• Governance:
• Publications

Publications

Local Democracy, Good Governance and Delivering the MDGs in Africa

Report of the Africa Regional Symposium held in Kampala, Uganda, April 2006.

This symposium was an important staging point in reviewing the role of Africa local governments in delivering  the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The symposium’s overall objective was to help strengthen local governance in Africa to enable local authorities to deliver more effective and accountable services to their communities.  This was part of a coordinated effort within the commonwealth to build local capacity to tackle poverty in line with internationally agreed targets as local governments, because of their natural proximity to the common men, are in a better position to deliver. The publication captures the deliberations and recommendations of the symposium. The participants, ministers, mayors, senior officials and other key stakeholders from across Africa adopted the Kampala Agenda for Local Government, which is reproduced in full in this publication. 

Click to download the PDF version of this book

Better Local Services: Improving local government delivery through innovation and partnerships

Report of the Asia-Pacific Regional Symposium held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, July 2005

Today local governments, across the Commonwealth, face a major challenge in providing basic services in their jurisdictions. With large scale budgetary deficits, and rising expectations of the citizens, they are under constant pressure to respond to increasing infrastructure needs in their regions. Increasingly many local bodies have turned to non-public sector agencies to partner for asset creation as well as for service delivery. Recognizing the nature of these issues, partnerships between local governments and private and non-governmental organisations are seen as  bold and innovative strategies to improve performance of  the services delivered by local authorities. The Symposium facilitated a very worthwhile exchange of information, ideas and opinions. In particular, it documented a number of case studies of Local Government Service Partnerships that are summarised in this report.

Click to download the PDF version of this book

Local Democracy and Good Governance in the Pacific

Report of the Regional symposium held in Suva, Fiji Islands, December 2004.

In the pacific many countries are looking at ways of decentralising their structures to ensure that decision making takes place at a level which is closest to the people affected by those decisions. These moves aim to ensure that communities have ownership over the direction in which their communities are moving and that services are delivered in a locally acceptable way. This publication builds on the symposium held in Fiji islands to assist small island Commonwealth countries to better appreciate the significance of and to devise strategies for advancing decentralisation in their particular situations. The analyses and recommendations of the symposium are incorporated in the report which affords an understanding of emerging regional issues relating to good governance and grassroots democracy.

Click to download the PDF version of this book

 

Local Democracy and Good Governance in the Caribbean

Report of the Regional Symposium held in Montego Bay, Jamaica, April 2004.

The symposium, 'Local Democracy and Good Governance in the Caribbean', came out of discussions in the region with the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF). Its aim was to consider the health of local democracy in the Commonwealth Caribbean, to share experiences and good practices both within the Caribbean and in the broader Commonwealth and to identify steps which could be taken to develop strong and effective democratic local governance structures which deliver quality services to the whole community.

 

Click to download the PDF version of this book

 

To obtain hard copies of these publications please contact Dr Munawwar Alam, email m.alam@commonwealth.int