Cities as partners: the challenge to strengthen urban governance through North-South city partnerships

Abstract

During the last decades, local governments have increasingly become recognised as actors in international development cooperation. It has been estimated that today 70% of the world’s cities are engaged in some form of international cooperation. Many of these relations connect the developed and the developing world (‘North’ and ‘South’). They put cities at the core of international cooperation, both as development agents and as beneficiaries. In the light of world-wide ongoing decentralisation of government, globalisation and urbanisation trends, the changing role of local government and increased attention to good governance as a precondition for development, municipal partnerships are more and more employed as instruments for cities and communities to assist one another by means of knowledge sharing, the transfer of resources and technology, and joint cooperation. Cities – both local administrations and civil societies - partner up and their partnerships seek to contribute to a variety of objectives, including poverty alleviation and institutional strengthening. The concept of urban governance recognises that decision-making power exists both inside and outside local government institutions, diminishing the distinction between the public and private spheres. In order to achieve good, participatory local governance that contributes to local development, people and institutions need to be brought together. Both a strong local government and citizenry are therefore needed. Set against this background, this study aims to gain insight into the relevance and potential of North-South city-to-city cooperation with regard to strengthening urban governance in the South. Moreover, it seeks to understand better the factors affecting this potential. These factors include (supra)national policies and legislation; local political and organisational conditions necessary for municipalities to operate in international cooperation; actors involved, their responsibilities and relations; and conditions to build capacity and exchange knowledge trough partnerships in a North-South context. Drawing on a comparative study of four North-South city partnerships involving cities in Peru, Nicaragua, South Africa, the Netherlands and Germany, this study shows that city-to-city cooperation is successful in improving the effectiveness of local government to supply good service delivery, while it proves more difficult to strengthen civil society to demand good services. Thanks to their specific municipal expertise, cities can be meaningful partners in international cooperation and generate results where other donors do not. Their role is also vulnerable however, as an official municipal mandate for international cooperation is lacking. Political resistance, little financial resources and insufficient knowledge of poverty and development processes may undermine this role.