CLGF Chairperson Mayor Lawrence Yule and Secretary-General Carl Wright met with Minister Hon Slumber Tsogane and BALA President Cllr Rev Mpho Moruakogomo on 23 March in Gaborone, Botswana as part of the preparations for the forthcoming Commonwealth Local Government Conference. The 2015 conference will be held at the Gaborone International Convention Centre (GICC) from 16-19 June 2015.

The Commonwealth Local Government Conference is CLGF's flagship event, held every two years in different regions of the Commonwealth. This will be the first time it has been held in Botswana. The conference provides an opportunity for delegates to look at issues, developments and best practice in local government, and provides networking opportunities for local government leaders, ministers and officials, and others working with local government to create new partnerships for cooperation and development. A cross-section of some 500 key policy and decision makers from across the 53 countries of the Commonwealth and beyond will attend the event, including national, state and provincial ministers, local government mayors, chief councillors and leaders, senior officials, academics and representatives of professional organisations, civil society and the private sector.

The theme of the 2015 conference is Local government 2030: Achieving the vision.  It will look at how local government can play its full part in development to improve the lives of the 2.2 billion people who live in Commonwealth countries, including what steps local government needs to take to help implement and monitor the proposed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be agreed by the UN later this year. It will look at how better local democracy can help deliver more effective local government, strategies for inclusive and resilient cities and human settlements, and how local authorities can deliver local economic growth and sustainable development.

The conference will also help shape CLGF's own policies and priorities for its work, and feed into the Commonwealth's policy and agenda setting through the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) and into the UN discussions on implementing the SDGs. It will also celebrate CLGF's 20th anniversary. The conference also provides an opportunity for Botswana to showcase the country including the developing decentralisation policies and good practice in local government around the conference.

Speaking after arriving in Gaborone CLGF Chairperson Mayor Lawrence Yule said, "We are very pleased that the 2015 Commonwealth Local Government Conference will take place in Botswana. It will give a great opportunity for colleagues here to attend the event and meet with their peers from across the Commonwealth to learn from each other about how we can address common challenges and make the most of opportunities and innovations to support and improve local government to deliver better services and build resilient communities.
"We are very grateful to the government of Botswana, and in particular the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, for hosting this conference and to other partners such as the Botswana Association of Local Authorities (BALA) who are helping us plan and deliver the conference. We are delighted that apart from the strong commitment by Botswana, there is growing interest in attending the Conference from our local government colleagues in South Africa and across the SADC region.

"The conference is taking place at a key time for local government across the globe: with a growing acceptance of a bottom-up approach to development and the emphasis on the localisation of the SDGs. There is also growing attention to urbanisation and the influential role of big cities and city mayors, in particular their role in economic development and acting as engines of growth for the wider regional and national economies. We will be discussing their role and impact on development.  We hope that our members and delegates will be able to implement the policies and good practice on the ground through their own policies, legislation and activities."