Localizing Sustainable Development

1. Localizing Sustainable Development Workshop in Bratislava 11-13, September 2003 Marta Marczis, Project Manager

2. Importance of Local Sustainable Development The importance of local sustainable development has long been recognised by the international community. Agenda 21, the guide to sustainable development was adopted by the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, emphasises the role of local authorities and initiatives in supporting sustainable development.  

3. Importance of Local Sustainable Development The private sector’s role in capacity building, technology transfer, and providing finance for local development received particular attention at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 in Johannesburg. Partnerships between governments, civil society, and the private sector are now recognised as critical to sustainable local development.

4. Project description LoSD Projects draws upon best practices developed in the areas of local governance and decentralization and Local Agenda 21 in EU accession countries and applies them to pilot municipalities in the Western Balkans and the CIS.

5. Project description Pilot municipalities will be selected in each countries/sub-regions of the Western CIS : Ukraine, Belarus, RF/Kaliningrad Oblast') and the Western Balkan: Albania, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro including Kosovo and Macedonia.

6. Project description Pilot methodology is developed by the RBEC regional program in Bratislava, and described in the publication "How to Make Local Development Work: Selected Practices for Europe and the CIS". In this publication five pillars are presented as key areas for local sustainable development.

7. Project description Pillars of local sustainable developments: Socio-economic assessment and social mobilization Creating local economic development incubators Developing local-level public management capacity Developing human capital Conducting environmental impact assessment

8. Project Description • UNDP country offices in EU accession countries with important experience in decentralization and local agenda 21 are playing very important role by bringing potential "east-east" expertise and best practices to the project. • Experiences from Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey will be important for activities in the Western Balkans.

9. Project Description Both projects are funded separately. Project activities in Ukraine, Belarus, and the Russian Federation enjoying the financial support of MATRA Activities in the Western Balkans are funded by the Norwegian government.

10. Workshop Objectives To develop a common understanding among project(s) participants on local sustainable development and LoSD projects • To build up network of Focal Point and cross-national expert teams • Common development of the projects with active participation of the Project’s Steering Committee Members and • To learn experiences of the EU LEADER Program

11. Project Objectives • Preparing a comprehensive methodological approach to creation of favorable conditions and formulation and implementation of viable local development strategies. • To increase capacities of the local stakeholders to develop and implement successful local development strategies including creation of the enabling environment.

12. Project Objectives • To increase capacities of the decision-makers responsible for creation of the national policy, legal and fiscal conditions for successful local development. • To promote exchange of knowledge and test the proposed methodological approach through organization of the country visits of expert teams   •  Implement the pilot projects proposed by the teams and adjust and consolidate the methodological approach and expand the initiative to other sub-regions

13. Project Implementation 1. “Localizing” in 24 pilot municipalities Selection of 3 pilot areas in each country/sub-region and invitation of all 3 stakeholder groups Local Situation Assessment with participation of the target community A series of the sub-regional training seminars for local stakeholders Local strategy-making and project building based on animation and participation of local partners

14. Implementation 2. Advocacy level Policy advocacy publication will be prepared summarizing the main lessons learnt in creating local development strategies through participatory methods and proposing a modular approach using hands-on experience from CEE countries Advocacy workshops for senior experts from line ministries in the above mentioned countries will be held

15. Implementation 3. East-East cooperation Implementing best practice from the pre-accession countries to the target areas Pre-selected experts arrived from Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia Network of UNDP Focal Points in target and “best practice countries” is entitled to manage the exchange and transition of experiences

16. Implementation 4. Synergy • Experiences of cross-national expert teams will cover all key pillars of sustainable development • All local projects will be based on synergic thinking and practice • Knowledge and experiences will be harmonized horizontally and vertically by networking

17. Implementation 5. Network (and synergy) for localizing sustainable development General level Regional level Intermediators Sub-regional level Local level

18. Transmission hooks of knowledge and experience Horizontal extending of experiences by networking

19. Project teams Steering Committee Some Representatives of UNDP-Bratislava are invited to be member of a Steering Committee for thinking, acting and making decision on a synergic way in Localizing Sustainable Development Projects. Pillars of sustainable development are represented by their experiences.

20. Project teams Coach Team Members Two international experts for each recipient sub-region/country One who has strong expertise on local capacity building, public participation, social mobilisation, and training One who is expert of local-regional strategy-making process. One local expert of development policy

21. Project teams Specialists They will be selected on the basis of special TOR on the following areas: local economic development, environmental impact assessment, human development, public administration, social capital (including local knowledge and universal primary education), integrative approach of sustainability, IT and Information Society, global partnership, gender and MDG-s.

22. Project teams Burning Spirit   Locally selected person in each pilot area, who is formal or informal leaders of local communities and gifted and motivated to mobilize local community on local level. Gate Keeper  Locally selected person from each pilot area, who has wide local knowledge on the field of the local history, cultural and natural resources, heritage and problems.

23. Local participants of LoSD projects Burning spirit, Gatekeeper Local stakeholders in one municipality: decision makers entrepreneurs civil initiatives

24. In one sub-region/country International coach team: Expert of local capacity building Expert of local strategy-making process Expert of the development policy of the country UNDP Focal Point

25. On project level Steering committee Project Manager Team of international specialists Coach team members

26. Intermediators Key participants of transition between local and international level: Coach team members and Focal Points

27. Network of localizing sustainable development

28. Flower of local sustainable development