Building Participatory Accountability Systems for City Policies: Handbook

Sustainable urban development calls for effective cooperation and collaboration between all relevant stakeholders.  Governance is one of the fundamental drivers of change that promotes direct partnership between the municipalities and the private and third sectors.  Governance requires municipal authorities and their institutions to operate under the principles of transparency and accountability.  Transparency requires municipalities to act openly.  Accountability allows the affected stakeholders to be informed about their decisions and resulting action and the criteria used to reach those decisions.  Both accountability and transparency are essential for meeting the New Urban Agenda and Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11).