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

Over four hundred delegates, made up of political leaders, technical council staff, representatives of local government associations, civil society, development partners and local government actors from Namibia, South Africa, Botswana and the Commonwealth Local Government Forum and UCLGA SARO, met in Lderitz from 12 - 15 March 2024 for the first ever Association of Local Authorities of Namibia (ALAN) LED Indaba. Read More