March 2004, Bridget Oballa, Michael Lippe, Mohamed Halfani, Raf Tuts, Szilard Friscka / United Nations Centre for Human Settlements - Habitat (UNCHS), Transparency International (TI)
The product of a partnership between Transparency International (TI) and UN-HABITAT (the United Nations Human Settlements Programme), Tools to Promote Transparency in Local Governance has been developed under the umbrella of the Global Campaign on Urban Governance. It builds on the first toolkit developed by the Campaign to promote good urban governance, Tools to Promote Participatory Urban Decision-Making (PUDM).
Tools to Build Transparency in Local Governance appears just as we usher in the “Urban Millennium,” at a time when national and local governments across the world are beginning to recognise the inextricable linkages between urban poverty and good urban governance. As the UN agency responsible for monitoring the progress in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goal 7, Target 11, “Improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020”, UN-HABITAT plays an important role in promoting a wide range of efforts to reduce urban poverty. If poverty is understood not only as lack of access to livelihood and basic necessities but also exclusion from decision-making processes, improving the quality of governance in towns and cities forms a vital element in combating this phenomenon. Transparency is one of the key principles of good urban governance. Inadequate governance at the local level affects the poor in many ways, often enhancing exclusion. Lack of participation means that the poor often do not have a choice in determining their own development needs and priorities. Bureaucratic, complex and nontransparent municipal administrative practices lead to lower revenues, which in turn results in less spending on social programmes to benefit the poor. Non-responsive allocation of resources can lead to a disproportionate spending on the priorities of the better-off rather than on those of the poor. Non-transparent land allocation practices push the poor to the urban periphery and hazardous areas prone to earthquakes, landslides and floods, depriving them of secure access to a major productive asset. Moreover, poor women are even more severely affected by these phenomena as they often shoulder the major burden of household responsibilities and are more vulnerable to exploitation.
This Toolkit argues that the quality of urban governance can mean the difference between cities characterised by prosperity and inclusiveness and cities characterised by decline and social exclusion. It describes how increased transparency at the local level can help in combating urban poverty and enhancing civic engagement. Promoting transparency, through the application of a range of public education, public participation, e-governance, ethics and institutional reform instruments, can: Reduce citizen apathy, by building trust between local governments and other stakeholders, by reducing the opportunities for corruption at the local level, and by engaging all stakeholders in identifying development needs and setting priorities; Make service delivery contribute to poverty reduction, not only in improving the overall effectiveness of services, but also in terms of making services accessible to more citizens on an equitable basis; Increase city revenues, by increasing citizen confidence that the taxes collected are being used to improve the city, and by demonstrating the rule of law, particularly regarding contracts and property rights; Raise ethical standards, by enhancing the quality of political and professional leadership and instilling a sense of public service among elected, appointed and potential officials.
UN-HABITAT welcomes readers’ views on this Toolkit, including information on any other tools related to transparency and governance, lessons and experiences from the field, success stories as well as problems and challenges. The online version of the Toolkit will be updated regularly based on the feedback received.
