Abstract
The theme of this year’s Commonwealth Local Government Conference was Improving local government: the Commonwealth vision. This theme is fundamental to all of us working in and with local government, but particularly so in the current economic climate where councils are having to once again look at how they can tighten their purse strings while they are facing greater demands with less income - doing more with fewer resources.The conference was held in Freeport, Grand Bahama, hosted by the Government of the Bahamas and the councils of Grand Bahama at the Our Lucaya Conference Centre. More than 550 local government ministry, association and council representatives from 48 countries attended the conference. Previous conferences set out Aberdeen Agenda and Auckland Accord as to the kind of local government we want to strive to achieve: local democracy and good governance for effective services to respond to the needs of the local community and strong local leadership to drive development and support local communities. This conference builds on these previous outcomes, with speakers and delegates calling for local government to continue to improve as part of a broader process of development. Jamaican Minister Robert Montague summed up what is needed as a shift in attitude to include the public as important partners – a shift he called ‘business unusual’ to encompass improving service delivery, improving revenue streams, increasing community dialogue, finding new partners and leading from the front.
Highlights
The Declaration reflects many of the issues discussed in the conference background paper Improving local government: the Commonwealth vision1 and sets out strategies for improvement in key areas that all local governments can address around financing, service improvements, community engagement, partnerships, training, and monitoring and evaluation
The step is for Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF) member governments and local governments to look at the recommendations and develop and implement their own improvement agendas
Working with the community is fundamental to improving local government to ensure that citizens have some ownership of and involvement in the development of their communities
Summary
BACKGROUND PAPERA decade of improvement for local governmentCommonwealth Journal of Local Governance Special Issue March 2010: Commonwealth Local Government Conference Freeport, Bahamas, May 2009 http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/ojs/index.php/cjlg Susan RhodesDirector, Communications Commonwealth Local Government ForumThe theme of this year’s Commonwealth Local Government Conference was Improving local government: the Commonwealth vision. The Declaration reflects many of the issues discussed in the conference background paper Improving local government: the Commonwealth vision1 and sets out strategies for improvement in key areas that all local governments can address around financing, service improvements, community engagement, partnerships, training, and monitoring and evaluation.
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