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Africa's future is urban: Implications for EU development policy and cooperation
ODI (2018)
This paper builds on ongoing research to map relevant trends in the African continent and propose new directions for the EU's urban agenda for Africa. It identifies priority issues, outlines the EU's funding instruments and makes a number of recommendations for EU engagement with cities.
Get AccessResilient Cities Report 2018
ICLEI (2018)
Resilient Cities is the annual global forum on urban resilience and adaptation convened in Bonn, Germany. The congress series provides an international platform to share the latest knowledge, good practices, challenges, and innovations for creating more resilient cities. It also serves as an annual meeting point to track local progress on the resilience targets of Sustainable Development Goal 11 to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. This report reflects the outcomes of the Resilient Cities 2018 congress and global developments in the field of urban resilience and climate change adaptation.
Get AccessDeveloping Urban Futures
The Urban Age (2018)
The newspaper for the 17th Urban Age Conference in Addis Ababa consists of different essays. The topics range from "On hold with Jakarta" to "Africa's Urban Transformation'. Challenges for cities worldwide and especially African cities are analysed. It shows that decentralisation without financing and local capacity is a major issue. Decentralisation needs a political will.
Get AccessState of Local Economic Development Implementation in Africa
UCLG Africa (2018)
This assessment of local economic development (LED) programmes and projects in Africa documents ongoing initiatives and innovations developed in Africa on LED, but also reports on emerging narratives and debates emerging from these experiments. The publication deals with the genesis and debates on local economic development in Africa, looks at the space, the territory and the time in the implementation of LED programmes and projects, and analyses the regional dimension of the five thematic axes and the twelve LED guiding principles.
Get AccessSub-National Governments in Africa – Situation and Challenges
UCLG Africa (2018)
In virtually all regions of Africa, the principle of self-government translates into a transfer of competencies previously exercised by central governments to sub-national governments. These bodies, within the framework of the exercise of these competencies, benefit from the legal persona and the financial autonomy necessary for the good fulfilment of their public missions. Although there are often large differences between African countries in terms of local governments' competencies, their definition has been an important aspect of decentralisation policies. This paper attempts to provide precise answers to questions on the quantity, regional distribution of the sub-national governments in Africa, as well as analyse leeway offered to them by their central governments.
Get AccessAssessing the Institutional Environment of Local Governments in Africa
UCLG Africa (2018)
The purpose of this publication is to alert the national governments of Africa of the urgent need to establish an environment conducive to the initiative and autonomy of the cities and local authorities by providing an assessment that allows them to benchmark themselves against the minimum standars required for cities and local authorities to contribute significantly to effective management of urbanisation in Africa. For each country, the publication outlines proposals for the reform that serve as a basis for technical and financial support from UCLG Africa and its partners. The 2018 edition adds two new criteria that correspond to Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement, namely climate change and gender.
Get AccessThe SDGs at City Level: Mumbai’s Example
Paula Lucci and Alainna Lynch; ODI (2016)
With urbanisation ever increasing, how countries deal with growing urbanisation over the next 15 years will define governments' ability to achieve most of the SDGs. Analysing the performance on three SDG targets at slum and settlement levels in Mumbai, this report provides recommendations for early action regarding SDG implementation in cities.
Get AccessAchieving the Impossible: Can We Be SDG 16 Believers?
Alan Whaites; OECD GovNet (2016)
This paper focuses on SDG 16 and discusses how development partners and other actors can better support developing countries to achieve this goal. The development community needs to focus increasingly on factors that can either positively or negatively influence the speed of progress on governance reform. Taking advantage of these factors, however, will require many development actors to radically change their practice.
Get AccessMainstreaming the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: Reference Guide to UN Country Teams
UNDP (2016)
This reference guide is designed to support Member States and national stakeholders in adapting the 2030 Agenda to national contexts. It featureas an array of UNDP's approaches and tools to adapt the Agenda to national, sub-national and local conditions and realities. Section B3 and B5 (creating vertical policy coherence) are especially interesting in the context of Localising the SDGs.
Get AccessSharing Responsibilities and Resources among Levels of Governments: Localizing the Sustainable Development Goals
Paule Smoke; UN (2016)
This paper discusses the implementation of the SDGs through local governance and decentralisation. It highlights the gap between theory and practise of decentralisation and intergovernmental reforms. Systems and institutional development varies among countries. The national and historic context has a major influence on the shape and structure of the subnational governments. This is why decentralisation is best based on a broad-based country consensus. The paper provides a way for adapting the SDGs in local contexts.
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