As 2012 gets into full swing, at CLGF we are feeling very positive about the future despite the gloomy economic climate in many countries.

We hope that 2012 will be a year in which CLGF moves forward to put into practice its vision of a stronger regional presence to work alongside HQ in London to support our members in sharing knowledge and experiences regionally and help ensure that local government is visible and recognised as an important sphere of government in improving the quality of people’s lives and providing the environment for sustainable development and improving local economies.

Our programme in the Pacific continues to provide valuable capacity-building support to local government in the region. The new phase will address the challenges and realities faced by local government in the Pacific, in its complex environment and have a particular focus on local economic development to help local councils develop economic strategies to improve their local economies and help boost income.

In the Caribbean, we have an EU-funded programme established with the Netherlands local government association to strengthen the Caribbean Association of Local Government Authorities and are just about to launch a major project to stimulate local economic development in association with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

As we come to the end of the final phase of the UK Department for International Development funded Good Practice Scheme, we are looking to continue working with the UK Government and other partners to enable us to broaden our support for activities in other regions including East Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa and South Asia. 

We will also continue to support the establishment of democratic local government where it is under threat, and were very encouraged by the recent decisions agreed by Commonwealth Heads of Government to strengthen the mandate to promote the Commonwealth’s core political values, which include local democracy as outlined in the Aberdeen Agenda principles. We are also optimistic about the close cooperation between Commonwealth Associated Organisations such as CLGF and the Commonwealth Secretariat in pursuit of our common goals on democracy and development