Empowering and supporting women to participate in local government, in line with UN Sustainable Development Goal 5, is a key priority of CLGF. Since the launch of the Commonwealth Women in Local Government Network (ComWLG) in 2017, the group has gone from strength to strength, with many individual country and regional chapters having been established. Read More

The 56 countries of the Commonwealth are diverse in many ways, such as size and nature, and include many SIDs or Small Island Developing States. Located throughout the Commonwealth, SIDs have unique characteristics and very distinct needs. Read More

Supporting women in local government to increase their impact within local government is a key priority for the ComWLG Network. To date CLGF has undertaken work on political leadership, election campaign development, and mentoring for work in local government, and in 2024 CLGF has added a new focal area to the work of the ComWLG looking at Gendered Cities. Focusing on the intersection of gender, urbanisation, and development CLGF recently held two dialogues bringing together technical experts, local political leaders and technical practitioners from across the Commonwealth regions. Read More

In challenging times it is even more important to look at how we can work more efficiently and ensure that we maximise the impact of our work to support and strengthen local government across the Commonwealth. Read More

Building resilience throughout the Commonwealth is vital. To protect against climate change, natural disasters, economic and health declines and nowhere is this more important than in the Pacific where the SIDS - or Small Island Developing States face catastrophic impacts to any, or all of these occurrences. Read More