Special Panel C (SPc)

Results-Based Local Governance, and Regional Green Economic Growth

Chairs / Responsables:

Eric Champagne, University of Ottawa, Canada
Oliver Hillel, UN Secretariat of Biological Convention

Coordinator /Coordonnateur:

Jean-Marie Cishahayo, University of Ottawa, Canada

One of the major issues to urban communities is connected to their ability to generate growth. That depend on their capacity to implement local economic policies and strategies while mobilising a wide spread of stakeholders.

According to a recent OECD report (2019), decentralization is a multi-dimensional concept, as its covers three distinct but interrelated dimensions: political, administrative, and fiscal. These dimensions are inter-dependent: there can (or should) be no fiscal decentralisation without political and administrative decentralisation. It argues that the question should not be whether decentralisation is good or bad in itself, but that decentralisation outcomes – in terms of democracy, efficiency, accountability, regional and local development – depend greatly on the way decentralisation is designed and implemented. In other words, the governance system is paramount to the success of decentralisation.

To analyze decentralization and assess its performance, a crucial preliminary step is to understand how the decentralization process has been designed at the institutional level and then to determine the gap between the practical, on-the-ground organization and the organizational frameworks (World Bank, 2013).

In this recent published working paper (2020), Eric Champagne, Francis Gaudreault and Moira Hart-Poliquin from the University of Ottawa’s Centre on Governance argued that complexity requires new approaches to policy implementation and public sector reforms. This new governance model which aims to tackle the implementation gap in the public sector is called the RACE model-based on four components which are: driving Results, driving Adaptability, driving Capacity, and driving Engagement.

During the ICCCASU4 conference, the panelists will discuss and highlight lessons learned from the best practices on Results Based Local Governance and their direct impact on local and regional economic growth with evidence from the cities of Shanghai, Kigali, and Montreal.

Sub questions:

  • Why results based local governance and decentralization are drivers of economic development in the context for cities transformation in Africa and other developing countries?
  • What are the failure practices in city decentralization and how to improve the capacity to deliver a sustainable economic development?
  • What are the lessons learned from Shanghai, Kigali, and Montreal?

Coordinators/Panelists
Moderator: Eric Champagne

  • Eric Champagne, Associate Professor/University of Ottawa, Director /Centre de governance, University of Ottawa
  • John Kalisa, Senior Economist /World Bank Rwanda
  • Jean-Marie Cishahayo, Research Affiliate/Center on Governance/University of Ottawa
    Co - founder of ICCCASU
  • Oliver Hillel, Programme Officer, United Nations CBD Office, Montreal