The UN-CSD meets each year at the UN Headquarters in New York and participation is open to both government and civil society. Its annual meetings are organised into two-year cycles; the first year of each cycle is a review year, discussion-focused, and the second is a policy year, implementation focused. CSD-16 was a “review year”, with the thematic clusters for the period 2008-2009 being Agriculture, Rural Development, Land, Drought and Desertification. Previous decisions from CSD-13 on “Water and Sanitation” were also up for review during this year’s session. With the geographic focus being on Africa this year, CSD-16 was particularly well attended by strong African national delegations (South Africa had four senior ministers present for the High Level Segment) as well as prominent African NGO’s and other representatives.
ICLEI coordinated the Local Government delegation in its role as the Local Authorities Major Group (one of nine official Major Groups). The ICLEI Africa Office led and coordinated the Local Government delegation and very fortunate that UNDESA sponsored two representative Mayors from Africa as part of the Local Government delegation.
Ms Kobie Brand, Regional Director of ICLEI Africa, coordinated the Local Government inputs and delegation at CSD-16. The two African Mayors, who both attended the entire two-week event and actively participated in all aspects of the meetings and events, represented both West and East Africa. They were Mayor Arba Diallo from the City of Dori in Burkina Faso and Mayor David Gikaria from Nakuru in Kenya (Nakuru has been an active ICLEI member for the last 6 years). Other key delegates included Mr David Cadman, ICLEI’s President from the City of Vancouver (Canada), who also delivered the opening plenary statement on behalf of the Local Government Major Group, and Hansa Patel, an ICLEI Executive Committee Member from India.
Already in his opening statement, the ICLEI President stressed the urgency for national government and the international community to recognise the increasingly prominent and crucial role that cities and local authorities do, could and should play when it comes to implementation around the thematic areas of CSD-16 and Water and Sanitation. This argument was carried through successfully for the duration of CSD-16 (through nine formal and many informal interventions). The message was expanded and adapted to the various thematic areas as appropriate, with the added dimension that national governments should not only decisively recognise the role of cities but also devolve necessary mandates down to the local level, coupled with the needed resources to enable local authorities to deliver on the ground. This includes urgently needed political mandates, capacity building, skills development and financial and other resources.
The consolidated Local Government message was well received by delegates and the Chairman alike, with the result that it was significantly incorporated into the Part 1 of the Chair’s Summary Report, which is downloadable from the CSD website.
Nearly 700 major groups' representatives from 126 organisations participated in CSD-16. The Major groups made a total of 152 interventions at CSD-16 - a record number for any CSD meeting. They spoke during thematic, regional, and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) discussions; participated in three interactive major groups' dialogue segments and two high-level roundtables; made comments on the Chair’s draft; and provided opening and closing statements.
In addition to formal plenary engagement, the Local Government delegation also hosted an official side event, entitled: “Dialogue on the Sustainability of African Cities”, which was well attended and led to interesting debate from a variety of high level and other CSD delegates. The arguments about the need for increased roles and recognition of cities and local government in general were widely recognised and supported across all themes, and also as it relates to integrated water resources management (IWRM).
