Capital Locast

Before his election as Mayor of Porto Novo, In 2019, following the constitutional revision, he joined the party UNION PROGRESSISTE as a founding member. He is also a member of the campaign leadership of the 19th district in charge of external relations and spokesperson. He is notably the UP coordinator of the 5th district of Porto-Novo. Municipal Councillor of the city of Porto-Novo elected on the Union fait la Nation list, he was the rapporteur of the finance commission of the Porto-Novo town hall (third mandate).He holds a Master in Audit and Corporate Finance at IIM University and a DESS in Finance and Management Control at the University of Abomey Calavi.

Porto-Novo

Porto-Novo, city and capital of Benin. It lies on the Gulf of Guinea in western Africa.The city is the administrative capital of the government of Benin. Government buildings include the national archives and the library. Porto-Novo is connected by road and rail to the country’s main industrial centre at Cotonou and by road to Lagos, Nigeria. It has been somewhat bypassed for commercial and industrial development since the building of a railway to the interior and the improvement of deepwater harbour facilities in Cotonou. Numerous African artisans and guilds are in the city.

Member of Parliament for Malaga (UCD), between 1977 and 1982, and Senator for Malaga (PP), between 2011 and 2014. Francisco de la Torre was President of the Provincial Council of Malaga and Minister of Economy, Finance and Tourism of the first Pre-Autonomous Board of Andalusia.

In 2020, he was appointed to the advisory board of Unitar, the United Nations Agency for Training and Research. This body ensures that the quality standards adopted in accordance with UNITAR’s mandate and UN guidelines are respected and well integrated into all activities of both the agency and the CIFAL Global Network.

He holds a Degree in Sociology from the Pontifical University of Salamanca; Specialist in Regional Development from Rennes, France; and Doctorate in Agricultural Engineering from the University of Madrid.

Malaga

Málaga is capital of the province in the region of Andalusia. The city is Located on the south of Spain and just over 100 km from Africa, its township occupies 395 km 2 and is located in the center of a bay surrounded by mountains and crossed by two rivers, the Guadalhorce and the Guadalmedina that flow into the Mediterranean. With 565,000 inhabitants, Málaga is the sixth largest city in Spain, second in Andalusia and also the most densely populated urban area of 160 km from the Costa del Sol. Its catchment area covers 12 other municipalities totaling more than 850,000 inhabitants.

Mr. Osei Assibey Antwi, Mayor of the City of Kumasi, is a prominent entrepreneur, a professional Administrator with more than 20 years of senior management experience, an accomplished politician and an experienced international business leader with numerous business interests in various sectors of the Ghanaian economy

He was one of the leading figures in the Ashanti Region’s political leadership during the 2nd and 3rd term of the fourth republic under President John Agyekum Kuffuor. He served as Deputy Regional Minister of the Region.

Kumasi

Kumasi, population 2.5 million, is the capital of the Ashanti region, a formerly independent kingdom pre-dates the formation of Ghana by 100 years. The city has a rich cultural heritage that is particularly evident in smaller surrounding towns. Trade, textiles, farming and mining are leading industries in Kumasi. It is among the largest metropolitan areas in Ghana.

Jesper Steffensen – Senior Partner of DEGE Consult and a leading expert on fiscal transfers from central to local governments and author of the Performance Based Grants, Best Practice and International Experience, 2010, with involvement in LG finance reforms in more than 45 countries around the World. Jesper outlines how all countries, from the wealthy to the poorest, operate some form of fiscal transfer of government revenue to local authorities. This is necessary for a functioning state system and for efficient, resilient local economies. It is a form of sharing the national wealth to citizens across the whole territory that generates the wealth in the first place and means to ensure an equitable development. Yet too often intergovernmental fiscal transfers are viewed negatively or designed & implemented sub-optimally. Jesper explains how embracing transfers to local governments can accelerate national development objectives, especially when linked with performance improvements and climate change funding. Jesper also argues that although focusing on improvements in local governments own revenues, especially for sustainability and accountability reasons is important, this should not be used as an excuse to reduce or ignore transfers, which serve numerous development objectives.

Francis Zinsou – Former Permanent Representative of Benin to the United Nations and former negotiator on behalf of the (then) 49 Least Developed Countries at the 2015 Financing for Development conference which produced the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA) – the current global agenda for development finance which includes an enhanced recognition of the private sector as a development actor – alongside public funding of Overseas Development Assistance. Ambassador Zinsou explains how local governments were excluded from early drafts of the AAAA, which only referenced a role for central government, civil society and the private sector. Benin’s advocacy led to the inclusion of “article 34”, recognizing the role of local government finance, despite indifference from some national governments.