Commonwealth Local Government Forum

Southern Africa \ Local government service delivery

Equitable and efficient service delivery is at the heart of local government’s mandate. The resources in this section focus on the management and delivery of key strategic, corporate and technical services, ranging from those for which local government has direct responsibility, to shared service provision, and services for which local government is a partner.

Sub-topics:

  • Climate change management and adaption
  • Environmental management
  • Social services
  • Spatial/development planning
  • Strategic planning
  • Waste management and sanitation
  • Water and utilities
  • Partnerships for service delivery
  • Housing
  • Infrastructure

Featured

Mainstreaming indigenous and local communities’ connections with nature for policy decision-making

Exclusion of Indigenous and local communities' connections to the rest-of-nature is a typical problem in policy-decision making. This paper highlights the key attributes of these connections and suggests evaluation pathways to mainstream them into policy development. For this, we integrate and apply the ecosystem services (ES) and human capability concepts. Five socio-cultural and economic values relating to peoples' well-being are identified as the core attributes for developing policy tools: (1) livelihoods; (2) social values; (3) cultural values; (4) spiritual values; and (5) capabilities. For policy tools, common ES frameworks and the relevant ES evaluation techniques that can be applied along with community participatory approaches, are considered. We recommend that developing a pluralistic policy platform is essential to appropriately comprehend Indigenous and local communities' connections with nature for enhancing well-being, not just sustaining livelihoods. A three-step process: (1) identifying attributes of natural systems that are vital for peoples' well-being (beyond their livelihoods); (2) developing locally-specific integrated frameworks; and (3) evaluating identified attributes (monetary and non-monetary), is clearly described in this paper to inform the policy-makers. Recognition and understanding of Indigenous and local communities’ values for nature beyond livelihood opportunities is essential for informing inclusive sustainable development processes and policies.

Author: Kamaljit K.Sanghaa Jeremy Russell-Smitha Robert Costanzab Publisher: Global Ecology and Conservation Publication year: 2019


Education and Research via the Open University Malaysia (OUM) – An Opportunity for Local Government

In this era, the provision of education and dissemination of research-based knowledge need not be restricted to conventional methods such as classroom settings and face-to-face interactions. Advancements in communications via improved technologies enable people from all over the world to seek knowledge to support their needs, conduct global research via teleconferencing, and study at their own pace wherever they are and according to their level of ability. Naturally governments, too, are aware of this flexibility to increase their effectiveness and improve the capacity of their staff.

Author: Siew Nooi Phang, Sze Wei Loo Publisher: Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance Publication year: 2009


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