Newsletter – n°28 – November 2014

The world at a glance

Adopted at the conclusion of the High Level Dialogue which brought together national, local and regional representatives and civil society organisations from more than 30 countries, the Turin Communiqué reasserts that local and regional governments (LRGs) are key partners in the pursuit of sustainable development.

The meeting, hosted by the municipality of Turin (Italy), thus concludes the process on localising the post-2015 agenda, launched in 2013, through the adoption of a strong document and which is supported by a wide range of stakeholders.

The Communiqué recalls that, for the post-2015 agendas to succeed, a reinforcement of LRGs is necessary, and likewise calls for the recognition of decentralised cooperation (North-South and South-South) and the support of direct exchanges between local authorities.

During the discussions, participants equally recognised the importance of an ownership by citizens, possible through local and regional authorities, the representatives closest to the citizens, and through partnerships with civil society organisations.

The conclusions of the “Global dialogue on localising the Post-2015 Development Agenda” will be forwarded to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and will contribute to the report to be submitted to the UN General Assembly at the end of 2014.

The next steps will be to strengthen the advocacy efforts in favour of localising the global agenda and to include LRGs in the negotiations led by the UN. Everyone can contribute, namely by supporting initiatives that demonstrate the added value of LRGs in the implementation and follow-up of the Sustainable Development Goals and by promoting the best practices that can contribute to the localisation of the development framework.

The High Level Dialogue, which took place the 14^th and 15^th of October 2014, was the culmination of the dialogue process on localising the post-2015 development agenda and aimed to identify the role of stakeholders, the concrete mechanisms, the tools and the processes necessary to effectively translate the agenda to a local context. The process was jointly led by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) and the Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments for Post-2015 Agenda and towards Habitat III.