Participatory democracy , poverty and inequalities reduction

1. Participatorydemocracy, poverty and inequalitiesreduction Experts' Workshop on Sustainable Cities & Human Settlements Andrea Costafreda, CIDOB December 5th

2. Overview • Globalization and decentralizationhave placed subnational and local governments at the centre of theprocess of sustainabledevelopment. • On-going and predictedmegatrendthatisseeingpopulationconcentrate in cities and metropolitanareas. “cities are wherethebattle for sustainabledevelopmentwill be won or lost” UN HLP of Eminent Persons on the post-2015. • Cities are sources of opportunities. However, althoughopportunitiesexistthey are not at everyone’sreach. • Reversingthissituationrequires a democratic and effective local governmentleadership, in coordinationwithotherlevels of government and in closecollaborationwith civil society and theprivate sector.

3. Existingconditions Differenttrendsthatalignsubnational and local governments as keypoliticalagents: • Acceleration of anon-goingurbanizationprocess. Itisestimatedthatby 2050 70% of worldpopulationwillive in urbanareas. • Global-local collectiveactionneeded to provide global publicgoods. “Oneworldsapproach” International Development Agenda linked to transationalchallenges. • Itis time to focus on poorpeopleratherthanon poorcountries. “New bottombillion”. Povertywill be a problem of internaldistribution, and citieswill be thescene of much of theredistributiveconflicts.

4. Existingconditions Empowering processes: Subnational and local governmentsbecomekey actors as providers of publicgoods and as political actors. Thirdwave of democratictranstition(’80) + Secondwave of reforms to modernizetheState(’90)

5. Existingconditions Thesechallengesrequire new models of democraticgovernance: • “Collaborativegovernance”. Network of public and private actors involved in theprovision of publicgoods. Lesshierarchicaldecision-makingstructures, multilevelgovernance. • Real involvement of thecommunity and itscitizens in thedecisionmaking and accountability processes. Thequality of local governancereliesnotonly on thequality of institutionsbutalsoon theability to empowerthe “voiceless”.

6. PolicyApproaches • Technicaltool of local/urbanstrategicplanning. Usefulsinceit has includedmechanisms to incorporategrassrootsvoicesand sinceit has evolvedtowards a more comprenhensive and multi-stakeholderapproach. Ex. Of grassrootscitywide data collection (SDI) • Social inclusionpolicies. Social cohesionis at the centre of policial agenda to build a notion of “ a democracy of citizens” and to promotesocial capital. Importance of multilevelgovernance. • TheRightsapproach. WorldCharter for theRight to the City. Instrument of advocay and politicalincidence, a community –empowering instrument thatrecognisesthe beneficiaries of policies as subjects of rights.

7. Practitionerexperience Commonchallenges: • Lack of sufficient and adequatefinancialresources. Decentralisation processes havefailed in providingtheadequatefinancial/fiscal estructure. • Difficulty to attaineffectiveinterinstitutionalcoordinationamongdifferentlevels of government. Successes: • Community and grassrootsinvolvementare clearassets for assuringthesuccess of any plan or strategy in developingareas. Emerging actors: • Theprivate sector has a key role to play. As a provider of financial and thecnicalresources. Public-privatepartnerships : sectorial clusters and EU workinggroups for researchand innovation.

8. Proposed targets • ThisIssues Paper proposes a doubleaproachto operationalizetheimportance of subnational and local democraticgovernance to empowersustainabledevelopment in city-regions. • Thedoubleapproachconsists of three targets to be includedunder a stand-aloneurbanSDG,andthreespecificurban targets to be placed underotherrelevantSDGs.

11. Thankyou!