Promoting a Dialogue about City-to-City Decentralized Cooperation
27 November 2014, Washington DC, USA – With the objective of looking at some best cooperation practices within the United Nations System and to support collaboration among the cities of the South, UNITAR’s Decentralized Cooperation Programme (DCP) jointly with the World Alliance of Cities Against Poverty (WACAP) and the UN Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) hosted the Forum titled “City-to-City Decentralized Cooperation in the Framework of Triangular and South-South Cooperation” at the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington, DC on 19 - 20 November 2014.
The Forum brought together donors, government officials and development organizations for a dialogue on decentralized cooperation. The Deputy Director of UNOSSC Ms. Inyang Ebong-Harstrup provided an overview about WACAP and proposed a new framework for south-south cooperation.
Among the speakers was Mr. Julio Andrade, Deputy Mayor of the City of Malaga, Spain who shared about the importance of city to city cooperation to address key issues. Mr. Andrade highlighted the partnership between Malaga and Tripoli, Lebanon, to develop a GIS system for the city to better plan for the delivery of services to citizens. A similar partnership between Malaga and the Moroccan city of Chefchaouan upgraded the city’s document management and human resource management systems.
Estrella Merlos from UNITAR provided an overview of the CIFAL Global Network and how it serves as a platform to link cities across the world to share knowledge and enhance local public services for sustainable development. CIFAL’s face-to-face and on-line training programmes address the interlinked challenges of climate change, energy scarcity, and the uncertain provision of basic goods such as food and water. Ms. Merlos shared some of the experiences of the network across Latin America and proposed a few ways the networked can be linked with WACAP to explore and expand ways to strengthen both.
Mr. Ronald Derks, Policy Advisor of the City of Rotterdam shared different perspectives on the way forward for WACAP and his vision from Rotterdam on decentralized cooperation, as well as how the Alliance can benefit from a shift to the south.
Other speakers at the Forum include Mr. Charles Cadwell, Director of the Urban Institute in Washington, DC; Mr. Adam Kaplan, Vice-President of Sister Cities International; Mr. Pierre Martinot-Lagaarde, ILO advisor in the department of Partnerships and Field support, responsible for partnerships with NGOs, Parliamentarians association, Local governments and academia.
In this framework, UNITAR’s Affiliated International Training Centre in South Korea- CIFAL Jeju, participated at the Global South-South Cooperation Development Expo to showcase initiatives promoted by the Centre and South Korea that are fostering long term cooperation among urban leaders to make their cities safer, more resilient and sustainable, accessible and livable for all. The Expo took place from 17 - 21 November 2014 at the OAS and was attended by over 700 leaders worldwide.
Photo 1: participants of the workshop
Photo 2: exhibition stand