| Conference | Research Colloquium | CLGF Research Advisory Group | | Principles for Further Research |

The 2009 Commonwealth Local Government Conference took place in Freeport, Bahamas on 11-14 May. Its theme was Improving Local Government: The Commonwealth Vision.

Immediately prior to the Conference, on 10-11 May, there was a Research Colloquium convened by the UTS Centre for Local Government.

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Conference

The biennial Commonwealth Local Government Conference attracts leading local government policy makers and practitioners, including ministers responsible for local government, mayors, local government leaders and councillors, academics and people from the private sector and civil society who work with local government.

Recent conferences have been held in Auckland, New Zealand in 2007, in Aberdeen, Scotland in 2005 and in Tshwane (Pretoria), South Africa in 2003. The outcomes of these conferences were endorsed by Commonwealth Heads of Governments and are helping central governments and local governments to strengthen their governance and democratic processes and to deliver better services. The outcomes of the Freeport Conference will be presented to Commonwealth Heads of Government when they meet in Trinidad and Tobago later in 2009.

The 2009 Conference considered a number of key questions:

• What is local government's role in the future?
• How should councils involve local people in planning and decision-making?
• How can we build capacity and strengthen local governments to be more effective and efficient?
• What can we do to help councils improve?
• How do we measure if a council has improved?
• What is the Commonwealth vision for good local government?

Discussions were informed by a comprehensive background paper prepared by Dr. Philip Amis of Birmingham University.

For details of the conference program, please go to www.clgc2009.org

A full report on the 2009 conference will be published by CLGF within the next couple of weeks.

The 2011 Conference will be held in Cardiff, Wales.

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Research Colloquium

The 2009 Commonwealth Local Government Research Colloquium was attended by over 40 delegates from 14 countries, representing around 30 research and training institutes, donor agencies, international organisations and local government bodies. A final participant list is available below.

The Colloquium was generously sponsored by the International Development Research Centre of Canada, and co-hosted by the Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF).

The Freeport Colloquium was the second such event, following an inaugural gathering of researchers in Auckland as part of the 2007 Commonwealth Local Government Conference. Its aims were:

• To provide research-based policy advice to CLGF and its global partners that will underpin ongoing activities and collaboration
• To provide an opportunity for presentation and discussion of research papers related to the Conference theme of Improving Local Government
• To maximize opportunities for participation by researchers from developing countries
• To further strengthen CLGF's Research Advisory Group and its networks, and establish a basis for cooperative research activities and links with practitioners on priority issues
• To generate material for dissemination through future issues of the Commonwealth e-Journal of Local Governance and other CLGF publications.

In practical terms, the two-day event was a mix of plenary workshops, presentations of research and discussions based on these and conference related issues. A program is included below. Colloquium deliberations covered the following topics:

• transformational change in local government
• alternative models of local government
• public participation and community engagement
• non-western practices or models of local governance
• concepts of 'improved' local government and 'fit for purpose'
• policies and programs to bring about necessary improvements
• managing intergovernmental relations
• challenges of urban development and poverty
• developing human resources.

These issues and areas for further research are set out in an Interim Report which was presented to the CLGF's General Meeting held immediately after the Conference. The report includes a preliminary list of suggested priorities for research and practice development within Commonwealth local government over the next two years. A final report will be published here later in the year, based on further input from Colloquium delegates.

The UTS Centre for Local Government welcomes any feedback. This can be directed to either to Graham Sansom or Daniel Grafton.

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Images

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Documents and Links

Freeport Colloquium Report

Freeport Colloquium Participant List (upcoming)

Freeport Colloquium Brochure

2009 Commonwealth Local Government Conference program  and background paper

Presentations (in chronological order)

Due to programming changes, some presentations here were not listed in the original program. While the authors have agreed to make these documents publicly accessible, copyright issues do apply and the authors may be contacted via the supplied email links.

