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11 Dec 2007
– A major outcome of the 2007 United Cities and Local
Governments World Congress in Jeju, Korea was the adoption of the "UCLG
Policy Paper on Local Finance." The paper contains 25 recommendations
for increasing local government access to infrastructure financing,
particularly in developing country cities where infrastructure planning
and construction have not kept pace with rapid urbanisation.
The UCLG Committee on Local Finance, a network of mayors and
representatives of national associations of local governments active in
local finance, drafted the policy paper.
The recommendations call on local governments, central governments,
donors, and international financial institutions to address urban
expansion and the accompanying infrastructure requirements by
redirecting development aid, and establishing national strategies to
boost local public investment. At the global level, UCLG advocates that
at least 20 percent of development aid and debt relief be allocated
directly to local governments to enable them to address poverty
reduction through public infrastructure provision. At the country level,
UCLG proposes boosting local public investment through several courses
of action: increased local government autonomy, fiscal decentralisation,
regular financial transfers from central to local governments, revenue
generation at the local level, and improving the ability of local
governments to borrow.
United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) represents and defends the
interests of local governments on the world stage, regardless of the
size of the communities they serve. Present in 136 of the 192 UN members
states in seven world regions, UCLG’s members include individual cities
and national associations of local governments, which represent all the
cities and local governments in a single country. Over 1000 cities
across 95 countries are direct members of UCLG. 112 Local Government
Associations (LGAs) are members of UCLG, representing almost every
existing LGA in the world. UCLG’s members represent over half of the
world’s total population.
7 Jul 2007
– The Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility
(PPIAF) announces a three-year pilot, the Sub-National Development
Technical Assistance Program (PPIAF-SND), to help sub-national entities
improve their creditworthiness so they can access market-based financing
on their own account without sovereign guarantees. The goal of this new
program is to help mobilize local capital for improvements in
infrastructure services and promote the development of local financial
markets.
Responsibility for meeting the enormous demand for new and better
infrastructure services in developing countries increasingly has shifted
from national to sub-national entities. But these entities, typically
local governments or utilities, often lack the policy and institutional
frameworks and especially the financial resources to fulfill this
responsibility. Filling this financial gap is not easy. Traditional
sources of sub-national financing require sovereign guarantees, which
are often inadequate because of fiscal constraints at the national level
or policies to promote local financial accountability.
The PPIAF-SND program will provide technical assistance grants to
support local governments and other sub-national entities:
- Access financing for infrastructure improvements from banks or bond
markets without relying on sovereign guarantees
- Obtain a credit rating or improve their rating from a recognized
credit rating agency
- Take measures to enhance their creditworthiness to potential lenders
with a view to achieving one of the above
Local governments with responsibilities for delivering infrastructure
services along with utilities, authorities, special districts, and
state-owned enterprises, will be eligible to receive the grants.
Development finance institutions with a primary focus on infrastructure
lending will also be eligible.
10 Jan 2007
– Workshop objectives:
- Identify common legal problems that local governments face while engaging international development initiatives.
- To examine actual available mechanisms to establish contracts between local authorities in different countries.
- To share solutions that local governments put into practice
- To examine contract law applicable and litigation mechanisms available
- To solve a series of case - studies in order to learning-by-doing
9 Jan 2006
30 Nov 2005
Read More News »
Author: United Cities and Local Governments
Updated: 10 Dec 2007
Author: United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG)
Updated: 10 Dec 2007
Author: RTI International
Updated: 20 Nov 2007
Author: USAID
Updated: 11 Oct 2007
Author: MFTF
Updated: 11 Oct 2007
See All Resources »
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