This paper is about the role of local democracy and governance to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Increased reliance on locally generated revenue, difficulties in managing networks of actors with diverse goals and objectives, imperfect flow of information, and trust deficit in stakeholders pose major challenges to achieving SDGs locally. By doing a systematic review of the recent literature on decentralisation with examples from different local governments, the paper outlines ways in which these challenges could be addressed. The paper also highlights the need for enhancing local leadership capabilities and demarcation of responsibilities among local politicians and bureaucrats, a point missed in the SDG agenda.

Presentation for workshop on women representation in local government. Section 1. Why women’s representation in local government matters Section 2. Background of SDG indicator 5.5.1b Section 3. What is local government and how is it organized Section 4. Sources of data for SDG indicator 5.5.1b Section 5. Reporting data for SDG indicator 5.5.1b

The twenty first century has seen a rapid rise of urbanization and consumption, bringing many challenges to cities, including one of the most difficult challenges of our time - climate change. Climate change has exacerbated many natural hazards including storm surges, extreme precipitation, flooding, and sea level rise causing the loss of thousands of lives each year in addition to billions of dollars in damage. Coastal cities are especially at risk due to their vulnerable geographical location and rapid population growth. Cities also face other environmental challenges including earthquakes, tsunamis and hurricanes; which are often difficult to predict and can test a city’s resilience. This research analyzes the environmental hazards a coastal city may face and discuss the tools planners can use to increase a region’s resilience. Case studies of New Zealand and Vancouver Island, Canada are used to analyze disaster management and resilience strategies.

The Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF) was established in 1994, coinciding with rapid moves towards decentralisation at that time, especially in Commonwealth Africa. It uniquely brings together national associations of local government and individual councils, ministries responsible for local government, and training and research institutes with an interest in local government, on a common platform. This reflects an understanding that local government needs effective central government and vice versa if decentralisation is to be truly successful, and that research, training and practice need to be brought together in a constructive and creative way. CLGF’s developmental work can be divided into three main categories: Promotion and advocacy of local democracy and good governance, Exchange of experience and Capacity building.This article provides a brief overview of the activities and projects which CLGF has underway in respect of these objectives. It will be complemented by more detailed papers on specific programmes and projects in this and future issues of the Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance.