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UN Volunteers Policy Paper ‘Caring Cities’ Volunteering in Urban Development and the role of the United Nations Volunteer Programme PART II – THE UNITED NATIONS VOLUNTEERS PROGRAMME UNV’s niche in urban work PART II – THE UNITED NATIONS VOLUNTEERS PROGRAMME UNV’s niche in urban work Page 38 assignment. Field workers are community members themselves, who could therefore well convey their experience in the city to their less knowledgeable/prepared counterparts. – Participatory work: the utmost importance of social cohesion/capital has already been noted in this publication. It suffices to say that participatory work is at the heart of the process of construction of social cohesion/capital. External support to carry out this type of work is of utmost importance because: (i) participatory processes are often more difficult to build in cities due to the hurdles of urban life (less time to do the ground work necessary to start the process) and due to the heterogeneity of the communities (lack of a common ethnic-cultural background); (ii) community participation was (sometimes still is) politically repressed in a number of countries; (iii) some cultures do not have a strong tradition of participatory work. The role and importance of UNV in the construction of social cohesion/capital was noted before in this paper. The same applies, by association, to participatory work. – Mediation between local stakeholders: the current worldwide attention on (urban) governance has already been noted. Urban governance concerns the relationship between local authorities and civil society, entailing negotiations and joint ventures between different local stakeholders. It may be seen as a participatory process at the city level. Therefore, it would benefit from the type of work described above. It is also worth noting that the neutrality/impartiality of the UN Volunteers may be particularly valuable in such a context of mediation. There are of course qualitative differences between the construction of a participatory process within a community, and the construction of a governance process within a city. The type of professional required for each task is therefore different. Page 39 from professionals who could establish the initial links and start up the whole process. – Technical assistance: although external technical assistance has been criticized for not being sustainable, it is still vital particularly in least developed countries and/or in situations of emergency. Under such circumstances, technical assistance may be pivotal for development and many times (such as in emergencies) even a matter of life and death. There is a wide range of technical activities – especially at the grassroots – which would benefit from the interactiveness of the attributes of the UN Volunteers, as they are labourintensive, volunteer-oriented, long term activities (for example, the whole range of mutual self-help construction work). Also, technical assistance can indeed be combined with capacitybuilding, a fact which would reinforce the sustainability of the activities. In short, this section has presented selected types of contributions of UN Volunteers to urban development – without pretending to have exhausted all possibilities. Rather than overlapping with or duplicating efforts of other development agencies, UNV is able to offer a unique contribution. Next, UNV’s specific contribution in the different sectors of urban development will be elaborated, with concrete examples. – Mobilization of resources: in several instances, urban projects require external resources, as cities and their communities are often not self-sufficient in everything – especially in such globalized times of increasing interdependence. However, it is precisely the most resourceful cities and communities which have the means (skills, contacts, communication technology, etc.) to obtain further resources. The poorest settlements lack such means. Therefore, they would benefit
UN Volunteers Policy Paper ‘Caring Cities’ Volunteering in Urban Development and the role of the United Nations Volunteer Programme PART II – THE UNITED NATIONS VOLUNTEERS PROGRAMME PART II – THE UNITED NATIONS VOLUNTEERS PROGRAMME Thematic view and illustrations Page 40 Page 41 4. Thematic view and illustrations There are different ways to disaggregate the complex and multisectoral field of urban development. In this paper, this field will be divided into five broad domains (which are not mutually exclusive): political & institutional, social, economic, physical and cultural. UNV has acted in all these domains through the two components of its urban agenda i.e. promotion and support to the different types of volunteerism, and the mobilisation of UN Volunteers. 4.1. The political & institutional domain Municipal management The roles of local and municipal authorities in developing countries are changing fast, due to several facts which may occur independently or concomitantly in a given city or town, for instance: – The process of privatisation of public services in the urban areas: it is wrong to say that this process entails only a transfer of activities and responsibilities from the public to the private sector (which could lead to the conclusion that the role of the public sector would become ‘easier’). This process entails a change of roles in the public sector, and some of the new roles may be much more complex and difficult than the previous ones, for example the public regulation of an expanding number of private enterprises, new systems of a public-private mix (subcontracting, bidding, franchising, etc.). – The process of democratisation, which includes community participation and governance building: this process also entails roles for local authorities (vis-à-vis the civil society) which are very different from traditional roles such as paternalistic administration, clientelism, let alone non-democratic administration (e.g. unelected mayors ). – The process of political-administrative devolution, which transfers roles and responsibilities from upper layers of the government to the local authorities. A -------------------------------------------- Volunteer support to the Municipalities’ Association of Nepal ---------------------------------------------- MuAN (Municipalities Association of Nepal) is an umbrella organisation, which represents all the municipalities in the country. Its current and planned duties include advocacy, facilitation, resource mobilisation, and technical assistance in specific fields. The UNV role in this project is to strengthen MuAN’s capacity. Support to address MuAN’s constraints requires activities which match UNV’s strengths. These activities include institutional re-organisation, managerial and technical capacity building, and mediation between stakeholders. Such activities fit into the UNV preferred pattern of labour-intensive, outreach, longterm work, and neutrality/impartiality. Also, the fact that the project is linked to an umbrella organisation responsible for all municipalities provides a unique opportunity for the UN Volunteers to promote and strengthen volunteerism at the urban level throughout the whole country through (I) advice to policymaking, (II) direct contacts with local authorities, and (III) demonstration activities in partnership with civil society organisations. The project was formulated in partnership with MuAN, UNDP Nepal and GTZ. The project lasts for 3 years, and concludes with a ‘phasing-out’ period during which the UNV team will just be monitoring the activities of the local staff, who will be in full control of the day-to-day operations, and will also be involved in the formulation of activities to be implemented after the end of the project. This will ensure sustainability. The local partners also will contribute in kind and/or in cash for the execution of the demonstration activities included in the project. In addition, all local authorities already contribute to MuAN. These facts not only guarantee the commitment of such partners, but also illustrate evidence of the existence of local resources — which can be used after the termination of the project. Finally, the project is designed in such a way that MuAN takes full ownership of it. The leadership of MuAN will be supported and strengthened by the project. – The process of globalisation: local authorities increasingly need to adapt themselves to respond to changes and challenges accruing from the rapidly moving international milieu, which affect the local level. A large number of local governments in developing countries face strong difficulties in coping with such an overwhelming wave of changes, and would benefit from types of UNV assistance noted in the previous section, such as institutional strengthening, capacity building, resource mobilisation and technical assistance. UNV has a growing portfolio of projects in this area in different parts of the world. One example is the on-going project in Nepal, illustrated in text A.
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