Commonwealth Local Government Forum

Local democracy

This section contains information relating to all aspects of lcoal democracy and good governance at the local level. The Commonwealth principles on good practice for local democracy and good governance - known as the Aberdeen Agenda - which have been adopted by all CLGF members and are incorporated in the Commonwealth Charter, set the framework for the promotion of local democracy in the Commonwealth. The materials in this section relate to the constitutional and legal provisions for local government and include a range of studies, policy and training materials on local elections, leadership, community participation, representative local government, local government management and partnerships between local government and other key stakeholders such as traditional authorities.

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Featured

Reducing Urban Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Effective Steering Strategies for City Governments

In the IMFG Perspectives Paper (No. 16), Reducing Urban Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Effective Steering Strategies for City Governments, Sara Hughes reviews the unique strategies of three cities leading the charge: Toronto, New York City, and Los Angeles. The paper identifies three strategies that have proven effective: Building and maintaining a broad-based coalition of governmental and non-governmental actors working toward a common goal; Investing in capacity-building, data collection, and education; and Embedding new ideas, financial tools, and standards into local formal and informal decision-making institutions. “Cities are critical climate change actors, and will be for the foreseeable future,” says Hughes. “Given the jurisdictional and financial constraints local governments face, their climate change goals will demand creative partnerships, new tools and systems, and innovative institutional cultures.” This paper is part of a series of IMFG publications and events focusing on cities and climate change.

Author: Sara Hughes Publisher: Institute of Municipal Finance and Governance, University of Torronto Publication year: 2017


LGA briefing - Local Government and the EU

Key messages: Autonomy of local government: Responsibilities repatriated from the EU cannot be centralised in Whitehall. Councils have a democratic mandate to lead their communities. We need new devolution settlements in England and across the UK to bring new powers to communities through local democracy. Developing a new legal base for local government: There are many EU laws that affect the day job of local councils. The future review of UK laws of EU origin must be informed about their real world impact. It must lead to new legislative freedoms and flexibilities for councils so that local communities, businesses and consumers can benefit. Securing investment that is currently sourced from the EU: The Government needs to begin developing a growth policy which must be fully funded to deliver its ambitions and be locally driven post-Brexit. This must be designed and delivered by local areas as an integrated replacement for EU funding and existing national schemes to support infrastructure, enterprise, and social cohesion.

Author: LGA Publisher: LGA Publication year: 2016


Leave No One Behind - A Call to Action for Gender Equality and Women's Economic Empowerment

This report is a call to action. To realize the Sustainable Development Agenda, there is a pressing need to step up actions to close gender gaps and ensure the full economic empowerment of women. After six months of fact finding, sharing best practices and consulting around the world, the Panel presents its findings about proven and promising actions to address gender gaps and accelerate progress. The High-Level Panel hopes that this report and its ongoing actions and commitments will serve as a call to action to men and women around the world to join together in a global campaign to achieve gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. Empowering women in the economy and closing gender gaps at work are central to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Yet too many gaps persist. How to accelerate progress? Through concrete actions by individuals, businesses, governments, worker and employer organizations, civil society, and multilateral institutions to drive change by addressing systemic constraints. Expanding women’s economic opportunities is central to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. More than two decades after the landmark 1995 United Nations (UN) Conference on Women in Beijing and with the unprecedented consensus on the 2030 Agenda, the global commitment to gender equality has never been stronger. For the first time in history, governments have set a concrete deadline for the elimination of gender inequality—the year 2030. And the potential gains for basic human rights, for human development and for economic growth have never been larger.

Author: UN Publisher: UN Publication year: 2016


Electoral risk management tool

The Electoral Risk Management Tool (ERMTool) is designed to empower people to ensure peaceful and credible elections. Intended users are electoral management bodies, security sector agencies, civil society and other state and non-state actors. The ERMTool aims to build the user’s capacity to understand, analyze, and mitigate electoral risks. The ERMTool can build users' capacity to understand electoral risk factors, collect and analyze risk data, design prevention and mitigation strategies, and record the results of actions. The tool consists of three integrated parts. A knowledge library describes in detail 36 electoral risk factors, both internal and external to electoral processes. An analytical instruments section allows users to create analytical models specific to a country or election, upload data to generate risk maps and trend charts, and create a register of risks and actions. The prevention module consists of a digital library with approximately 100 action points intended to inspire user in designing strategies to prevent and mitigate electoral risks, including election-related violence, at the different phases of the electoral cycle.

Author: International IDEA Publisher: International IDEA Publication year: 2016


Good Governance at the Local Level: Meaning and Measurement

This paper situates Canadian local governance practices within a review of international perspectives on the meaning and evaluation of governance quality. The author finds that Canadian authorities have construed local good governance largely in utilitarian terms, as the efficiency of service delivery. He proposes a broader research program on local governance quality in Canada, one that is expressly comparative, pays equal attention to the quality of decision-making and accountability processes, and is directed toward continuous improvement. 

Author: Zack Taylor Publisher: University of Toronto Publication year: 2016


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