Abstract
This paper looks at the practitioner’s challenge of building capacity for local government to perform. It does so by ways of responding to some of the policy recommendations put forward at the Commonwealth Local Government Conference (CLGC) held in the Bahamas in May 2009.It is suggested that capacity building in local government, particularly in the least developed countries (LDCs), is riddled with rhetoric. There is no common reference point for the concept. The following text is therefore drawn from practice: that of a local government practitioner – the author – with experience in diverse countries (Scotland, England, Malawi and Tanzania), and of an organization wedded to the fundamental importance of local government to local development, and with sound understanding of capacity building interventions – the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF).
Highlights
This paper looks at the practitioner’s challenge of building capacity for local government to perform
Some regions will always be poorer so an equalisation dimension to central government fiscal transfer systems remains legitimate. While these five policy recommendations are laudable, perhaps even crucial in themselves, the truth is that they can only work if the fundamentals of local government capacity building introduced in Table 1 are met
If performance budgeting is accepted as a practical basis for measuring local government performance, the step is to establish tests for local government to be able to perform in the first place
Summary
This paper looks at the practitioner’s challenge of building capacity for local government to perform. It does so by ways of responding to some of the policy recommendations put forward at the Commonwealth Local Government Conference (CLGC) held in the Bahamas in May 2009. It is suggested that capacity building in local government, in the least developed countries (LDCs), is riddled with rhetoric. It is argued that the five elements of this challenge, explained below, represent the building blocks for local government’s successful performance. They are the fundamental interventions to allow higher-order policy decisions to gain purchase within the local government system
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