Tool

Mandate Check

Responsibilities and functions at city level vary widely from country to country, depending on different levels of decentralisation and subsidiarity. In order to take direct and ambitious action, local governments need a high level of control in regard to a specific function. Hence, it is important to assess and prioritise measures against your city’s mandates and level of control.

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Goal

Review your city’s mandate and level of control in regard to different functions (from macro-level strategies over planning, housing, transport and infrastructure to social services) and cross-check the results with previously identified potential areas for action.

Tasks

Step 1:

Assess whether your city has low, medium or high level of control in the different functions listed in the template.
Think about and collect together relevant governmental and non-governmental actors who are responsible for executing the function (e.g. sub-national level, private sector, communities, etc.). Critically reflect on formal responsibility on paper versus reality, i.e. ask yourself who has the necessary budget responsibility and/or other resources to implement the function.

Step 2:

Now, look at the functions where your city has a high level of control and compare them to the potential measures or areas for action that have been previously identified to localise global goals in your city.
Review the functions where your city has only low level of control and discuss whether this poses a challenge for dealing with pressing issues identified before with a view to global agenda targets. For example, are there functions where your city has low level of control, but which are crucial for SDG implementation?
In order to help visualise your findings, fill in the influence matrix. This will foster the further prioritisation process and help you to quickly identify the measures and areas for action in which your city has a clear mandate to act.