The 2030 Agenda cannot be achieved without local and regional governments. As these actors work to localise the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), opportunities to share best practices and expertise have grown. OECD work on Decentralised Development Co-operation (DDC) seeks to help cities and regions collect better data for transparency and accountability of impacts globally, better exchange and facilitate resources and knowledge to ensure mutual benefits, and better co-ordinate multi-level and multi-stakeholder partnerships for policy coherence and more effective SDGs implementation. 

Project

Developed in collaboration with EC DG Devco in 2017, the OECD project on Decentralised Development Co-operation aims to analyse recent trends and evolutions in order to understand emerging paradigms, and to suggest policy recommendations for effective multi-level governance across central, regional and local governments.

Since 2019, the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) supports joint work to help the donor community unlock the potential of decentralised co-operation partnerships for the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs. The latest report Decentralised Development Co-operation: Unlocking the Potential of Cities and Regions, launched at the 2nd OECD Roundtable on Cities and Regions for the SDGs and hosted by the City of Bonn, guides providers of Official Development Assistance (ODA) to promote decentralised co-operation that positively impacts peoples’ daily lives and ensures that no one is left behind.

Outputs

Reshaping Decentralised Development Co-operation was launched at the EU Partnership Forum 2018 on 26 June 2018 in Brussels by Aziza Akhmouch, Head of the Cities, Urban Policies, and Sustainable Development Division, OECD and Anna Lixi, Head of Local Authorities Sector, Local Authorities, Cities, Infrastructure, Digitalisation, Directorate General for International Cooperation and Development, European Commission.

Data collection relies on 4 OECD Surveys and 4 case studies at sub-national level. The four case studies of the project are: 

• Tuscany, Italy – DDC to support SDGs localisation
• Flanders, Belgium – DDC to promote healthcare, agriculture and food security
• Basque Country, Spain – DDC to promote gender equality 
• France – DDC and water 

Events

• 9 December 2019: Launch 2019 Report at 2nd OECD Roundtable on Cities and Regions for the SDGs, hosted by the City of Bonn

• 22 November 2019: Towards a revised Euro-Mediterranean Partnership: making decentralised co-operation and collaborative governance a priority
• 26 June 2018, Brussels: Launch 2018 Report at EU Partnership Forum  
• 1 December 2017, Brussels: Policy Seminar
• 10-11 July, Brussels: 5^th Assises of Decentralised Co-operation
  • ODA extended by local and regional governments and emerging paradigms in DDC 
  • Emerging paradigms in DDC: Going beyond financial flows 
• 9 June 2017, Brussels: 2nd Stakeholder consultation workshop
  • Emerging paradigms: Going beyond financial flows 
  • ODA extended by local and regional governments: Part of the DDC picture 
• 31 March 2017: 1st Stakeholder consultation workshop
  • Project overview 

OECD's Aziza Akhmouch on trends in decentralised co-operation

Articles

• 09/12/2019- Helping Cities and Regions achieve the SDGs: Partnering for Decentralised Development Co-operation

• 11/09/2017- Decentralised Development Cooperation - the new driver for SDG implementation

• 08/09/2017- Decentralised Cooperation - the human face of international development

Contact

Stefano.MARTA@oecd.org