Cooperation with the IRCC of IFF on Rule of Law and Decentralisation in Multicultural Societies

• Forschungsstelle: DEZA
• Projektnummer: 7F-03893.05

Schlüsselwörter (Deutsch)

Entwicklungshilfe
Angewandte Forschung und Entwicklung
Gesellschaftliche Strukturen und Beziehungen
Beziehungen im Ausland

Schlüsselwörter (Englisch)

Development cooperation

Schlüsselwörter (Französisch)

Coopération au développement

Kurzbeschreibung (Englisch)

The Institute of Federalism at the University of Fribourg (IFF) has been executing a mandate for the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation (SDC) called "Rule of Law and De-centralisation in a Multicultural Context" since 1997. In the frame of this mandate, IFF's In-ternational Research and Consulting Centre (IRCC) was founded in 1997.

The common vision of the partnership between SDC and IFF/IRCC remains based on the strategic objective 212 of SDC's Guidelines North-South on "positive measures to promote human rights, the rule of law and democratic processes". Furthermore, in the "Botschaft über die Weiterführung der technischen Zusammenarbeit und der Finanzhilfe zu Gunsten von Entwicklungsländern 2004-2007", SDC lists "Good Governance" as one out of five key topics for its activities; the respective focus reads "the promotion of good governance encourages the advancement of the necessary political, social and economic conditions as a central element of sustainable development, poverty reduction and human security. The objective is to create an environment that supports the rule of law, human rights, gender equity, an ade-quate distribution of power and macro economic stability ". The rationale of the co-operation between SDC and IFF/IRCC lies on this common focus.

Projektziele (Englisch)

IFF/IRCC shall seek to consolidate its position as a competent partner for mid- to long-term co-operation with SDC within the developed thematic frame. In order to respond to relevant challenges within the international co-operation context, IFF/IRCC orients its actions towards the following professional priorities in the third phase (2004-2006):
"Mainstreaming of research and policy recommendations related to the topics of "new trends in decentralisation", "governance assessment" and "mechanisms of financing decentralisation processes".
"Challenges faced by parliamentarians in developing countries when putting in place relevant laws to enhance Good Governance.
"Conditions for the political participation in traditional and conflicting multiethnic socie-ties mainly related to the topics "from winner-take-all to consensual-democracy" and "multicultural citizenship".