The Role of Local and Regional Authorities in the UN Development Agenda Post-2015

This paper highlights the importance for development of well-functioning local governments with the capacity to work with their low-income populations. It also stresses how the contribution of local governments in implementing and “localizing” the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is rarely recognized or acted on by national governments and international agencies.

The paper discusses how getting the best out of local governments is fundamental not only to the MDGs but also to most of the goals and targets being discussed for post-2015. It describes how local government is hardly mentioned in almost all of the 20 thematic think pieces prepared for a consideration of the post-2015 process. The UN system and the official aid agencies and development banks fail to understand, and thus to support, the contributions of local governments and even to acknowledge them as stakeholders. The MDGs may be clear about what they want to achieve but they say very little about who needs to act to meet the goals and targets, and how they are resourced and supported to do so.
The paper highlights three primary concerns for the post-2015 preparations:

• the explicit recognition of local authorities as primary agents in the achievement of most of the MDGs and SDGs;
• attention to local governments’ capacity to deliver on their mandated responsibilities; and
• attention to the possibilities of local citizens and civil society to hold their local governments to account, and their capacity to do so and also to work with local government.

The paper ends with recommendations for the post-2015 agenda on: rethinking goals and targets to encourage and support local buy-in and local action with regard to reducing inequalities, food security for all, and more attention to the roles and responsibilities of local governments and civil society organizations in addressing MDG and post-MDG goals and targets and in systems that monitor progress within each locality; reforms to official data collection services so that these serve local governments (for instance, with data identifying where needs are concentrated within each local jurisdiction); and a fundamental revision of the institutional and financial framework to underpin the goals and targets, which includes a much greater capacity to work with and support local governments and community organizations.