Commonwealth Local Government Forum

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:

Featured

Reducing Urban Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Effective Steering Strategies for City Governments

In the IMFG Perspectives Paper (No. 16), Reducing Urban Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Effective Steering Strategies for City Governments, Sara Hughes reviews the unique strategies of three cities leading the charge: Toronto, New York City, and Los Angeles. The paper identifies three strategies that have proven effective: Building and maintaining a broad-based coalition of governmental and non-governmental actors working toward a common goal; Investing in capacity-building, data collection, and education; and Embedding new ideas, financial tools, and standards into local formal and informal decision-making institutions. “Cities are critical climate change actors, and will be for the foreseeable future,” says Hughes. “Given the jurisdictional and financial constraints local governments face, their climate change goals will demand creative partnerships, new tools and systems, and innovative institutional cultures.” This paper is part of a series of IMFG publications and events focusing on cities and climate change.

Author: Sara Hughes Publisher: Institute of Municipal Finance and Governance, University of Torronto Publication year: 2017


Mining in Africa : Are Local Communities Better Off?

his study focuses on the local and regional impact of large-scale gold mining in Africa in the context of a mineral boom in the region since 2000. It contributes to filling a gap in the literature on the welfare effects of mineral resources, which, until now, has concentrated more on the national or macroeconomic impacts. Economists have long been intrigued by the paradox that a rich endowment of natural resources may retard economic performance, particularly in the case of mineral-exporting developing countries. Studies of this phenomenon, known as the “resource curse,” examine the economy-wide consequences of mineral exports. Africa’s resource boom has lifted growth, but has been less successful in improving people’s welfare. Yet much of the focus in academic and policy circles has been on appropriate management of the macro-fiscal and governance risks that have historically undermined development outcomes. This study focuses instead on the fortune of local communities where resources are located. It aims to better inform public policy and corporate behavior on the welfare of communities in Africa in which the extraction of resources takes place.

Author: Punam Chuhan-Pole, Andrew L Dabalen, Bryan Christopher Land Publisher: World Bank Publication year: 2017


Water Security Challenges of South and South East Asia: Mainstreaming Local Governance Institutions

In the backdrop of the growing concerns of increasing water security in the larger Asian, especially South and South East Asian (S&SEA) context, this paper examines the major water security challenges as well vulnerability of the countries in the region towards water-scarcity induced problems. It is observed that the water security concerns in the S&SEA region emerge from a host of factors that are attributed to growing populations, urbanization, industrial development and the nascent climate change induced threats. Apparently, all these factors continue to remain quite virulent in the future as well despite earnest efforts among individual countries to overcome many of these developmental issues through appropriate policies as well as adaptation and mitigation strategies. Following an analysis of the status of water across S&SEA and other countries, the paper makes a critical look at the major water security challenges as emerge from the empirical literature. Since water security issues are increasingly becoming potent affecting the sustainable livelihoods of human and cattle population as well as the survival of the environmental and ecosystems, it is all the more important that the countries concerned are to be highly sensitive and responsive in terms of mainstreaming the local governance, institutions and community based as well as other local development agencies for protecting and conserving the water resource systems. In this regard, the paper brings out the imperatives of evolving strategies for strengthening the ties between local institutions (state operated, private, and community/civil society based) as well as national governments?and?or?international/cross-border NGOs in?the regional context of  the S&SEA to address the water security challenges from a multi-stakeholder, multi-sectoral perspectives. This essentially calls for constant interactions between countries as well as regions within a country, to use or the locally suited institutional models to address the multiple problems of access to water as well as strengthening the economic, political and financial capabilities of the local institutions to achieve the SDGs

Author: P .K. Viswanathan and Chandra Sekhar Bahinipati Publisher: Asian Profile Journal Publication year: 2017


LGA briefing - Local Government and the EU

Key messages: Autonomy of local government: Responsibilities repatriated from the EU cannot be centralised in Whitehall. Councils have a democratic mandate to lead their communities. We need new devolution settlements in England and across the UK to bring new powers to communities through local democracy. Developing a new legal base for local government: There are many EU laws that affect the day job of local councils. The future review of UK laws of EU origin must be informed about their real world impact. It must lead to new legislative freedoms and flexibilities for councils so that local communities, businesses and consumers can benefit. Securing investment that is currently sourced from the EU: The Government needs to begin developing a growth policy which must be fully funded to deliver its ambitions and be locally driven post-Brexit. This must be designed and delivered by local areas as an integrated replacement for EU funding and existing national schemes to support infrastructure, enterprise, and social cohesion.

Author: LGA Publisher: LGA Publication year: 2016


Did the Land Transfer Tax Impact Housing Sales in Toronto?

This paper looks at the City of Toronto’s 2008 Land Transfer Tax (LTT) and its impact on housing sales in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Housing sales declined in Toronto in 2008 where the LTT was implemented, but sales also declined in Toronto’s suburbs and in other cities, such as Vancouver and Montreal, where the LTT shouldn’t have had any influence. It was not just the LTT, but the recession in 2008 that contributed to housing market declines across Canada and beyond. This paper builds on previous research by including condominiums in addition to single-family homes in the analysis, accounting for the additional influence of the recession, and comparing the decline in sales in Toronto to the relative increase in sales in the suburbs.

Author: Murtaza Haider, Amar Anwar, Cynthia Holmes Publisher: University of Toronto Publication year: 2016


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

© CLGF 2024 : Privacy Policy