Knowledge

URBANET Spotlight on Good Governance

Urbanet (2019)

URBANET, a website focusing on news around the topics Municipal and Local Governance, Sustainable Urban Development and Decentralisation, recently published a series of articles focused on different aspects of Good Governance. These articles tackle different topics, such as Municipal Finance, Digital Transformation, La Paz’s successful anti-corruption experience, the support of micro-businesses and start-ups, and the benefits of open contracting on behalf of modernising city governments.

How Local Rules Can Promote Inclusive Land Governance in Tanzania

IIED (2019)

Tanzania faces population growth and growing commercial interests as well as conservative initiatives. This growth and the rise of land-related conflicts threaten rural people’s access to land and tenure security. This briefing paper identifies the development of local rules as a key element for stronger and more equitable land governance. An inclusive and ‘gender sensitive’ approach could help to overcome land-related conflicts.

URBANET Spotlight in Municipal Finance

Urbanet (2019)

This URBANET Spotlight-series focuses on municipal finance. These articles explore why it is important to teach financial literacy and for example, how the African platform Grassroots empowers citizens to work on better communities.

How to Formulate a National Urban Policy - A Practical Guide

UN-Habitat (2019)

One of the main goals of a National Urban Policy (NUP) is to achieve better wellbeing for all and to ensure nobody is left behind. This can be

achieved through, for instance, poverty reduction, improved environmental conditions and climate resilience, economic development, social and spatial integration, better governance and institutional planning. This guide provides a framework for undertaking the formulation of a NUP. It provides practical steps and a coordinated process to formulate an urban policy that adheres to five key principles: participation, inclusion, affordability, sustainability and implementability.

Good Financial Governance Programme (GFG) in Tanzania: Examination of Taxation Costs for Market Traders in Mwanza

GIZ (2019)

Commissioned by GIZ and Ambero the study ‘Examination of taxation costs for market traders in Mwanza’ examines discrimination and bias in market taxation in Mwanza City, Tanzania, concerning a number of demographic factors such as gender, age or education. The study is able to demonstrate that female traders face higher fiscal burdens concerning access to public goods and services, especially the use of toilets. Based on these findings the study gives recommendations on how to adapt the market taxation system in order to better account for the identified biases.

The objective of the study is to follow up on previous findings of gender-based discrimination in market taxation in Tanzania and to initiate a gender-sensitive revenue incidence dialogue to discuss the results of the study and their implications for key stakeholders.

Multi-Level Climate Governance Supporting Local Action

GIZ (2018)

Two thirds of the world’s population - 6.3 billion people - a re projected to live in urban areas by 2050. Already now, cities significantly contribute to climate change and at the same time face particular consequences that result from it. As the cities that will house this booming urban population are yet to be built in the next few decades, there is an unprecedented opportunity to respond to climate change through urban transformation.

Against this background, the present study explores the following question: How can different instruments for multi-level climate governance support the realisation of local climate mitigation and adaptation potentials?

Spotlight on Sustainable Development 2019 - Reshaping Governance for Sustainability: Transforming Institutions - Shifting Power - Strengthening Rights

Spotlight Report (2019)

'The implementation of the 2030 Agenda is not just a matter of better policies. It requires more holistic and more sweeping shifts in how power is vested, including through institutional and governance reforms.' This is the main message of the Spotlight Report 2019, one of the most comprehensive independent assessments of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. The report was launched on the day before the opening of the High-Level Political Forum at the United Nations in New York by a global coalition of civil society organisations and trade unions. The

contributions cover most aspects of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs (and beyond), and reflect the rich geographic and cultural diversity of their authors.

How Donors Can Deliver on the 'Leave No One Behind Commitment'

ODI (2019)

This working paper sets out some proposals aimed at bilateral donors, with a focus on health and education policies. Next, the paper examines the thorny question of value for money. For some donors who take a human rights-based or ‘prioritarian’ approach, needing to justify value for money of interventions is less of an issue. Finally, the paper considers what might be the optimal institutional set-up to deliver on the LNOB agenda. Here there are no clear answers, but it presents some proposals informed by the findings in the rest of the paper.

The Relevance of Social Policies for Democracy: Preventing Autocratisation through Synergies between SDG10 and SDG16

German Development Institute (2019)

This paper assesses the effects of social and economic inequalities on autocratisation, meaning a decline in the democratic qualities of a political regime. The key question it studies is whether different types, levels and changes in distributional inequalities (SDG

10) contribute to the erosion of democratic institutions, thereby making governance less inclusive (SDG 16). The paper focusses, in particular, on distributional inequalities and more or less inclusive forms of governance (autocracy vs. democracy).

Sustainable Development Through Local Action

UCLG CIB (2018)

This study aims to provide an in-depth insight into the involvement of Local Government Associations (LGAs) in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with focus on national reporting efforts to the UN ECOSOC High-Level Political Forum as set out through the Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) submitted by national governments. The study identifies problems LGAs experience when localising SDGs and engaging in the national VNR reporting process. It shows what LGAs can learn from each other, and identifies a number of policy recommendations, notably in respect of engaging with the forthcoming 2019 VNR and its follow-up.