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Carl Wright, Director, Commonwealth Local Government Forum
The Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF)
was established in 1995. It brings together over 150 local councils,
associations of local government, research and training bodies
and Ministries responsible for local government, from across the
Commonwealth. CLGF works to promote effective, elected local government
in Commonwealth countries, and to give local government a voice
at Commonwealth level.
At the 1997 meeting in Edinburgh, the Commonwealth
Heads of Government recognised that "effective, elected local
government is an important foundation for democracy", and
acknowledged "local governments' role in ensuring sustainable
development". More recently, the 1999 CHOGM acknowledged
"the role of the Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF)
and its close co-operation with the Commonwealth Secretariat in
the promotion of democratic values and best practices in local
government". This article looks at the work CLGF is doing
on behalf of its members in this respect.
Strategic decisions are taken by the CLGF
Board, which consists of members from all of the Commonwealth
regions. The CLGF Chair is currently Cllr. Collin Matjila (South
Africa) and its Vice Chair is Cllr Len Duvall (UK). The Director
is Mr Carl Wright. The Board is elected at the CLGF General Meeting,
which every member organisation can attend, for a period of two
years.
CLGF works closely with the Commonwealth
Secretariat, and has collaborated with the United Nations, UNCHS-Habitat
and the UNDP in a number of joint activities. CLGF also works
closely with key donor agencies such as the European Union, the
UK Department for International Development and AUSAID.
CLGF receives funding from its members in
some 40 Commonwealth countries, as well as project grants from
a wide range of donor agencies.
Effective, elected government
CLGF activities in support of effective, elected local government
cover a number of country-specific activities, several of which
have been undertaken in collaboration with the Commonwealth Secretariat.
In addition, CLGF has organised policy events and study visits,
designed to foster closer collaboration between senior representatives
of central and local government and other key stakeholders.
CLGF sponsored two members of Gambia's Electoral
Commission who visited Ghana to observe the local elections in
June 1998, with financial assistance from the Commonwealth Secretariat.
At the invitation of the Commonwealth Secretary-General,
CLGF representatives formed part of a Commonwealth team of election
observers in Nigeria during the local elections in December 1998.
The CLGF group included the Mayor of Cape Town, the CLGF Director,
and experts from Ghana and the UK. The team was led by the Commonwealth
Deputy Secretary-General, HE Mr K Srinivasan.
Visits were made to polling stations in regional
centres across Nigeria. The delegation passed a report back to
the Commonwealth Secretary General, who commended the conduct
of the elections. CLGF aims to continue working with newly elected
councillors in Nigeria as the transition to democracy is completed.
A CLGF project for the training of elected
councillors and local government officers in the Caribbean concluded
with a regional workshop held in Montego Bay, Jamaica, attended
by representatives from Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Belize,
Guyana, Grenada, Jamaica, St Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago.
In the course of the project, training workshops
were held in Guyana (September 1998 and January 1999), in Jamaica
(March and July 1999), and in Belize (April 2000). The project
was organised in collaboration with the Caribbean Association
of Local Government Authorities (CALGA) and the Greater London
Employers' Association (GLEA), with funding from the European
Union.
In May 1998, CLGF organised an event attended
by local government officials, elected representatives and trainers
from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, examining decentralisation and
local government reform strategies in East Africa. The symposium
was held at the headquarters of UNCHS (Habitat).
Assistance and support were provided by UNCHS
(Habitat), the Municipal Development Programme, the British Council
and the Commonwealth Secretariat, in collaboration with the Association
of Local Authorities of Kenya and the Kenyan Government.
CLGF held a symposium to examine the issues
affecting the local governance of small states, in Malta in March
1999. The symposium was attended by some 40 local government,
Ministry and NGO representatives from small states in the Pacific,
the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean. The event
was organised in collaboration with the United Nations, the Commonwealth
Foundation and the UK and Malta Governments.
The symposium adopted a Declaration on Local
Government and Civic Society in Small and Island Developing States
which affirmed the important role played by participatory local
democracy in development and emphasised the role of local government
in ensuring effective delivery of services to the community.
CLGF has been involved in organising study
visits on a range of local government policy issues. In April
1999, two local government officials from Mozambique visited the
UK. CLGF organised study visits to the London Borough of Camden
and Crawley Borough Council and discussed different aspects oflocal
administration in the UK.
In June 1999, CLGF was able to make arrangements
for a team of experts from Australia and New Zealand to visit
South Africa at the request of the Department of Constitutional
Development to advise on performance management issues in local
government.
Promoting sustainable development
CLGF, together with its member organisations, works to facilitate
sustainable development at local level. This involves workshops
and seminars on capacity-building, as well as exchange of information
on good practice, especially at regional level.
In March 1998, CLGF organised a Symposium
on Education and Training for local government in Durban, South
Africa. Eighty delegates from seventeen Commonwealth countries
met to discuss developments in the field since the first CLGF
symposium on the subject in 1995. Their recommendations highlighted
the value of national training policies specific to local government,
and identified measures to standardise and enhance the quality
of training on offer. The symposium was held by CLGF in association
with UNCHS-Habitat, the Municipal Development Programme, and JUPMET
South Africa.
A central aspect of CLGF activities in Africa
has been the continuing work on a DFID/EU funded project to establish
a local government information centre for the SADC region. This
project is organised by CLGF in collaboration with the African
Union of Local Authorities and the Municipal Development Programme.
