Commonwealth Local Government Forum

CLGF, UNDP and UNCDF have kicked off a new partnership to support decentralisation in Southern and Eastern Africa. Senior practitioners from across the Southern African region met in Windhoek on 1-3 November, hosted by the Minister of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development, Jerry Ekandjo, to debate the findings of a draft study on the State of Local Government in Southern Africa.

The study was prepared by a team of researchers from the Municipal Development Partnership, led by George Matovu, and discussions focused on the challenge of translating the regional and international commitments to greater decentralisation into practical action on the ground.

Discussions resulted in a strong commitment to move the decentralisation agenda forward at a regional level, and to work towards the development of some key principles for decentralisation to guide and measure progress. The recommendations of the workshop were presented to SADC Local Government Ministers who also met in Windhoek on 3 November. Ministers, recognising the value of working together as a region, resolved to continue to work closely with CLGF, and to establish a formal desk for local government in SADC to help focus more attention on the key role that local government plays in development and the fight against poverty in SADC countries.

Inclusive cities network

CLGF’s pilot inclusive cities network met for the second time in Johannesburg, South Africa from 4-6 November 2010, hosted by the City Council. The network brings together 12 cities to share experiences and to learn from international policy approaches to challenge the complex issues of migration, LED and inclusive development in their own communities. Johannesburg were keen to share some of the challenging policy issues which they are facing and to invite the comments and suggestions from other network members based on their experience. They visited projects in the inner city where a neighbourhood development approach is starting to address inner city crime, and enabling property owners to reclaim and renovate hijacked buildings, and where the council is looking at ways to effectively manage the informal trading sector. They also visited the township of Diepsloot where an NGO is providing essential services including education, health care and training.

The Johannesburg experience, coupled with presentations from other partners – including one by teleconference from Brisbane City Council,  led to an open and challenging discussion around place based approaches to addressing poverty and highlighted the importance of good planning to avoid institutionalising areas of deprivation. The partners agreed that as follow up to each meeting the host city would develop a detailed case study on their experience to capture and share the learning and share the learning. Look out for the first case study on the CLGF website shortly...

The network is already resulting in members testing different approaches at home - Surrey Council, part of Metro Vancouver in Canada, which does not currently have a neighbourhood based system, is planning to trial a neighbourhood approach to development in one of their communities following participation in the network.

As part of its plans to open up the network to other City members of CLGF, the network partners will be developing a  Charter to guide the involvement of new members in the network, with a launch planned during the Commonwealth Local Government Conference in Cardiff, March 15-18, 2010.

Local government matters

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Southern Africa Indaba

  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 fr ...
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