Secretary-General Greg Munro reaffirmed CLGF’s commitment to supporting members in Zambia when he addressed the opening ceremony of the 62nd Annual Conference of the Local Government Association of Zambia (LGAZ) at the end of April. The 550 strong audience included mayors, chairpersons, councillors, town clerks, council secretaries, senior government officials and other stakeholders.

Previous LED achievements 

Dr Munro began by reflecting on CLGF’s previous support for a Local Economic Development pilot project in Kabwe Municipality, Kaoma Town Council, Kitwe City Council and Chipata City Council between 2014 and 2016. This resulted in enhanced LED capacity within LGAZ, the Ministry of Local Government and the four councils; a number of LED strategies which guided local government partnerships with private the sector and communities; as well as the Local Economic Development Guidelines for Local Government, which will guide the rolling out of LED to all local authorities in Zambia 

Supporting new work

The Secretary-General then looked to the future by describing new work that will support three separate components:

• local authorities’ capacity building;
• inclusive local development planning - including implementation of Local Economic Development (LED) and Primary Health Care (PHC); and
• LGAZ to effectively represent and support its members in the implementation of the Decentralisation Policy and successful delivery of the 7th National Development Plan.

This was followed by a session sharing case studies from Southern Africa highlighting good practice in a range of areas, including: gender balance in local government representation; citizen participation in local governance; and community development. Other speakers at the session included UNDP senior officials, the Minister for Local Government, Hon Vincent Mwale, who is also a Board Member of CLGF, and the Vice President of Zambia, Hon Inonge Wina, pictured.