The Centre is based in Harare and the initial focus of the work
has been on Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
A series of study visits took place within
the region, during which local government officials have examined
specific issues relating to local government in neighbouring countries.
In 1998, visits took place between Zimbabwe and South Africa,
South Africa and Uganda/Zimbabwe, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and Mozambique
and Botswana/South Africa. In 1999, visits were organised between
Swaziland and Zambia. Each visit has been followed by a national
seminar in each of the countries to disseminate the findings.
The information generated through these visits
are now available through the centre, which currently holds more
than 400 publications on different aspects of local government
policy, and maintains a web site (www.locgovinfo.co.zw) and searchable
databases. Access to this information allows government and local
government in the region to develop policy in an informed and
consultative environment, with long-term benefits to service delivery.
The official launch of the Centre took place
in Johannesburg, in July 1999. CLGF's initiative in establishing
the Centre was formally endorsed by the SADC Ministers and specifically
commended by South African President Thabo Mbeki.
Efforts are now being made to extend this
initiative to other parts of Africa. A workshop on information
sharing and dissemination held in Arusha, Tanzania, in August
1999 brought together local government practitioners from Kenya,
Tanzania and Uganda to discuss the feasibility of setting up a
regional information centre/network for East Africa.
CLGF managed an EU-funded project focusing
on selected local authorities in Malawi. Five UK authorities (Crawley,
Corby, East Staffordshire, Reigate & Banstead and South Staffordshire)
worked with their counterparts in Malawi (Lilongwe, Mzuzu, Blantyre,
Salima and Zomba), on a range of technical assistance projects
to improve service delivery and local authority capacity.
Co-operation between the partners addressed
issues such as financial management, a pilot drainage project,
work with street children, and training in food-handling for street
vendors. Local government officials from Malawi met in Lilongwe
in July 1998 to assess the impact of the project. The meeting
reported positively on the work undertaken, which was felt to
have contributed towards the development of management expertise,
improved service delivery, and an enabling environment within
the authorities concerned.
CLGF activities in Asia have also focused
on research into the potential for an information network for
local government in the region. A group of Commonwealth experts
met in Jaipur, India, in January 1998, to consider the information
needs and existing resources of local government. The meeting
was co-organised by the CLGF and the All India Institute of Local
Self Government. This was followed by a further meeting in September
1998 at the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok.
Local government, national government, training
institution and NGO representatives from South Asia met in Delhi
in September 1999, at a workshop on capacity-building co-organised
by CLGF and the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements. The
event focused on the need to develop co-ordinated strategies for
training and capacity-building at all levels to address the pressing
needs within the region.
A regional capacity-building project in the
Pacific has been launched, with a project base in Suva. The project
will cover Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands
and Vanuatu, and builds on the recommendations of the 1997 Port
Moresby Roundtable on Decentralisation and Good Government at
Local Level.
The Commonwealth Local Government Good Practice
Scheme, specifically endorsed in the Communique of the last CHOGM,
was launched in April 1998 to support CLGF's on-going work in
the field of exchange of local authority skills and expertise
by practitioners across the Commonwealth. Funded by DFID (UK),
the Scheme aims to promote effective, responsive and accountable
delivery of local services, particularly to poor and disadvantaged
groups.
Projects are supported between local authorities
or local authority associations in different Commonwealth countries,
either on a north-south or south-south basis. They adopt a joint
approach to developing the capacity of one partner to deliver
services more effectively.
Projects focus on seven key themes, namely
the provision of services, the development of innovative institutional
practices, the promotion of democratic and accountable local government,
the development of efficient management, councillor and staff
development, improved financial management, the local authority
role in the promotion of economic development, sustainable development
and Local Agenda 21, and gender equality in local government.
There has been a good take-up, and projects
are beginning to show tangible results. Projects that have been
supported so far involve UK authorities, and Association to Association
links.
The Australian Government has also become
involved, providing support for a number of projects under the
scheme. The projects will initially involve technical co-operation
between Australian local government and local government in Papua
New Guinea and Fiji.
CLGF has launched a programme of research
and information dissemination focusing on local government reform
and innovative practices in Commonwealth countries. The project
draws on the expertise of CLGF members in different regions and
is designed to develop a series of 14-15 case studies on innovative
practices in seven to eight different Commonwealth countries.
These will be disseminated to CLGF members, and used to build
up a database on local government structures in the Commonwealth.
Case studies of best practices will begin
with an investigation into co-operative government and public/private
municipal service provision partnerships in South Africa. The
project is being co-funded by the UK Department of the Environment,
Transport and the Regions.
Development Education materials for use both
in schools and the wider community have been produced under a
CLGF project, with funding from the European Union. Six UK authorities
drew on their partnerships with Commonwealth countries to produce
teaching packs, a video, a reading book and a web site.
A series of seminars were held in late 1998
and early 1999 to launch the materials produced. For example,
East Staffordshire Borough Council made a video for use in schools
about their link with Blantyre, in Malawi. The City of Edinburgh
Council produced a pack entitled "Making Demands on Democracy
in South Africa: Lessons for Scotland?" Lancashire County
Council made a schools' pack for use in key stage two of the National
Curriculum, focusing on "Gulu, An African Town", and
drawing on their partnership in Uganda.
The increasing emphasis on good governance
as a focus for Commonwealth activity has implications for local
government - at the level closest to the people. CLGF continues
to play a role in encouraging local democracy, the exchange of
experience, and strengthening local capacity.
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