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.
Sub-topics:
- The Aberdeen Agenda
- Community participation
- Constitutional/legislative provisions
- Decentralisation policy and practice
- Local government elections
- Local leadership
- Local government management
- Partnerships in governance
- Decentralisation in post-conflict environments
- Local government associations
- Transparency and anti-corruption
- Traditional leadership and local governance
Featured
Upazila Parishad in Bangladesh: roles and functions of elected representatives and bureaucrats
This study explores whether democratic Upazila Parishads in Bangladesh have become more responsive to those who elected them and whether people's expectations about their elected representatives and their functions to their elected have changed. The study carried out in eight Upazilas from seven Divisions in Bangladesh. The study has found that Upazila Parishads in Bangladesh with democratically elected representatives have largely failed to enhance their rapport with people. The recently implemented mandatory advisory role for the members of the parliament (MPs) has complicated the role of the local government and the interference by MPs in local government affairs has weakened the independence of local government. The findings of this study reveal that awareness is low, and that only 30% of respondents were concerned about the roles and functions of the Upazila Parishad. The data reveals that though the local citizens think that they are knowledgeable about the roles and functions of elected representatives and bureaucrats in reality many remain unaware of the roles and functions.
Author: Muhammad Sayadur Rahman Publisher: University of Technology Sydney Press Publication year: 2012
Social inclusion in North Sydney LGA
Social exclusion in the North Sydney local government area has increasingly become a matter for
concern in the last decade. In 2005/2006 local government community service referrals indicate that
there were growing numbers of people living on their own with little contact or engagement with
community services and social activities. It was also suggested that older people at risk of social
exclusion were living in poor housing conditions and experienced serious health issues. The ABS
2006 census data highlights that the North Sydney Council area has a significantly larger number of
people living on their own (33%) compared to the rest of New South Wales (22%).
This paper will present a number of different perspectives of social exclusion and consider why
people in North Sydney become isolated. It will provide a brief analysis of existing programs
designed to reduce social isolation and where they fit in the service system by using case studies of
people who have been identified as at risk of becoming socially isolated in the North Sydney area.
We will evaluate the case studies and provide several policy recommendations.
Author: Chris Taylor, Jed Donoghue Publisher: University of Technology Sydney Press Publication year: 2012
Transforming development with rassroots planning in Madhya Pradesh, India
There is growing acknowledgment that state interactions must take place in a democratic context. This has been accompanied by attempts to foster forms of democratic governance that provide scope for citizen participation in the development process. However, due to vast inter- and intra-country differences, no single model has emerged for countries to follow, even if each effort has contributed to further deliberation and discussion.
A major challenge to successful implementation has been the absence of an effective and practical framework to ensure decentralization. In the state Madhya Pradesh of India, the democratic reform has progressed from conceptualization to mobilization to institutionalization. For the first time in Madhya Pradesh's development history, state government has shown the courage to interact with communities in making village-level development plans. The Madhya Pradesh Planning Commission has created a tangible plan for working more closely with communities.
This paper outlines the nature of this initiative and analyses the adequacy of the framework for decentralizsation and the mechanism of governance adopted by the Madhya Pradesh government for achieving the goal of participatory democracy. In particular, the paper assesses the state model of decentralized planning, its operational framework, and ongoing efforts. It also presents the status of village-level planning in the state, including how villages are interacting with one another and with government entities outside the state.
Author: Yogesh Mahor, Ram Gopal Singh Publisher: University of Technology Sydney Press Publication year: 2012
New CLGF four-year grant to help local government service delivery and boost CLGF’s research capacity
The UK Department for International Development (UK AID) has agreed £4.5 million funding for a four-year CLGF programme to improve governance and service delivery at local level in several areas of the Commonwealth including Africa and Asia from 2012-16. It will also help to support national policy frameworks for local government service delivery, and increase engagement of local government in regional policy planning and implementation. CLGF will continue to work with its members, UN partners and others to mobilise more resources towards the support of local government in the Commonwealth.
The new programme will focus on local government pilot projects in LED, supporting ministries and local government associations in strengthening their national policy making for local government, and establish regional forums to enable local government to engage in and influence regional policy making to reflect the needs and priorities of local government. It will also boost CLGF’s research capacity with targeted research to strengthen CLGF’s policy making and advocacy, including more sustained engagement in international policy debates on key issues affecting local government, such as climate change.
Author: Lucy Slack, Susan Rhodes Publisher: University of Technology Sydney Press Publication year: 2012
Local government and local development: bridging the gap through critical discourse: evidence from the Commonwealth Caribbean
Local development, whether construed broadly as community development or more narrowly as local as economic development (LED) is not always associated with local government but rather is the purview of a central government department or agency in Anglophone Caribbean policy systems. However with the emergence of ‘local place - and people-oriented approaches’ to development that offer new propositions about how to respond to risks and opportunities brought by globalization, local government is seen increasingly as an appropriate institutional context in which to pursue short-range objectives, such as creation of market opportunities and redressing the disparities within national economies; as well as the long-range goal of social transformation.
A developmental role for local government raises two questions that form the central concerns of this paper: What are the institutional and organisational imperatives of a developmental role for local government? To what extent have these imperatives been addressed in reform? A critical analysis of local government reform policies in Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica revealed substantive convergence around local development as an outcome of reform but also important divergence in the approach to achieving this goal which suggests the absence of a cohesive model. The paper argues for a new agenda in reform that links local government more consistently with a local development strategy. It asserts that such a strategy must incorporate gender equality, the informal economy and institutional organisational capacity in the process of transformation and as a basis for creating a local context in which all types of resources can be maximized in the process of wealth creation in a locality.
Author: Eris D Schoburgh Publisher: University of Technology Sydney Press Publication year: 2012
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