Research and Local Government: Some lessons from the Focus City Research Initiative Mark Redwood - International Development Research Centre, Canada. [ Download] [Email the Author]

Improving local Government: the Commonwealth vision; reflections on the background paper Philip Amis - University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. [ Download] [Email the Author]

Modernising local government structures via fragmentation: Lessons from the Portmore municipal experiment, Jamaica Eris Schoburgh - University of The West Indies, Jamaica. [ Download] [Email the Author]

Democratic local governance in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region: Some emerging issues and challenges for local governance BC Chikulo - North West University, South Africa. [ Download] [Email the Author]

The imperative of participation in South African local government PS Reddy - University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. [ Download] [Email the Author]

Intergovernmental relations in the Pacific Islands Graham Hassall and Feue Tipu - University of the South Pacific, Fiji Islands. [ Download] [Email Author 1] [Email Author 2]

New directions in New Zealand local government Peter McKinlay - Local Government Centre, AUT University, New Zealand. [ Download] [Email the Author]

A new approach in institutional partnerships between local government and research: Tackling urban poverty in Colombo, Sri Lanka Udeni Chularatne, Sevanatha - Urban research Centre, Colombo, Sri Lanka. [ Download] [Email the Author]

Confronting the urban challenge in Sub Saharan Africa: Participatory action research, institutional capacity and governance in Kampala Shuaib Lwasa - CIP Liaison Office, Kampala, Uganda. [ Download] [Email the Author]

Finance and governance of capital cities in federal countries Rupak Chattopadhyay - Forum of Federations, Canada. [ Download] [Email the Author]

Systemic problems of rural local governments in West Bengal, India Raghebendra Chattopadhyay and Bhaskar Chakrabarti - Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, India. [ Download] [Email the Author]

Decentralization and local government reforms in Kerala: Strategy for capacity building N. Ramakantan - Kerala Institute of Local Administration, India. [ Download] [Email the Author]

Local government research agenda for urban infrastructure Kamla Kant Pandey - Indian Institute of Public Administration, India. [ Download] [Email the Author]

The use of sub-national performance information monitoring systems in decentralised settings Victor Dumas and Kai Kaiser - World Bank. [ Download] [Email Author 1] [Email Author 2]

New Professionals on tap? The human resource challenges in developing a new generation of municipal and local government managers in Nova Scotia David Johnson and Andrew Molloy, Cape Breton University, Canada. [ Download] [Email Author 1] [Email Author 2]

The municipal council as legislator and executive: An ideal overtaken by reality? Jaap de Visser, University of the Western Cape, South Africa. [ Download] [Email the Author]

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CLGF Research Advisory Group

The colloquium is held under the aegis of Commonwealth Local Government Forum's Research Advisory Group. This brings together local government academics and practitioners from member countries across the Commonwealth to provide research and policy support to CLGF's programs. It is convened by Centre Director Graham Sansom.

The Group meets at each Commonwealth Conference and where possible also in non-conference years. In 2008 members from the UK, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific met in London in May to exchange information and ideas on current research activities, and also focused on further development of the e-journal and preparations for the 2009 Colloquium.

For further information, contact Graham Sansom.

CLGF Research Advisory Group meets at Marlborough House, London

  

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Principles for Further Research

The meeting agreed that further CLGF-related research should:

• Reflect an agreed and realistic position on the expected benefits of good local governance and the capacity of local government to deliver: there are dangers in over-selling both

• Seek to integrate economic, social and environmental objectives and assess performance against those objectives

• Be comparative and grounded in the differing contexts of Commonwealth countries

• Engage local government practitioners alongside academic researchers

• Foster mutual learning and knowledge transfer.
  A provisional list of priority areas for ongoing research was compiled as follows (but not necessarily in this order):

• Concepts of local democracy, citizenship and community participation/empowerment

• Strategic leadership and planning

• Traditional leadership and local government

• Improving local governance (better systems, efficiency, effectiveness, ethics etc)

• Decentralisation and re-centralisation

• Inter-government relations

• Municipal finance and capacity (including aid management)

• Global issues and local government: climate change, health, economic transformation, urbanisation etc

• Social inclusion (including gender equity and poverty alleviation)

• Performance measurement and management.