COMMONWEALTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT CONFERENCE:
DELIVERING DEVELOPMENT THROUGH LOCAL LEADERSHIP, 26-29 MARCH 2007

The Auckland Accord
Whakaarotahitanga o Tamaki

DELIVERING DEVELOPMENT THROUGH LOCAL LEADERSHIP
Ka tuku whakapakaritanga ma ngarangatira a rohe

Ehara taku toa it te toa takitahi, engari takimano.
Success is not achieved by a single person, but by many people.

Preamble

The General Meeting of the Commonwealth Local Government Forum, CLGF, convened in Auckland, New Zealand, 29 March 2007, following the 4th Commonwealth Local Government Conference, Delivering Development through Local Leadership, 26-29 March, attended by over 600 participants from more than 40 countries:

Re-affirming the CLGF Aberdeen Agenda: Commonwealth Principles on Good Practice for Local Democracy and Good Governance, welcomed by Commonwealth Heads of Government in 2005 as part of the Commonwealth’s fundamental political principles and in particular its recognition that ‘effective leadership is central to strong local democracy…(and)…to enable local government to deliver quality services to the local community.’

Noting the fact that the Conference has been held for the first time in the Pacific, with wide representation from the region. This reflects the emphasis which leaders are placing on local governance in the Pacific Plan, and the work of CLGF in the region.

Looking forward to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kampala, November 2007, with the theme ‘Transforming Commonwealth Societies to achieve political, economic and human development’.

Recognising the key role of democratic local government in improving the quality of life of citizens by delivering effective services to the local community.

Recognising further the potential benefits of strong local leadership, working in partnership with a range of stakeholders, to transform Commonwealth societies by:
• Increasing capacity to achieve improved community well-being;
• More effectively involving citizens, communities and civil society in decision making and co-production of services;
• Improving accountability;
• Delivering high quality equitable services;
• Enhancing the legitimacy and integrity of local decisions;
• Strengthening and clarifying articulation of local priorities and concerns;
• Emphasising the building of partnerships at the local level;
• Increasing scope for innovation and creativity;
• More efficient use of local resources;
• Building social and community cohesion;
• Promoting genuine respect and understanding between the spheres of government based on the recognition that they all serve the same people;
• Realigning intergovernmental relations in favour of decentralised local government;
• Encouraging networking between local governments and the sharing of knowledge.

Creating genuinely sustainable communities requires determined action at the local level and commitment from central government. Local councils can lead by example in building economic, social, environmental, and community sustainability. This is only achievable through partnership with other community stakeholders, including traditional leaders.

Local leadership comprises three core components: focusing attention on key community priorities, galvanising a range of stakeholders to contribute to delivering these priorities, and involving citizens in the process of priority identification and delivery. Effective local leadership is both a contributor to local democracy and good governance and an outcome of the conditions created by their operation. The principles contained in the Commonwealth Aberdeen Agenda provide a framework for understanding the conditions associated with the exercise of effective local leadership.

Agree as follows:

I. Making Local Governance more effective

1. The Aberdeen Agenda recognises that there are structural and operational aspects to effective local governance that ensure a strong connection between local government and the community it serves. The appropriate distribution of powers and resources to local government is essential if local leadership is to be enabled to deliver development in a sustainable manner. Central - and where appropriate state/provincial - government has a key role in ensuring that decentralisation is meaningful and is a continuous process. Local government, especially through associations, should be fully involved in this process.

2. Social transformation can only be meaningful and sustainable if people are engaged in decision making, implementation and monitoring as well as evaluating outcomes. It is the process of forging a shared vision for achieving development goals that is the key to success and will enable us to fulfil our commitments to the Aberdeen Agenda principles.

Accountability

3. Effective local leadership seeks to strengthen ‘downwards accountability’ from decision-makers to the community. This is particularly important in promoting transparency and eliminating corruption.

4. Clear lines of accountability must not be compromised by increasingly complex governance frameworks. Strong accountability in new forms of governance, such as local strategic partnerships, must be complemented by effective accountability of existing local government institutions.

