process. UCLGA proposes to launch a five year youth empowerment program of the GADDEPA as a mean to mobilize the Youth for the realization of the MDGs through the organization of a thousands civil works sites using North/South and South/South decentralized cooperation mechanisms. The program will consist in the building of schools and health centers, the construction of water and sanitation facilities, and any other basic service facility, targeting mainly small cities and towns as well as rural local governments. If successful, this program will be transformed into a UCLGA Volunteers program that will usefully complement existent such programs implemented in Africa for now by non African countries and international organizations.  

-  A specific program on partnership between local governments and the traditional rulers. Decentralization is sometimes described as a process that creates a momentum for traditional rulers to come at the fore of the local affairs since in most cases their legitimacy on the management of key concerns of citizen such as land and justice can be higher than that of elected local authorities. Therefore a more cooperative approach between local authorities and traditional rulers can only gear to a win-win situation for the local leadership. Areas of cooperation can cover resources mobilization, safety and security, land management, handling of neighborhood disputes, management of migrations and their consequences on localities, to cite nut a few. The GADDEPA project offers the opportunity to experience in a limited number of countries chosen in different regions of the continent joint management and actions between local authorities and traditional rulers, and from these experiences, to draw lessons that can be the basis for the definition of frameworks for cooperation between local governments and traditional rulers wherever this issue is a challenge for the efficiency of the delivery and governance at the local level;   

-  A specific program on culture and heritage in order to profile cultural diversity as a defining and unique asset in African local governments. The program will focus on the identification of cultural and heritage assets of African local governments with a view to increase their value in the eyes of the citizen and the visitors, and to have them registered in the World Humanity Heritage Center if their values permit. A partnership will be concluded to this effect with UNESCO, and training workshops will be organized targeting national associations of local governments in order that they include this activity in their plans of action at the service of their members.  

-  A Transparency and integrity program in local governance. Good governance is one of the most challenging issues for African local governments. Addressing this issue require political will, but also preventive and curative measures. The program will target these measures and related approaches and tools and the way they can be mastered and implemented at African local government level. It will be implemented on cooperation with Transparency International and other authorized and competent organizations.

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE GADDEPA

49. The implementation of the long term strategic perspective set out through the GADDEPA will span three cycles of five years each, with the initial phase focusing on the establishment of UCLGA’s institutional and systems, structures and operational procedures, and on the running of a set of activities aiming at projecting African local governments on the national, regional and international arenas as one of the key players for the implementation of the agenda on development and democracy in Africa . This initial phase will be informed by an institutional assessment and organisational analysis, and baseline information gathered on key critical challenges facing African cities and local governments, to be undertaken during the last quarter of 2007. It will focus mainly on advocacy and institutional capacity development segments, concentrating its work on the knowledge segment on the portal and the state of African cities and local government report.

50. The second phase will concentrate on the consolidation of UCLGA’s capacity in terms of knowledge and capacity development, as well as networking, lobbying and advocacy. During this second phase, UCLGA’s main objective  will be to increase drastically the capacity of local governments and their associations to serve as developmental agents as well as role models in the rooting of participatory democracy, giving birth to a new citizenry across the continent. At this phase UCLGA will also strive to improve the contribution of local governments to the unity of Africa through city to city and local government to local government cooperation, decentralized trans-border cooperation, and the involvement of local governments in the management of migrations and the prevention of conflicts.

51. Finally, the third phase will focus on the maturation and sustainability of local governments as distinct spheres of government with a solid governance track record in terms of the inclusiveness of local development processes, the transparency of electoral and public management processes as well as the effectiveness of their developmental programmes around the fulfilment of the millennium goals and the improvement of people’s livelihoods.   

52. As such, the GADDEPA will undergo a continuous review and adaptation alongside the evolving dynamics in national, continental and international development. It will essentially be used as a basis document for engagement with all those who are interested in partnering with UCLGA to improve the living conditions of the African people at the grassroots level, using as leverage the means of political advocacy, knowledge exchange and networking, capacity development and innovations in local governance.   

