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Forum's Strategic Council discusses federal responses to crises

Representatives of member countries of the Forum of Federations met recently in the city of León, state of Guanajuato, Mexico.

It was the fourth meeting of the Strategic Council of the Forum of Federations. The representatives of the Forum’s member countries met to discuss trends in federalism within their respective countries and to provide strategic guidance to the Forum for its future activities.

The issues raised by the delegates ranged from reform of the federal system to solving fiscal imbalances to challenges in dealing with environment and climate change. However, one of the most salient issues was how national governments and subnational units of federal countries co-ordinate their efforts to confront shocks, such as the current financial crisis that began with failures in the United States banking and securities sectors and spread around the globe.   

The meeting of the council was held at the margins of an important annual conference hosted by the Government of Mexico government called “Desde lo local” or “Starting locally” which seeks to strengthen the functions of local governments throughout Mexico.

Representatives of the council – Mr. Ravi. Dingra and Mr.Warren McCann – addressed the Mexican audience of approximately 2,000 composed of representatives of state and local governments of Mexico. From the Forum, Dr. Arnold Koller, Chairman of the Board, and President George Anderson, made presentations to the conference participants.

It was agreed that the next meeting of the council will be held during the 5th International Conference on Federalism to be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in February 2010.

Attending the Strategic Council from Australia was Mr. Warren McCann, Cabinet Secretary, Government of South Australia.
From Canada, attendees were Mr. Alfred MacLeod, Assistant Deputy Minister, Intergovernmental Policy, Government of Canada; Mr. Denis Stevens, Director General, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Government of Canada; Ms Alison Clement, Senior Policy Advisor, Department of Foreign Affairs, Government of Canada; Mr. Andrew Phillips, Analyst, Strategic Policy and Research, Government of Canada. Also part of the Canadian delegation were officials from the Government of Quebec: Ms. Marianne Bonnard, an adviser on intergovernmental relations, with the Quebec government’s Secrétariat aux affaires intergouvernementales canadiennes; and Mr. Roger Ménard, director of Economic and Policy Analysis, with the Ministère des Relations internationales du Québec.

Attending from Germany was Dr. Christian Maiwald, Director, Ministry of the Interior.

Attending from India was Mr. Ravi Dhingra, Secretary, Inter-State Council, Ministry of Home Affairs.

Attending from Mexico were Mr. Emeterio Carlon Acosta, Chief of Staff to the Deputy Minister of Governance, Ministry of the Interior (head of delegation); Mr. Alejandro Rojas, Director General of Institutional Relations, Presidency of the Republic; Mr. Ramon Galindo, Mexican Senate; Ms. Maria del Rosario Castro Lozano, Co-ordinator, National Institute for Federal Development, (INAFED), Ministry of the Interior; Mr. Francisco Santibañez, Director of International Affairs of INAFED.

Attending from Switzerland was Mr. Canisius Braun, Executive Director, Conference of Cantonal Governments and a representative of the Swiss Embassy in Mexico.

Attending as an observer from Argentina was Mr. Jose Luis Barbier, Deputy Minister for Provincial Relations, Ministry of the Interior.

Attending from the Forum of Federations were Dr. Arnold Koller, Chairman of the Board of Directors; Mr. George Anderson, President; Ms. Céline Auclair, Vice President, Governance Programs; Mr. Werner Thut, Vice President, Development Assistance Programs; Mr. Rupak Chattopadhyay, Senior Director, Global Programs; Mr. David Parks, Director, North America Programs; Ms. Diana Chebenova, Director, South America Programs and Partnerships; Ms. Mina Behi, Executive Assistant to the President, the Board of Directors and Strategic Council.

The meeting took place on Oct. 28-29, 2008.

Creating a new vision of municipal governance in Mexico

Local politicians and civil servants in Mexico learned how their counterparts in other countries promoted institutional development through good governance thanks to presentations from the Forum of Federations. 

The federalism experts with the Forum of Federations were speaking to Mexican mayors, civil servants and members of the Mexican congress recently at “Desde Lo Local” or “Starting locally”, the fifth annual conference on municipal governance in Mexico. www.forodesdelolocal.gob.mx

Dr. Arnold Koller, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Forum of Federation, delivered a keynote address on local government to more than 1,000 participants attending the event. This meeting, held in León, Guanajuato, from Oct. 29-31, 2008, brought together more than 4,000 practitioners of federalism and elected officials from the three orders of government in Mexico. This annual conference seeks to support decentralization efforts through the strengthening of local governments in Mexico.

Representatives of the Strategic Council – from the Forum’s partner governments – also participated in the Mexican conference on decentralization and municipal governance, sharing their experiences of federal governance with some of the more than 4,000 practitioners and elected officials from Mexico’s three orders of government.