Global Campaign on Urban Governance
Inter-Agency Meeting on the Norms of Good Urban Governance
New York, 11 June 2001
Executive Summary
UNDP, UNCHS, UNHCHR, UNDESA and UNICEF met at the UNDP Offices in New York (see
Annex 1 for list of participants) on June 11, 2001, to discuss the norms of good urban governance
and consider ways and means to reach an agreed set of norms, or principles, across the agencies.
The following “Five Core Principles of Good Urban Governance” were agreed as a set that could
be put forward by each agency present to support their urban governance agendas: Equity,
Effectiveness, Accountability, Participation and Security. Inclusiveness is a cross-cutting
principle as well as a goal.
Each principle would require an explanatory paragraph giving more detail on what it actually
entailed, since it now covers a greater range than before. These 5 principles all have a strong
basis already in international agreements. As a next step, each agency is asked to further consider
this list of principles, seeing how they fit with agency work and priorities and get back to the
group with any further ideas or results.
Minutes of the Meeting
1.
Welcoming remarks and overview of the meeting purpose and expected outcomes
(Robertson Work, UNDP and Paul Taylor, UNCHS)
Rob Work welcomed everyone and pointed out that any discussion on the norms of good urban
governance raises the inevitable question of what is governance, what is good governance, and
what is good urban governance? Only by understanding what we mean by those concepts can we
move further in the discussion. UNDP takes a broad view of governance, seeing it as a system of
institutions, processes and values by which a society organises and manages itself to achieve
action in communities and cities. Urban governance focuses on the levels at which governance
operates. Good urban governance implies that these institutions, processes and values in
economic, social and political decision-making areas are undertaken in an inclusive way.
Norms of good urban governance, then, can be seen as principles, standards or values. However,
it is important to bear in mind that governance also refers to processes in addition to values.
Paul Taylor listed some the many different “labels” for norms found across UN Agencies:
principles, dimensions, characteristics, standards, articles, policy options and values. We have a
lot of choice but norms or principles seem to best describe what we are aiming at. He reiterated
that urban is a very important element which is often neglected despite overwhelming evidence of
urban trends. The issue of urban tends to be left out in discussions on poverty and we would like
to see urban put back on the agenda, as a key area to address poverty eradication.
The objective of this meeting is to both exchange information on what various agencies are doing
in the area of normative work and to work out areas of potential agreement and consensus. This
could be achieved through agreed norms or agreed frameworks. The main thing to keep in mind
is that ultimately we have the common goal to work together and support each other.
2.
Agency Perspectives on the Value and Use of Global Norms
UNCHS
Raf Tuts presented the UNCHS perspective, referring participants to the various documents
prepared in advance of the meeting. Raf explained that norms are the conceptual foundation of
the campaign, developed using different international agreements (see Annex Two), partner work
and Habitat experience as a basis.
The seven UNCHS norms have a key word together with an extended definition and paragraph to
explain what is meant by each one (see Annex Three: Declaration on the Norms of Good Urban
Governance). Further, each norm has a list of operational principles that highlight practical
means to implement these norms in a city. These operational principles can be adapted from city
to city or region to region. They are a means to explain the norms, give them regional flavour
and ground them in work already underway at the local level. UNCHS has had over 25 events at
the regional and global level over the past year, at which the norms and operational principles
were discussed and generally accepted. One change that resulted from those discussions was to
replace decentralisation with subsidiarity.
This Inter-Agency meeting today is just one of the five approaches that UNCHS is working on to
reach the goal of a Declaration on the Norms of Good Urban Governance (see Annex Four:
Initiating Brief on the Declaration on the Norms of Good Urban Governance for details). A table
comparing various norms from different sources is just the start of a review of how other agencies
are addressing this (see Annex Five).
UNICEF
Theresa Kilbane and Dorothy Rozga reported that UNICEF adopted a rights-based approach to
programming in 1998, and this means that all programmes are based on realising the rights of
women and children. These human rights principles are applied in all phases and sectors of
programming, and UNICEF has worked with UNDP to help achieve this. UNICEF is currently
translating 4 principles into indicators and standards with municipal governments in 18 cities.
UNHCHR
Rio Hada noted he was pleased to see that existing human rights conventions had been used as a
source and base for the Declaration on the Norms of Good Urban Governance. Governance is a
broad concept and measurement and definitions vary, but there is a consensus emerging around
four pillars of good governance: transparency, responsibility, accountability and participatory
government responsive to the needs to the people. In addition to this, non-discrimination and
attention to vulnerable groups is important in the definition. This consensus is reflected in the
Commission on Human Rights resolution 2001/72, which was adopted without a vote in April
2001.
Rio stated that many UN agencies are adopting a rights-based approach to development, but
human rights are not just about freedom of speech, they are also about rights to basic services,
shelter, food, etc.
UNDESA
Gay Rosenblum-Kumar of UNDESA briefed on agency work in this area, which involves
generating understanding and skills for the excluded to be involved in decision-making and in
management to help local government strengthen links with central government and public
private partnerships.
