Local governance

Development role of local authorities

These bodies have a crucial role to play in EU development policy because they represent local interests and decentralised political power – preconditions for a genuinely democratic development.

This “people-oriented” approach has been recognised in many important political commitments made by the EU:

National and regional associations of local authorities are also becoming more important – for information, building administrative capacity and dialogue. The EU and other development bodies are realising how useful they can be as channels for reaching the local authorities themselves and engaging them in dialogue.

Implementing aid effectively

To ensure their development role is as productive as possible, local authority policies and measures should be in line with the five principles outlined in the Paris declaration on aid effectiveness:

ownership
alignment
harmonisation
results-based management
mutual accountability

Act Locally to Succeed Globally

Founded on the principles of participation, transparency and responsibility, democratic local governance is fundamental for making local public institutions (municipalities, regions, etc.) more efficient and for responding better to the citizens’ needs.

It is an inclusive decision-making process which allows for development strategies to be adapted to local needs and to take into consideration local socio-cultural nuances.

Democratic local governance is manifested in a participatory approach through the preparation, implementation and management of programmes and local development projects whose main objective is the equal access to essential services such as health, water, education, justice for everyone, respect and promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Communication "Local Authorities: Actors for development"

The European Union promotes decentralised cooperation across the thematic programme “Non-state actors and local authorities in development” and also across various other regional programmes which support direct cooperation between local authorities and non-state organisation from the EU and partner countries.

The Communication “Local authorities: actors for development” from October 2008 r ecognises the importance of territorial authorities in development and looks to capitalise on and maximise their experience in this area. It is aimed at launching a process to promote more involvement of local authorities in development , in a coherent, strategic framework. To this end, a document fixing the outline for cooperation action in terms of support for local governance in local authorities is annexed in the Communication.

The Communication identifies other initiatives to encourage decentralised cooperation:

identification of actors and activities to better coordinate and respond to needs
“decentralised cooperation market” so that the supply and demand of local authorities, north and south, in this domain can meet and new partnerships can be more easily made
support for “twinnings” and the exchange of experiences in this domain and support for national networks of local authorities in partner countries

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