The Amendment Act has gone through its first reading at Parliament and is expected to be passed into the Village Fono Amendment Act 2015 in Parliaments next sitting in August 2015. The amendment will permit registration of the Village Bylaws with the Ministry of Women, Community and Social Development, instead of the current practice, where they are only recognized by the Ministry of Justice and Courts Administration. Read More

The Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF) Pacific has won European Union (EU) support and funding for a programme aimed at strengthening the capacity of Local Government Associations (LGAs) to support local economic development (LED) in the Pacific. Read More

CLGF recently conducted a review of Port Vila Municipal Council's (PVMC) financial system and operations and provided a scoping report on areas needing remedial action. The areas reviewed were initiation and recording of all financial transactions and its allocation and reporting in the General ledger system along with the overall financial operations. Read More

In May this year, CLGF Pacific Communications and Research Officer, Miriam Rees was selected to be among 35 participants to attend the Commonwealth Youth and Gender Equality Network Forum in Malta due to the work CLGF has been conducting in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands around gender equality in local government. The event was organized by the Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS) and ran for five days. Read More

For local government to play its full role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, it needs to be empowered, capacities need to be reinforced, governance strengthened and citizens should be more engaged in the democratic process, according to delegates at the 2015 Commonwealth Local Government Conference. Read More

Local government must be empowered, capacities need to be reinforced, governance strengthened and citizens should be more engaged in the democratic process, if they are to play their full part in delivering the SDGs; this is the vision for local governement delivered by delegates at the 2015 Commonwealth Local Government Conference which ended on 19 June. Delegates called on the CLGF to develop a 15 year strategy for supporting its members to achieve the vision. Read More