ORU Fogar President calls out to the United Nations in favor of equitable financing of local and regional authorities
As part of the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) that the United Nations convened during this month of July to assess compliance with the 2030 Agenda, the president of ORU Fogar, Abdessamad Sekkal, made a strong plea in favor of local and regional governments having sufficient financial resources to face the challenges of the post-covid recovery. "Subnational governments - he said - are at the forefront of managing this crisis, but also its recovery." The also president of the Rabat Regional Council Salé Kenitra, explained that the achievement of the objectives set in the global agendas (Agenda 2030, Paris Agreement and New Urban Agenda) now depends more than ever on a good articulation of the different levels of government, respect for the principle of subsidiarity, as well as a sound budgetary policy that “must end,” he said, “with the competition for access to resources, by strengthening allocations to local authorities”.
During the Forum, President Sekkal spoke in favor of maintaining the beneficial aspects of globalization and the opportunities it offers of openness, exchange and complementarity between nations. In the face of globalization, however, he is in favor of refocusing on the protection and development of local economies. “The pandemic, he said, has shown us that we must ensure logistics and short circuits. At the same time, and regional governments have a fundamental role to play in this regard, we must guarantee the basic services that the population needs, in key sectors such as health, education and the social sector. As you know, these three sectors were subjected to strong tensions during the health crisis and brought back the deep inequalities of access to services between different countries, but also between the territories of the same nation ”.
President Sekkal participated, within the HLPF, in the Forum of Local and Regional Governments. This Forum called for continued support from all spheres of government to guarantee the protection of health and human rights for all and, in particular, for the most marginalized and structurally disadvantaged sectors of the population. The Forum insisted, once again, on the call for a system in which local and regional governments participate in United Nations decision-making, occupying a permanent position at the tables where development policies are concerned.
Local and regional governments are essential for an equitable recovery. Read the statement to the 2021 HLPF here https://www.global-taskforce.org/sites/default/files/2021-07/JOINT%20STATEMENT%20HLPF2021.pdf
