The principles of development cooperation effectiveness as defined in the Paris Declaration, to which Ecuador is a signatory party, and further elaborated in the Accra Agenda for Action, acknowledge the following key factors for managing development: the involvement of different stakeholders, central and local governments, social organizations, the private sector, among others - and the articulation of national and local policies and plans.
Building on these guidelines, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), through the International Initiative for the Articulation of Territorial Networks (ART), and in collaboration with several international networks of decentralized partners, carried out a consultation process in 2010 and 2011 on aid effectiveness at the local level. This consultation originated from the acknowledgement of “the importance of the active role of local and regional governments and social and economic partners in order to deepen and democratize the agenda for aid effectiveness”. The reflections stemming from this consultation identified local experiences for the “articulation of local processes with national policies and strategies” as an appropriate mechanism for achieving a “comprehensive development impact”.
