Recordings and Slides of DeLoG, ADB, LOGIN Asia and GIZ's two part Webinar Series on "How the COVID-19 Crisis Challenges Resilience and Functionality of Multi-level Governance Systems in Asia" Now Available
© DeLoG Secretariat
To view the recording of the first webinar, click here.
To view the recording of the second webinar, please follow this link.
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Background
The outbreak of the Covid-19 crisis has significant (and still escalating) impacts on social and economic development in Asia. A recent report by the UN’s Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP) has highlighted the economic implications of quarantines, travel restrictions, lockdown of cities and suspension of production activities which greatly reduce demand in service sectors (such as tourism, retail, hospitality, and civil aviation), decrease demand for commodities (such as oil), disrupt international supply chains, and jeopardize economic activities and employment opportunities in the manufacturing industry. ADB’s Asian Development Outlook Supplement of June 2020 predicted that developing Asia will barley grow in 2020 due to effects of the Covid-19 pandemic; the expected 0.1% growth rate would be the region’s slowest growth rate in six decades. A V-shaped recovery seems unlikely; “sovereign and financial crises cannot be ruled out, and social unrest is possible.” Similarly, OECD expects gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2020 to decline by 2.9% on average in emerging Asia (ASEAN, China and India).
Beside the macro-economic implications of Covid-19, there are socio-economic and potentially political implications which are more difficult to capture and to extrapolate. The crisis has shown the precarious situation of workers in the informal sector, as illustrated by the fate of migrant workers in India, but also elsewhere. Covid-19 has put tremendous pressure on public finances as governments struggle to provide relief to individuals, and subsidies and financial support to the private sector. Responding to the crisis has also been a test for the resilience and functionality of existing arrangements in multi-level governance systems, be it the clarity of mandates of each level (national – provincial/state – local), the distribution of revenue sources, the effectiveness of existing coordination and information sharing systems, or the functionality of oversight arrangements to ensure compliance by sub-national authorities with national-level instructions and policies.
In this context, ADB, the Secretariat of the Development Partners’ Network on Decentralisation and Local Governance (DeLoG), the Local Governance Initiative and Network (LOGIN) Asia, and GIZ (German Development Cooperation), represented by the Capacity Development Support to Governance Programme (Nepal) and the Transformation of Administration (TRANSFORMASI) Programme (Indonesia), will offer two webinars exploring the implications of the Covid-19 crisis to multilevel governance systems in the region.
Webinar I:
The first webinar of the series was conducted on the 02 of September and explored the policy and strategy challenges for Asia’s multi-level systems. Key questions addressed by the first webinar included:
- How can political, fiscal and administrative features of multi-level systems be improved to cope with the medium-term implications of Covid-19?
- What are appropriate support strategies by regional and international organisations?
- How can we improve the exchange and mutual learnings between DMC on lessons learnt from the crisis?
- What will be implications for realising the 2030 Agenda in the region, and for the efforts to localize SDGs?
- How can developed economies (i.e. OECD countries) support emerging economies in efforts to recover?
To access the slides of the webinar, please click here.
Speakers and Panelists of Webinar I:
- Bruno Carrasco, Chief of Governance Thematic Group Thematic Advisory Service Cluster, Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department, Asian Development Bank
- Dorothée Allain-Dupré, Head, Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE), Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
- Dr. Gabe Ferrazzi, University of Gulph (Canada): Multilevel Governance in Combating COVID19: Emerging Lessons
- Moderation: Christian Luy, Coordinator, DeLoG Secretariat
Webinar II:
The second webinar of the series on “Coping with the Crisis: Multi-level Systems in Action” was conducted on the 10th of September from 02:00 pm to 03:30 CET. Key questions addressed by the second webinar included:
- When responding to the Covid-19 crisis, were the legal mandates of each level sufficiently clear? What was the role of local governments in crisis response/management? Did each level know what it was supposed to do? Is there a need for a more thorough functional assignment analysis in this field?
- What has been (and still is) the actual role of the different levels of government and administration (national – intermediate – local) in responding to the crisis? Why are institutional responses and setups on the local level so important for the COVID-19 crisis response?
- How effective and efficient were existing mechanisms and processes of coordination and communication between levels of government and administration?
- To what extent did the governments use digital tools for data gathering and sharing, for sharing information & and raising awareness raising, for tracking Covid-19 cases and infection chains?
To access the slides of the webinar, please click here.
Speakers and Panelists of Webinar II:
- Dr. Dhawal Shumshere Rana, Mayor of Nepalgunj, Nepal
- Sarada Muraleedharan (Ms) (IAS), Principal Secretary, Local Self-Government Department, Kerala, India
- Ahmed Javed Qazi, Secretary Local Government and Community Development, Punjab, Pakistan
- Prof. Dr. Diah Natalisah, MBA, Deputy for Public Service Delivery, Ministry for Administrative Reform, Indonesia