Ateneo Policy Center's Dr Ronaldo Mendoza moderates UN Workshop on Subsidiarity for Sustainable Development

Last 13 December 2023, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) organized its Workshop on Subsidiarity for Sustainable Development with well over 1000 participants from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Ronald Mendoza, PhD, a senior economist with the Ateneo Policy Center and a member of the UN Committee of Experts on Public Administration, served as the moderator for the workshop.

The workshop buildt on the ongoing engagement of the UN Committee of Experts on Public Administration (UN CEPA) which recently adopted 11 principles of effective governance at its seventeenth session. One of these was the principle of subsidiarity: To promote government that is responsive to the needs and aspirations of all people, central authorities should perform only those tasks which cannot be performed effectively at a more intermediate or local level. UN CEPA has identified five commonly used strategies for promoting subsidiarity, namely: (1) fiscal federalism and decentralization; (2) strengthening urban governance; (3) strengthening municipal finance and local finance systems; (4) enhancement of local capacity for prevention, adaptation, and mitigation of external shocks; and (5) multilevel governance.

Development practitioners and researchers working on subsidiarity and decentralization for sustainable development participated in the workshop to share their views and research on the topic.

The speakers included:

• Navid Hanif, Assistant Secretary-General, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs
• Hon. Romina Khurshid Alam, MP, Convener of the National Parliamentary Taskforce on SDGs, National Assembly of Pakistan
• Governor Dakila Carlo E. Cua, Governor of Quirino province and National President of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP) and newly elected President of United Cities and Local Goverments  Asia- Pacific (UCLG ASPAC)
• Tapan Mishra, UN Resident Coordinator for Mongolia
• Brian Roberts, Emeritus Professor at the University of Canberra, Australia
• Astrid Haas, Urban Economist and Adjunct Professor at the School of Cities at the University of Toronto, Extraordinary Lecturer at the African Tax Institute, University of Pretoria and Research Associate at the African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town
• Allan Lavell, Research Associate at the Latin American Social Faculty, Costa Rica and founding member of the Latin American Network for the Social Study of Disaster Prevention (LA RED)
• Paul Smoke, Professor, Public Finance and Planning, Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University

The Workshop on Subsidiarity for Sustainable Development sought to benefit policymakers at central, regional and local levels, particularly in developing countries. The full workshop is available for viewing below or on YouTube.