SUPPORT TO THE GADDEPA  

53. The GADDEPA is structured in such a way that development assistance partners can support different components within the advocacy, corporate learning and Knowledge management or the institutional capacity development pillars. Depending on the contribution of each partner agency towards GADDEPA, the programme will carry a consistent name with different connotations (ex. GADDEPA-GTZ, GADDEPA-CIDA, GADDEPA-SWISS, GADDEPA-FRANCE, GADDEPA-WORLD BANK, GADDEPA-UNDP, GADDEPA-USAID …). This consistent approach in the naming of the programme will ensure that each partner will be contributing towards a single integrated UCLGA development programme.

54. Concerning the funding of GADDEPA, the UCLGA distinguishes between core funding and funding of programs. Core funding concerns the minimum permanent staff that the UCLGA has to recruit and the minimum activities that it has to conduct in a regular basis in order to ensure the viability and sustainability of the organisation. For the core funding, it is planned that donor support is on a digressive basis: 100% of the salaries for the two first years; 75% the third year; 50% the fourth year and 25% the fifth year. The funding of the core activities will follow the same digressive model. It is envisioned that from the beginning of the second phase of the GADDEPA (from year 6 onwards) the UCLGA will have reached the level of financial self-sustainability for its core functions.

 55. The teams involved in program lines are funded fully by these programs and their term in office is related to the life of the programs they are involved in. Programs can be funded with the support of partners which express interest to them, in accordance to the budget agreed upon between the UCLGA and the co-funding partners of the programs.

 56. Working through the GADDEPA is consistent with the two main requirements of the Paris Declaration: ownership of the beneficiaries, and coherence of action among donor partners. Ownership is being built through the process followed by the UCLGA in the definition of key elements of the GADDEPA. As already stated, the programme was built following an extensive stock taking of previous local governments support programs such as the ones implemented through the Municipal Development Program (MDP) in Eastern and Southern Africa, and the Partenariat pour le Développement Municipal (PDM) in Western and Central Africa, the African Local Governance Program (ALGP) operated by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities in collaboration with UCLGA and National associations of local governments of targeted countries (Mali, Ghana, Tanzania, Mozambique), and other important bilateral and multilateral programs in support to decentralization and local governments in Africa. The GADDEPA was further informed by the recommendations and the resolutions of the UCLGA Founding Congress, its Corporate Strategy, and a number of workshops held by thereafter with the UCLGA constituency, including the UCLGA 20 year plan held in Benoni, South Africa, in August 2006, the resolutions of the Africities Summits, the UCLGA/GTZ and the UCLGA/Swiss Cooperation Workshop held in Tshwane, South Africa, in May 2007, as well as the UCLGA/CIDA Workshop held in Tshwane, South Africa, in July 2007, which was also attended by representatives of the French Cooperation and of the USAID. The UCLGA congress held in Accra, Ghana, in June 2008 further consolidated and refined the activity areas of the programme. Ownership will also be built thanks to the subsidiarity principle which will be followed for the implementation of the GADDEPA and related projects. The Head Office will serve as a one stop centre, an entry point and accounting office for the GADDEPA. But most implementation will be handled at the regional and national levels by the UCLGA regional offices and the national associations of local governments. A clear Monitoring and Evaluation system will be in place to inform on the programs implementation and management on a timely basis. Clear reporting and accountability mechanisms will be defined with a strong follow up and oversight by the Head Office.

Coherence of effort will be reached in that as far as possible the GADDEPA projects will link up with existing and on going projects in different African countries in order to increase synergies and to leverage on local governments’ practitioners and other local stakeholders capacities. Also through the gathering of partners around the same support programme and the interaction that they will develop among themselves and between them and the UCLGA, it is envisioned that more coordination will be performed, leading to a more efficient delivery of international aid assistance to Africa on the decentralisation and local governance sector.

GOVERNANCE, ADVOCACY AND DECENTRALISED DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME FOR AFRICA (GADDEPA)

BUDGET AND ANNUAL IMPLEMENTATION PLAN