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Media Release

Experts from 80 countries gather in Delhi to discuss federal practices

- New Delhi, November 5th, 2007

About one thousand elected officials, cabinet ministers, civil servants and academics from 80 countries were welcomed to New Delhi today by the Government of India and the Forum of Federations for the start of the 4th International Conference on Federalism. The Prime Minister of India, Mr. Manmohan Singh, opened the three-day conference.

The overseas participants have come from all continents. Mr. Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of Ethiopia; Ms Micheline Calmy-Rey, President of Switzerland; and Ms Rona Ambrose, President of the Privy Council and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs of Canada are only a few of the nearly 1,000 participants expected. Those attending are not only from most of the 25 federal countries of the world but also from non-federal countries who are interested in the process of devolution to provide more powers and services to regional and local governments.

The Inter-State Council of the Government of India, the Forum of Federations as well as many politicians, academics and civil society representatives have been preparing for the conference for more than one year. The main topic is 'Unity in Diversity - learning from each other.' The four main themes of the conference are diversity, fiscal federalism, interactions in a federal system and local government.

'The conference is for those who put federalism into practice,' said George Anderson, President of the Forum of Federations, the Ottawa-based global network on federalism, 'It's a place to share ideas and work alongside people from half a world away who may have found solutions that might be put into practice in other countries.'

The experts who wrote and compiled the materials for the New Delhi conference are some of the leading authorities on different aspects of federalism worldwide. The papers were peer-reviewed at a pre-conference from Feb. 21- 23, 2007.

Previous international conferences on federalism were held in Mont-Tremblant, Canada, in 1999; St-Gallen, Switzerland, in 2002; and Brussels, Belgium, in 2005. The Mont-Tremblant conference in Canada gave rise to the Forum of Federations.

During work sessions of the New Delhi conference, politicians, civil servants, academics, young professionals and other members of civil society will share their experiences and their understanding of issues crucial to governing a federal country. The purpose of the international conferences is to provide a forum for the sharing of best practices in federalism, contributing to better governance in the participating countries.

A young professionals' component has also been built into the main conference to involve the next generation of experts and practitioners in the Forum's work and enable the 50 young participants to interact with leading experts and practitioners from around the world early in their careers.

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The Conference:
Where:  Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi, India
When:  November 5 to 7, 2007

Official conference website:  http://www.federalism2007.org/

Forum of Federations website with information on the conference: http://www.forumfed.org/en/global/indiaconference.php

For further information, contact Forum staff at 1-613-244-3360:
Roderick Macdonell, Director of Communications, ext. 203 (macdonell@forumfed.org)
Carl Stieren, Program Manager, ext. 207 (stieren@forumfed.org)
Rita Champagne, Administrative Assistant, ext. 215 (champagne@forumfed.org).