Participation and Consultation

5. Effective local leadership is built upon strong citizen participation and meaningful consultation carried out with a wide range of stakeholders. It is critical that the stakeholders consulted represent a cross-section of society. This includes special attention being placed on consulting sectors of society that are excluded and hard to reach through traditional methods. However, it is recognised that the legal responsibility for decision making rests with the elected council.

Inclusion

6. Local government must truly represent its communities and needs to address social, economic and political disparities in the community to ensure inclusive democratic processes.

7. The Commonwealth has a target of at least 30 per cent women in public life. CLGF and its members are committed to developing policy to realise and go beyond this in both political and management structures, including at leadership level, where progress has been slower and needs to be further encouraged. Equally, services must be planned and delivered with gender sensitivity and awareness.

Decentralisation

8. Decentralisation demands creation of real, multifunctional government at the local level within the framework of national legislation. Powers to levy local taxes and the obligation of the state to provide local governments with adequate resources are a necessary element of effective decentralisation. Decentralisation also allows local government to pass their own budgets, reflecting their own priorities as well as mandatory expenditure required for the attainment of reliable service delivery and overall community well-being.

9. Without undermining the accountability of elected members, local government itself also has a responsibility to decentralise powers and functions, where practical, to local neighbourhoods so that citizens have a direct stake in local service delivery and are fully involved in the local democratic decision-making process.

II. Delivering a Strategic Vision

10. Local strategic planning should be closely coordinated with regional and national priorities in the interests of national development. This requires cooperative governance that recognises the distinct roles and responsibilities of different spheres of government – all of which serve the same people.

11. Local leadership must focus attention on key community priorities by setting a strategic direction and representing community priorities to other partners such as central/provincial government and international agencies. Local communities need to be empowered to participate in the development of local and regional strategic plans that are measurable.

12. Local leadership must galvanise a range of partners in support of community priorities with a view to securing coordinated action and developing more effective new approaches, for example through the concept of ‘inclusive cities’ and civic panels and making more formal provision of the representation of different partners and interest groups on local councils.

13. It must involve citizens in the process of priority identification and delivery. This can be done by such means as consultative implementation and monitoring councils, citizens’ community boards and city community challenges.

III. Service Delivery in support of Local Development

14. Local government has a primary responsibility to ensure that services are delivered to the local community within a clear performance management framework. Effective management and deployment of human and capital resources is crucial to this. Increasingly local government plays an enabling role in service delivery, forging partnerships with other agencies, civil society and the private sector to deliver services and maximise resources. Central government should provide the necessary enabling environment for this to take place. Clear definition of local government’s role will ensure that other agencies do not compete with local government to provide the same services.

15. In July 2005 CLGF held a Regional Symposium on service delivery innovation and partnerships in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to review and extend the proposals developed at the 2003 Commonwealth Local Government Conference. CLGF will continue to take forward the recommendations from the Symposium in collaboration with regional partners.

16. CLGF and its partners will also take forward the outcomes of its recent Symposium, Local Democracy, Good Governance and Delivering the MDGs in Africa, held in Kampala, Uganda, April 2006.

17. Specific central government budget allocations for settlement upgrading are crucial for ensuring local infrastructure and housing development. Local government should ensure that such budget lines are integrated into poverty reduction strategy papers and associated national planning strategies.

IV. Responding to National and Global Issues

18. Local government operates in a wider national and international context marked by increasing urbanisation and global economic integration. Local leadership has an important role in ensuring realisation of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the delivery of which – in whole or in part – lies with local government. This has been recognised by the UN and its Millennium Development Campaign in the importance being attached to ‘localising the MDGs’.

19. Addressing the impact of HIV/AIDS is an area where local leadership, working with civil society, indigenous communities, faith groups and other government agencies, can make a difference. This is demonstrated by the experiences where such local leadership has been able to significantly contribute to reducing the incidence of HIV/AIDS.

20. Councils have a direct interest in ensuring that they are able to promote and build their local economy, skills and cultural attributes so as to attract investment, jobs and tourism. National economies are dependent on and comprise local economies.

