Local Economic Development (LED) and SMART cities can provide a framework for local governments to deliver the SDGs in South Asia, according to the Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF) as a result of its programme in the region which has focused on decentralisation and local economic development.
 

CLGF members and partners – including city mayors, local government leaders,  ministers and others involved in local development from across South Asia are meeting in Jabalpur, India on 3-4 August to discuss local government’s role in delivering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and hear about some of the outcomes of the CLGF LED projects that have been part of the programme. 
 

The theme of the meeting is Local government: a partner in achieving the SDGs in Asia. The meeting is being co-hosted by Jabalpur Nagar Nigram in Madhya Pradesh, which is a key project partner with CLGF and the seventh smart city of India.
 

Speakers will include Dr Swali Godhole, Mayor of Jabalpur, India; Hon Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, India; Hon Seyed Ali Zahir Moulana, Chairperson of the Federation of Sri Lanka Local Government Authorities and SAARC Director Rita Dhita.  Participants will also hear about some of the projects that were part of the CLGF programme including:

•    A pilot project in Bangladesh with three union parishads on participatory budgeting, where an open budget meeting was live telecast on a local TV channel
•    A project in North Central province, Sri Lanka where training in preparing and using by-laws helped clarify and develop local government’s powers so they can provide a better and more effective legal and regulatory environment for local economic development  in relation to the tourism business, restaurants, waste management, parking and street vendors
•    In Jabalpur, India an LED pilot project used community resource people from slum settlements to collect key information on local service providers in five slum areas for uploading to the smart city website so that others can access the data on smartphones.

“The UN adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in September 2015. This contained 17 Sustainable Development Goals which aim to reduce inequality and promote economic, social and environmental development,” said CLGF Secretary-General Greg Munro.

“Thanks to the input of CLGF and its partners, this time the goals explicitly state that all levels of government must be involved in the implementation, including local government. CLGF is committed to supporting our local, provincial/state and central government members in developing means of doing this.” 
 

CLGF is hoping to follow-up its programme and work with partners in the region to develop tools and toolkits to help its members set, implement and monitor SDG targets.