Case Studies

Strategic leadership in Fiji

With their limited revenue sources, slow growth of the national economy, and large amounts owing to the Councils in unpaid rates and fees, Fijian Councils are facing great difficulties in providing services to the large and growing squatter settlements. Moreover as little Council revenue is generated from these settlements initiatives are needed to reduce this burden on the Councils.
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Integrated Local Area Planning in Australia

The Riverlife Urban Stormwater Integrated Management (USWIM) project is a joint venture between Marrickville Council, New South Wales, and Monash University. Its goal is to integrate sustainable urban water management into all levels of the council’s management structure, and to develop new guidelines for collaborative water planning with local communities that can be adopted by local government generally. This issue is a priority because of the serious pollution that has affected rivers and waterways and also because of the likelihood of droughts producing severe water shortages in the future.
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Leadership in Partnership in England

Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) in England bring together at a local level the different parts of the public sector as well as the private, business, community and voluntary sectors so that different initiatives and services support each other and work together. Local partners working through an LSP are expected to act strategically to deliver decisions and actions which join up partners’ activities across a range of issues, enabling each of them to meet their own targets and goals and tackle cross-cutting issues more effectively. LSPs are regarded as key to improving social cohesion, the relationship between different communities in an area and their relationship with statutory authorities.
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Distributed leadership in Ghana

Six major categories of local leaders can be identified in Ghana. They are:

1. the political leadership including members of parliament, assemblies and substructures
2. the administrative leadership consisting mainly of heads of district-level departments
3. the traditional leadership including chiefs, other authorities and traditional religious leaders
4. the leadership of organised religion and faith-based organisations
5. the leadership of local private sector, economic and occupational groupings, and
6. representatives of communities on district service committees and leaders of project management committees.

Challenges to leadership in partnership in Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea has two main forms of local government: urban and rural councils, which operate within a wider system of provincial government. Leadership in PNG comprises both modern (politicians and bureaucrats) and traditional (‘big-men’ and chiefs) types of leaders.
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Partnership with communities in Uganda

The City Community Challenges (C3) Project was started in 2000 with support from the UK Department for International Development (DfID), equally split between Uganda and Zambia, to test out innovative ways of reducing urban poverty through community initiatives
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Community participation in Pakistan

In Pakistan, community driven development based on local democracy has been made a fundamental principle of the new local governance arrangements. To convert the policies and plans into reality and to ensure community participation Citizen Community Boards (CCBs) were introduced.
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Inclusive Cities Canada initiative

Inclusive Cities Canada: A Cross-Canada Civic Initiative (ICC) is a unique partnership of elected municipal politicians and community leaders working collaboratively to build more inclusive communities across Canada. Under the guidance of civic panels, comprised of municipal government and community leaders, ICC conducted local social inclusion audits in five cities to identify priorities for local and national public policy in key areas – making local democracy work, affirming urban diversity, investing in local social infrastructure, and reducing disparities in living conditions.
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Central Government Role in Enabling/Promoting Local Leadership in Ghana

Central government initiatives to promote or enable local leadership include the following: Collaborating with development partners to create assembly-based, local learning, resource and information centers for community leaders to access information and gain skills for community development.
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Council partners in the Eastern Cape

Oxfordshire County Council in the UK working with Nkonkobe Municipality in South Africa to:

• restore and improve the area's tourism infrastructure
• enhance the capacity of local government and local tourism organisations to attract visitors and investment
• create jobs and generate small and medium businesses.

A toursim strategy has been developed for Nkonkobe and the project is already producing results in helping to revitalise the town and create jobs and has also had unforseen benefits such as establishing a scholarship fund to support exchange students and extra funding for a micro-credit scheme.

The role of Nkonkobe muncipality has been crucial in bringing and keeping together all the partners, both local and international. 

Council partners in the Eastern Cape full story (pdf)

Crime and community safety partnerships give communities confidence

Through a joint project with Leeds in the UK, Cato Manor, a Durban township in South Africa,  has given its residents greater confidence, reduced crime and the fear of crime, and helped to create a thriving and prosperous community. Partnership working, involvement of the community and developing positive activities for young people have been at the heart of the approach.

A key aim of the project was to involve local people in identifying crime-related issues, to challenge misconceptions and to change attitudes.

Crime and safety partnerships give communities confidence full story (pdf)