Launch of First Conference on Access to Development - Funding for Local Governments in Commonwealth Africa
Date: 7 Nov 2007
Speaker: Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General Ransford Smith
Location: Marlborough House, London
Mr. Carl Wright, Secretary-General, CLGF
Mr. Atam Sandhu, Managing Director, DMA (needs to be confirmed)
Distinguished guests
Ladies and Gentlemen:
It is my pleasure to say a few words at this Joint launch of the First Conference on ‘Access to Development Funding for Local Government in Commonwealth Africa’ which will be held next year in July in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF) is an important Commonwealth Association which the Commonwealth Secretariat has worked closely with over the years on programmes relating to local governance. In the past few years there have been many joint programmes undertaken by CLGF and the Secretariat including a series of regional symposia and publications entitled “Making Local Governance Work”.
The Secretariat is keen to deepen democracy and we are consequently collaborating with the CLGF in the development of local government in the Pacific and the Caribbean regions in particular. A local Government expert is stationed in the Pacific Local Government Project Office of the CLGF in Fiji Islands and serves the needs of the entire Pacific region while more recently a local government expert has been assigned to the Ministry of Local Government in Jamaica where he is assisting both Jamaica and the Commonwealth Caribbean region to support the recently established Caribbean Forum of Local Government Ministers and to develop a regional policy and cooperation framework.
This collaboration has been made possible through the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation, popularly known as CFTC which is the principal means by which the Commonwealth Secretariat provides technical assistance to Commonwealth member states. It is a voluntary fund and members contribute financial resources according to their ability to do so and call on the CFTC to meet their technical co-operation and capacity development needs. While more than 350 experts are provided to member states annually, the primary purpose of this Fund is to build capacity of member states and this is done through training and skills transfer so as to ensure the benefits continue after experts have completed their assignment.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
As the name implies, ‘local’ government manages ‘local’ affairs and its domain encompasses virtually every problem and issue that citizens encounter in their daily life. This ranges from births to deaths, from water supply, sanitation and education to disposal of refuse, roads and town planning. Most of the utilities and services necessary for the sustenance of life and economic activity are furnished by local governments. It is therefore very important that local governments are fully functional and have adequate funding to meet the rising demands and expectations of citizens and that the quality of local services are such that they enhance the quality of life of local citizens.
Apart from this service delivery aspect, the element of popular participation through the electoral process at the local level provides a valuable training ground at the grass-roots level, both for the representatives and the represented.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Most of the increase in the world’s population until 2030 is expected to be in urban areas. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the urban population, currently estimated at 270 million, has increased at an annual rate of about 5 percent since 1980 and is expected to reach 630 million by 2030. Similarly, the urban population in Asia will rise by over a billion from the current estimates of 1.57 billion to 2.67 billion by 2030. As urban growth continues unabated, an increasing number of Commonwealth (developing) countries have assigned greater autonomy and responsibility for infrastructure and service provision to local governments. The unprecedented urbanisation coupled with the growth in population presents a challenge to local governments in providing adequate infrastructure facilities and services.
It is therefore not surprising that decentralisation is now taking place in many countries of the world and in the Commonwealth. This has resulted in challenges relating to the design of decentralised structures and the sharing of resources and power between different tiers of local governments. This has also placed increased responsibilities on sub-national and local governments for the delivery of public services and the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals. Decentralisation of administrative and service delivery responsibilities to lower tiers of governments without corresponding flows of finances, i.e. fiscal decentralisation, is likely to be counter-productive to the spirit of decentralisation. This includes both locally owned revenue sources and intergovernmental fiscal transfers.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Local governments require heavy investments in municipal infrastructure to create, improve and maintain existing local services. There are several ways of financing capital expenditure, such as, borrowing from central government, loans from international agencies, e.g. World Bank, etc., loans from a central credit institution or borrowing from the public or the money market, e.g. by issuing of local authority bonds.
You may appreciate that borrowing by sub-national entities is not that simple and is a complex issue which sometimes can have a serious impact on macro-economic management. Local governments have historically been starved in terms of various kinds of resources. How to mobilize funding from external sources is an issue of the moment for many of the local authorities in the developing Commonwealth countries. In Sub-Saharan Africa, like many other regions of the Commonwealth, difficulty in access to funds has severely hampered infrastructure provision by local governments. The Commonwealth Secretariat therefore welcomes this very timely event which will help address these issues.
I am also pleased to say that the Secretariat has recently launched a project which will review the municipal financing frameworks and the extent of private sector participation in the provision and financing of infrastructure and public services at the sub-national level in four selected Commonwealth cities. These are Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania, Kampala in Uganda, Dhaka in Bangladesh, and Karachi in Pakistan. This project will identify the key challenges in municipal financing, and institutional and financial strengthening measures that are required to tap alternate, including private, sources of financing for growth-oriented municipal investments. We will be happy to share the findings of this project with CLGF and at the forthcoming conference.
I hope this First Conference on – ‘Access to Development Funds for Local Government’ will come up with sound strategies to enable local governments in the Commonwealth Africa, and beyond, to explore funding sources to meet their infrastructure demands and improve local services that they have been tasked with delivering. I hope the Conference will also look into alternative ways in which capital investments by local governments can be financed, including a variety of public-private partnerships.
Let me congratulate CLGF on taking this initiative. The CLGF has a good track record of organising successful and valuable international conferences and I am sure this forthcoming conference will live up to our high expectations. I look forward to the conference recommendations and deliberations, which I am sure will enhance not only participant’s knowledge on the subject but will also inform the CLGF programme of work as well as the Secretariat’s local government assistance to member countries.
I thank you.
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Launch of First Conference on Access to Development - Funding for Local Governments in Commonwealth Africa
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