Financial Autonomy of Local Authorities: Tools and Strategies to enhance resource mobilization

Douala, Cameroon, June 8 – 12, 2009 - CIFAL Ouagadougou in partnership with United Cities and Municipalities of Cameroon organized a training session on Financial Autonomy of Local Authorities and the tools to improve resource mobilization for local officials, senior municipal managers and central service representatives (tax department, territorial administration and decentralization department). 30 participants from 11 African countries took part to this training (Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Togo).
 
As part of the decentralization process and simultaneously to the transfer of competence, African countries must ensure effective financial resources transfer and support local capacity building for governance and management. However problems reside when attempting to accord competence and resource transfers. Government subsidies are occasional and uncertain additionally local running costs of municipalities are completely to their responsibility. This weak/absent resource allocation resulting in the lack of financial autonomy represents a major obstacle for local development.

This 5 day session enabled participants to take stock of:
  • Local resources typology
  • Local resource mobilization constraints
  • Technical tools to enhance resource mobilization
  • Implementation strategies to enhance the autonomy of local authorities
 
For more information, please visit http://www.cifal-ouaga.org/

 

More than 1000 participants at the Africa Carbon Forum points to the eagerness and potential for offset projects in Africa.
More than 1,000 participants from both the private and public sector from Africa and other parts of the world turned up for the second Africa Carbon Forum that took place at the United Nations, Gigiri complex 3-5 March 2010.
The Forum organized by the Nairobi Framework Partners sought to build interest in the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in Africa, by bringing together all stakeholders of CDM in Africa (such as CDM national designated authorities, project developers, buyers and service providers from both the private and public sector) in order to catalyze CDM activity on the continent in areas such as Agriculture, Forestry and Land use.
“Before when we talked about Africa, it was all about the need to raise capacity and raise awareness about the potential for offset projects in Africa. Now we see a higher level of understanding, we see a real eagerness to get involved” said John Kilani of the UNFCCC Secretariat on behalf of the Nairobi Framework Partners.
UNITAR as a partner of the Nairobi Framework was engaged in the organization of the successful forum, and sponsored the participation of project developers from Africa to attend the forum to meet potential buyers as well as exchange ideas with others like them.
Josephine Ossiya a project developer form Uganda said: “The Africa Carbon Forum was very educative as it brought home the concept of carbon credits and how our economies and communities can benefit from it. Some of the success stories shared especially the agriculture related ones were very inspiring given that Uganda is an agricultural economy and  I saw a lot of opportunity that can be exploited to improve our communities.”
The UNITAR Climate Change Programme is involved in capacity development initiatives for developing countries and continues to partner with others to support the increased ability of developing countries to address climate change.
The number of participants at the Africa Carbon Forum points to the immense interest for CDM projects in Africa and the potential for carbon markets and trading. At the same time however many of the participants whilst interested in the carbon projects, expressed the need to understand the costing of CDM projects and the real market opportunity for Certified Emissions Reductions.
In November 2006, then Secretary-General Kofi Annan launched the Nairobi Framework to spread the benefits of the CDM to developing countries and since then, interest in the mechanism has grown but Africa still accounts for less than two percent of the 2,040 plus CDM  projects registered to date in 62 countries.
By bringing together potential buyers and sellers, the Africa Carbon Forum is one way of increasing this figure.
 
His Excellency President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya, Opening the Second All Africa Carbon Forum in Nairobi 3, March 2010
   
The Partners of the Nairobi Frame work include: UNITAR, International Emissions Trading Association (IETA), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), The World Bank (WB),  The African Development Bank (AFDB),  United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change( UNFCCC).
For more information about UNITAR’s participation please contact Sharon OSEKU, Sharon.oseku@unitar.org and visit the Africa Carbon Forum Website.