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.

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

What’s left, what’s been done and what next? England’s 2000 Rural White Paper: town council activities and a survey of town clerks

Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance - Issue 15, June 2014 The research discussed in this paper was prompted by the writer’s interest in the roles of England’s small country (market) towns. It has two aims: first, to discover the extent to which the work programmes announced in the British government’s Rural White Paper (RWP 2000) (DETR-MAFF 2000) are recognised by town clerks, and second, to find out what town councils are doing, either on their own, or with others, and to gauge the potential and desire that they have for a greater degree of autonomy for smaller councils. In both cases the data was gathered from an online questionnaire sent to town clerks.

Author: Gordon Morris Publisher: CLGF/University of Technology, Sydney Publication year: 2015


Local democracy and public accountability in Uganda: the need for organisational learning

Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance - Issue 15, June 2014. The paper examines the impact of public accountability mechanisms in Uganda's decentralisation of local governments. Some of the common performance evaluation tools used for evaluation of local government performance are presented and discussed including the baraza, village participatory democracy and the score-card reporting method. The orthodox theories of local governance and concept of democracy are bases for assessing the feasibility of public accountability in Uganda. The paper concludes that popular control and political equality principles of democracy remain elusive in the Ugandan context. It suggests that, for improving public accountability, instead of increasingly using additional mechanisms of involving the masses, it is important to assess and learn from routines and experiences that emerge from organisational learning.

Author: Stella Kyohairwe Publisher: CLGF/University of Technology, Sydney Publication year: 2015


Impoverishment assessment of slum dwellers after off-site and on-site resettlement: a case of Indore

This paper is an attempt to assess the impacts of off-site and on-site slum resettlement projects in Indore by comparing slum dwellers’ lives before and after the implementation of the projects, complimenting and corroborating a sister paper based on fieldwork in Ahmedabad (Impoverishment risks in urban development indiced displacements and resettlements in Ahmedabad, Patel, Sliuzas, Mathur, and Miscione, 2013). The impact analysis is based on the indicators of impoverishment risks due to displacement and resettlement formulated by Cernea (2000a) in his Impoverishment Risks and Reconstruction (IRR) model. The findings indicate the presence of the following forms of impoverishment which Cernea proposed for the displacees: significant loss in household assets, increased joblessness or unemployment, loss of access to common services, increased health risks, marginalisation and social disarticulation - all of which have compounded their vulnerability and chances of falling deeper into poverty. The paper also argues that, compared to off-site and on-site resettlement, displacees were less affected by negative consequences and impoverishment risks. The paper concludes with recommendations for slum resettlement policies of local government so that impoverishment risks can be reasonably averted.

Author: Sejal Patel, Ritika Mandhyan Publisher: CLGF/University of Technology, SYdney Publication year: 2015


The state of HIV sector local governance in Malawi and Zambia: evidence from five districts

Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance - Issue 15, June 2014 The paper encapsulates the outputs of a Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC) funded project that aimed to improve HIV governance at the district level in Malawi and Zambia by encouraging public participation for more effective use of local resources. The methodology for this project, developed by the Institute for Democracy in Africa (Idasa) and SDC, included a barometer which assessed perceptions of district HIV governance among key stakeholders. Perceptions were gathered on governance principles of effectiveness, efficiency, rule of law, accountability, participation and equity. The stakeholders ranged from administrators, political representatives, community-based organisations and the private sector on the supply side and citizens on the demand or beneficiary side. The findings of the research indicate specific sector governance issues that may be generalised to governance. Communication and transparency appear to be major issues underpinning the bottlenecks and shortcomings in the district HIV governance. Information gaps have given rise to accountability deficits and coordination deficiencies. Addressing these matters would make more effective use of resources and lessen dependence on external funding sources.

Author: Justin Steyn Publisher: CLGF/University of Technology, Sydney Publication year: 2015


Community-based participatory irrigation management at local government level in Ghana

Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance - Issue 15, June 2014 Ghana has attempted to decentralise the management of irrigation schemes to communities at local government level. This study examines the existing local participatory management structures and the principles of the Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) strategy designed to promote sustainable management of irrigation schemes in Ghana. Two community-based irrigation projects, Bontanga and Golinga in the Northern Region of Ghana were selected for the research. The study demonstrated that farmers’ participation was minimal and limited to the discussion of irrigation service charges at the expense of other issues related to the sustainability of the projects/schemes. The study also established that there was less participation of women, and more than half of all the crop farmers on the two irrigation projects were reluctant to assume additional responsibilities without remuneration. The study therefore concluded that the sustainability of the PIM strategy depends on the adoption of an integrated management approach involving all stakeholders including local government, with appropriate incentives.

Author: I Braimah, R S King, D M Sulemana Publisher: CLGF/University of Technology, Sydney Publication year: 2015


1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75

© CLGF 2024 : Privacy Policy