I recently received an e-mail from a colleague at the the UN's Finance for Development Office alerting me to a NEW publication that the UN is preparing on Subnational Finance in LDC's.  The authors would very much like to receive comments on their draft publication from people who are actively engaged in strengthening subnational finance around the globe.  It would be great if as many of you in the Community of Practice as possible had a look at the publication and provided your feedback by DECEMBER 16, 2016.  Below is the message I received which contains a link to the publication.  I'd also be interested to know how many of you found the example in the publication useful in considering your own countries efforts to strengthen subnational finance? 

"A couple of weeks ago, UN Member States adopted the New Urban Agenda (NUA) at Habitat III in Quito as the new global framework for sustainable and transformative urban development. In the NUA sub-national and local governments are acknowledged as key players for sustainable development.

However, without adequate municipal finances, local governments especially in the poorest countries will not be able to provide vital public goods and services for the implementation of  the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, and the NUA.

As you may know, the Financing for Development Office (UN-DESA) and UNCDF have been working on a joint project on municipal finance in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). In the context of this project, two expert group meetings were organized in Africa and Asia, as well as a series of side events in the context of the FfD follow-up and the Habitat III processes. We are currently working on the final publication of the project, which is scheduled to be published early next year. The publication will include conceptual discussions of the critical pillars of municipal finance, as well as a broad range of data and case studies from LDCs to emphasize good (and bad) experiences and practices. We hope the publication will be beneficial for local and central government officials as well as international aid organizations.

Furthermore, we firmly believe that the publication provides a unique opportunity to strengthen the role of local authorities in the FfD follow-up process.

We would like to tap on your extensive experience in this area and therefore invite your comments to the draft publication on our website
(http://www.un.org/esa/ffd/topics/inclusive-local-finance/municipal-finance.html) by 16 December 2016.

In particular, we are seeking feedback on any issues we have been missing, any mistakes we made, or additional case studies from LDCs that we should include. We would also like to hear from you your views on the role of international cooperation and the implementation of the respective commitment in paragraph 34 of the Addis Agenda."

PLEASE ALSO SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE TOPICS RAISED IN THIS UN PUBLICATION VIA THIS DISCUSSION BOARD.  THANKS!  I LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING FROM YOU....