CLGF is delighted to announce the publication of Issue 27 of the Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance. The journal can be accessed here.

With an editorial from Graham Sansom, Associate Editor and Adjunct Professor at the Institute for Public Policy and Governance, at the University of Technology Sydney Australia, he explains how this edition exemplifies the founding goal of the Journal, in facilitating a conversation between researchers and practitioners that will inform the work of the Commonwealth Local Government Forum, as well as policy-making by governments across the Commonwealth and elsewhere.

This edition includes six research papers, six country perspectives on one of those papers, two other commentaries and a policy and practice note. All offer important insights into two central issues concerning the future of local governance:

• the quality of local democracy and
• the place of local government in broader national and federal systems.

The subjects covered are: decentralisation and local governance in Nigeria, the tailored support that councillors in Australia need to play their vital role in community democracy; the implications of municipal re-demarcations for service delivery in two  local municipalities in South Africa; an examination of the motivation and leadership styles of six women campaigning for election in 2017 to neighbouring all male councils in regional New South Wales; and many more important topics.