The 20th anniversary conference of CLGF will be held in Gaborone, Botswana, 16-19 June 2015 with the overall theme ‘Local Government Agenda 2030’. Its outcomes will be submitted to Commonwealth Heads of Government when they meet later in 2015 in Malta.

The 2015 Conference theme has been chosen to seek to identify the key challenges facing mayors, ministers and officials in the next 15 years: in ensuring accountable, transparent and participatory democratic practices, in promoting economic growth and technological advance and in developing inclusive and sustainable cities, capable of dealing with global trends such as rapid urbanisation and climate change.

The period 2015-2030 also corresponds to the next UN development strategy, which will start in 2015, with agreement on the new Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs. There is growing consensus, including by  development partners, that if the strategy is to be successful, the new development goals and accompanying targets must be ‘localised’ and grounded in practical reality and on-the-ground implementation mechanisms. Local government, in association with other locally-based partners such as civil society, has a vital role in helping to set, implement and indeed monitor the SDGs. This however means it needs capacity and finances- localisation of the SDGs must, as the 2014 CLGF Board meeting in Abuja reminded us, needs to be accompanied by localisation of resources, as well as having the necessary enabling environment for effective decentralisation to take place.

The CLGF Conference has established itself as a must-attend event in the diary of key local government decision makers, development partners and other stakeholders, including from the private sector. Past conferences have pioneered new concepts around local democracy, leadership, economic growth and, most recently, developmental local government. The local government practices of Botswana, one of the most successful countries in Africa, and of the wider SADC region, including nearby South Africa, will also be of much interest when we meet in June 2015.

CLGF and local government have seen considerable recognition and progress in the years since the organisation was founded in 1995. Gaborone 2015 will be the time when together we can set the agenda for the next 15 years.