Address to the Commonwealth Local Government Conference
Date: 16 Mar 2005
Speaker: Secretary-General Don McKinnon
Location: Aberdeen, Scotland
Madam Chair, Ministers, colleagues and friends,
It is good to be here in Aberdeen this afternoon and a great pleasure to be with so many good friends once again.
I want to begin by congratulating Lesotho on the progress your country is making in the establishment of local democracy. I wish you well for your forthcoming elections.
President Olusegun Obasanjo may not be able to be here in person, but I know that he is here in spirit. I therefore want to express my appreciation, through Minister Nweke, for the way in which the President has helped to shape the role of Chairman of the Commonwealth and used it in a thoughtful, constructive and most productive way.
Thirdly, I want to take this opportunity to publicly acknowledge the support the British Government has given, not only to CLGF but to the wider Commonwealth family, in recent years. With the financial support of the British Government the Commonwealth Secretariat is shortly to hold a conference in Nairobi on the relationship between the three branches of Government.
Finally, you will be aware that the Commonwealth's Heads of Government will be meeting in Malta later this year. A principal theme is likely to be 'Networking the Commonwealth for Development'.
There will be much discussion about e-governance. I am sure that in Malta CLGF will be just as determined and skilful as it has been in the past, this time in drawing attention to the use of electronic networks at local level. I know that there are many good examples - in both the provision of information about local services and in providing opportunities for citizens to pay for those services - not least from Malta itself.
I hope you will ensure that these - and, crucially, the policy points which emerge from the experience of e-governance at local level - will be brought to Malta to inform the discussion.
At the same time, not all networks are electronic. CLGF is an excellent example of the sort of human network in which the Commonwealth excels. I trust that the concerns of that human network - including the Principles which I understand you will be debating later this week - will also be fully reflected in Malta, alongside their electronic cousins.
The title that was suggested to me for this address refers to "working in partnership to support democracy and good governance". That is exactly what the Commonwealth Local Government Forum and the Commonwealth Secretariat have been doing since CLGF was set up in 1995.
Many of you will recall the references to CLGF at the 2002 and 2003 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings. These were not token nods in the direction of a Commonwealth organisation. What they represented was an affirmation of the value which Commonwealth Heads of Government attach to local democracy.
Indeed, the Abuja meeting specifically called for the constitutional and legal recognition of local government. South Africa, India, Ghana and several other countries have given that formal recognition in their Constitutions. That is a step which I commend to all other Commonwealth countries.
The wider Commonwealth's commitment to local democracy is reflected in CLGF's "associated status" but, even more, in the active collaboration between CLGF and the Secretariat.
We have worked with CLGF on its regional workshops, such as those held last year in the Caribbean and the Pacific, and to provide technical experts to strengthen local democracy in several member countries.
Leading CLGF figures are now routinely included in Commonwealth Observer Groups and the Secretariat frequently combines forces with the CLGF to observe local elections, for instance in Sierra Leone last year and in Pakistan and Lesotho this year.
There is much to mention besides this, not least the valuable collaboration between CLGF and other members of the Commonwealth family, notably the Commonwealth Business Council and the Commonwealth Foundation.
An approach of partnership also characterises the all-important relationship between the different spheres of Government.
As I pointed out in my address to the CLGF Conference last year, there needs to be balance between the different spheres of Government if that partnership is to work.
There is no balance when local government is simply the local deliverer of policies and services which are shaped, controlled by and wholly funded from national level.
There is balance when there is a fair allocation of resources and a significant degree of local autonomy in the use of those resources,
There is balance when there is a fair allocation of powers and responsibilities.
Where there is such balance it comes about because there is a genuine respect for the local sphere of government on the part of central government.
And that in turn comes about when central government recognises that - as the former Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Tip O'Neill, said - "all politics is local".
An eminent British politician reported some time ago making a great effort to try to convince an old lady who lived in public housing that she should take a particular stance on nuclear weapons.
Eventually the old lady said to the politician, in total exasperation, "Look dear, see that large puddle of water on the landing by the stair-well? Well, I'll listen to you about nuclear weapons when you can get the council to fix the leak in the roof that caused that puddle of water".
It is not to diminish the importance of international issues to appreciate that the real world is made up of thousands of leaking roofs and resultant puddles of water that local politicians either manage or fail to fix. "All politics is local".
Of course, living in a globalised world, we are acutely aware that what goes on at the other side of the planet can affect our daily lives. That's why we read the paper, that's why we watch the news.
But we can't watch the news if we don't have a roof above our heads. That's why local politics comes first.
To recap, local democracy will only be able to play its full part in responding to the needs of the community and the individuals who make it up, if:
• local democracy has proper powers and adequate funding;
• local democracy is genuinely local - it must be as close to the people as possible.
But there is a third and vital ingredient:
• local democracy must be genuinely democratic.
And where it is already democratic it must keep on being made more and more democratic. Many countries have systems of local government or local administration. But the point is to have local democracy and - as the title of this conference indicates - to keep on deepening that democracy.
The Commonwealth's commitment to democracy is rooted in the Harare Principles. To give those Principles life we in the Secretariat seek, through practical action on the ground, to strengthen democratic institutions and processes.
But we have to be aware that, in many parts of the world, there are worrying signs that people are losing faith in democracy. Nearly 15 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a mood of cynicism and disenchantment is spreading and some are even starting to wonder whether the fight for freedom was really worth it.
If we want democracy to succeed, we should therefore resist the idea there is a universal model of democracy that could simply be transplanted in countries where there is no democratic tradition.
There is no such thing as a "one size fits all", pre-assembled democratic model that could be exported to a country without any regard for its particular circumstances.
Democratic systems will always work best when they are properly embedded in local cultures and allowed to develop alongside traditional models of governance. They must be designed, owned, nurtured and defended by the people - and that, of course, starts at local level.
That is why we attempt to strengthen the culture of democracy which provides the vital underpinning without which democratic institutions and processes cannot work.
One of the ways in which we are attempting to do that currently is through our series of workshops on the theme Government and Opposition. These are designed to promote and reinforce the idea of democratic collaboration and partnership, which is so important to the condition of political freedom.
You too, I know, will continue to try to improve on the institutions and processes of local democracy and to promote good practice, not least through your Good Practice Scheme.
But, like us in the Secretariat I hope you will also give time and attention to the promotion and strengthening of the democratic culture in each of your countries and the all-important 'democratic demeanour' that comes with it.
That is why I especially welcome the Principles which I understand you will be discussing this week.
I wish you well as, armed with those Principles and the experience of this Conference, you set out on a renewed and determined advocacy of the democratic principle, the robust championing of democratic values and the building of a genuinely democratic culture in each of our countries.
I hope you have a successful conference. And I look forward to the continued strengthening of the partnership between the CLGF and the Commonwealth Secretariat in support of democracy and good governance.
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Address to the Commonwealth Local Government Conference
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