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UNDP
Jonas Rabinovitch reported that over half of UNDP programmes in the field refer to governance
in their work and therefore definitions are very helpful. Government alone cannot fulfill the
goals of major UN Conferences in the 1990’s, so the relationship between government, civil
society and the private sector is critical (the governance triangle). The International Conference
on Sustainable Growth and Development in 1997 came up with a series of characteristics of good
urban governance. These were taken on board by TUGI in 1999 and have been part of a
successful campaign in the Asia region since then. Jonas stressed the importance of working
together, explaining that a long process has led us to where we are today. With the Millenium
Declaration, governments have agreed that good governance is a goal; what is needed now are
indicators to measure and implement.
The Urban Governance Initiative (TUGI) / UNDP
Sri Sofjan explained that TUGI started with nine characteristics of good urban governance.
These characteristics have many similarities with the UNCHS norms but using two different lists
resulted in a lot of confusion. TUGI has already merged the two lists (adding subsidiarity and
security to their original list), bringing the number of characteristics to eleven.
Urban Management Programme, UNCHS/UNDP
Dinesh explained that the Urban Management Programme works with the goals of efficiency,
equity, sustainability and, as there is increasing agreement that governance is more than
government, participation. Operationally, this means that these goals are combined with
participatory processes (modality) and together lead to measurable results. Paul emphasized that
the current set of norms has a mixture of both goals and modalities. In our discussion around
norms it is important to keep in mind the need to ultimately measure progress in implementing
the norms of good urban governance.
3.
Discussion on the process of promoting the Norms or Principles of Good Urban
Governance and the way forward
Rob summarized the discussion by acknowledging that it would be hard to find people who
would disagree with these various norms. Our task, then, is to determine what benefit these
norms offer and how do we, as agencies and programmes, use them. Stressing the link between
normative debate, advocacy and capacity-building, Raf provided an example of how the norms
were used in the recent campaign launch in Nigeria, when the action plan laid out specific means
and methods to achieve the priority norms, such as a safety audit, participatory budgeting and
capacity-building for local leaders.
In response to the question on how this Declaration on the Norms of Good Urban Governance
would go forward to the General Assembly, it was explained that CHS18 encouraged a continued
discussion on the norms of good urban governance at the national level. However, there was still
resistance from many member states around the idea of norms of good urban governance, so this
process would run in parallel to other strategies (see Annex 4: IB on Declaration on the Norms of
Good Urban Governance) and may require a longer time frame than anticipated.
Responding to a question on the real need for yet another declaration, Rio Hada explained that
despite having many of these norms “backed up” in international declarations, it is also important
to bring them together under the urban governance and poverty eradication banners –
international instruments mention neither of these.
It was emphasized that normative debate is only one element to achieve the goal of good urban
governance and is not sufficient in itself. The Urban Governance Campaign has three elements to
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achieve its goals: normative debate, capacity-building and advocacy. Working in combination,
these three elements are mutually supportive and help ensure raised awareness and capacity to
implement the norms. Dialogue and support for good urban governance from the bottom up, both
in terms of norms and operation, is key.
It was suggested that the campaign should work with UNDAF structures – determining how
much has been achieved on preparing common frameworks and how those link with our
normative focus. There would be scope to influence UNDAF with our norms as well. This was
agreed but it was noted that the UNDAF has a different modality in every country and doesn’t
necessarily lead to an agreed way of working at the local level.
4.
Agreement on a Common Core Set of Norms
The discussion then focused on reaching agreement on a common core set of norms. These
norms, or principles, should be on the same level (e.g. goals vs. modalities) and if possible the list
should be reduced rather than expanded. This would help clarify thinking and make the norms
easier to remember and “sell” in the field. The discussion started with those norms everyone has
in common, and for which there is strong international support, such as transparency,
accountability, equity, sustainability and participation. Wide discussion followed on these and
other norms, how they would fit together, how to present them (as a single list, as a hierarchy or
as a matrix showing goals, modalities and results), what number of norms to agree on, etc.
A broader list that paired related norms was considered, but was deemed too complicated. A
single word should represent the norm, or principle, with an explanatory paragraph giving more
details on which components it actually entailed, since it now covers a greater range than before.
The question of what to call this list was discussed, and it was proposed that this would be the
“Five Core Principles of Good Urban Governance”. Ultimately, a final list was agreed:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Five Core Principles of Good Urban Governance
Equity (includes sustainability, gender equality and intergenerational equity)
Effectiveness (includes efficiency, subsidiarity and strategic vision)
Accountability (includes transparency, rule of law and responsiveness)
Participation (includes citizenship, consensus orientation and civic engagement)
Security (includes conflict resolution, human security and environmental safety
Inclusiveness runs through each of these principles.
Other principles, it was felt, could fit under one of these core principles. This core set can be
added to by other agencies, but will form the rallying point for advocacy within the UN system.
Rio Hada will review the five principles from the perspective of international human rights law.
5.
Closing Remarks
Each agency was asked to further consider this list of principles, seeing how they fit with agency
work and priorities and whether or not they will be acceptable. Participants were asked to work
with and operationalise these principles, if possible, and when the group meets next lessons, ideas
and results from that work will be discussed.
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