21. Ensuring social cohesion in the face of large-scale international migration and ethnic and religious diversity provides a challenge for local leadership. This is an area where fostering greater respect and understanding through partnership programmes and city to city exchanges, including under the CLGF Good Practice Scheme, can play a valuable role in building bridges internationally.

22. Local government has a crucial role to play in emergency preparedness, mitigation, management and reconstruction with respect to natural and human disasters, and conflict, including terrorism.

Climate Change

23. Climate change will not be dealt with by global or national schemes alone, but through a myriad of local initiatives. Some Commonwealth local governments are already at the cutting edge of implementing sustainable solutions to environmental degradation. These need to be taken forward with persistence and spearheaded by strong local leadership. Engagement of the community and business will be vital in the success of these initiatives. It is recognised that there are many practical tools to ensure environmental sustainability, including carbon off-setting, eco-budgeting and green procurement policies.

24. The Commonwealth provides a valuable support network in dealing with issues relating to climate change, including through its work on small states. Particular attention should be given to supporting small states and, in particular, vulnerable island states in line with the recommendations arising from the Commonwealth Foundation workshop Preparing for Change: adaptive strategies for climate change and disaster management in the Commonwealth held in the Seychelles in October 2006. Also the Commonwealth ministers meeting at the UNEP meeting held in Nairobi, November 2006.

V. Indigenous Peoples and Traditional Leadership

25. It is important to recognise, respect and understand the significance of different cultural systems and traditions and their relationship to elected local government.

26. Sites of competing authority at the local level are damaging to community well-being. The Aberdeen Agenda underscores the importance of inclusive governance with local government acting as a first amongst equals. Effective cooperative governance frameworks that suit the local conditions enable traditional and democratic systems to operate side-by-side or be complementary in the attainment of local development. It is important for central government to set clear policy for and provide support to local government in its endeavours to promote inclusive and cohesive communities.

27. It is important to recognise, respect and understand the significance of different cultural systems and their relationship to elected local government. It is essential to have a clearly defined legal framework as a foundation setting out roles, responsibilities and providing the basis for effective operation in the local governance context. A sustainable and structured framework for dialogue is needed to ensure genuine communication and provide a peaceful dispute resolution mechanism.

28. VI. Capacity-building for Local Leadership

29. Local government needs to have the capacity to act as the local leader and have the freedom and resources available to it to exercise this capacity. This requires clarity about the purpose and focus of local leadership and awareness of the potential as well as limits of their existing powers.

30. Specifically, local government needs to be enabled to act as:
a. Upholder and advocate of democratic accountability to allow local citizens and communities to hold local leaders to account;
b. Strategist in response to both community needs and priorities;
c. Communicator with key stakeholders and local citizens and communities;
d. Exemplar of good practice in the promotion of effective leadership and ensuring responsiveness to the public and its partners.

31. This will entail not only individual leadership training, both for elected members, councillors and mayors as well as appointed officials. There is a need to systematically address skills and knowledge gaps among leaders through ongoing training, promotion of leadership good practices and mentorship programmes.

32. Local government associations at national and state/provincial level have a key coordinating and advocacy role in this area, as well as being a potential channel to secure resources for capacity-building for their membership.

VII. Local Government Partnerships to promote leadership and development

Local government partnerships in the Pacific

33. Recognise and welcome the collaborative work of local government which is underway in the Pacific through the CLGF Regional Capacity Building Project which is raising the profile of local government in the region and working to develop skills and capacity at the local level. With a strong focus on collaboration and practitioner to practitioner partnership working, the project has drawn successfully on the experience and skills of councils and communities from the region including from New Zealand, Australia and Pacific Island Countries. We would urge the strategic development and expansion of this work and encourage other councils to play a more active role in the development of the Pacific local government family. We would also wish to see these initiatives shared with other regions of the Commonwealth.

Role of international development partners

34. International development agencies such as AusAID, CIDA, DFID and NZAID and the UN and its specialised agencies such as UN-Habitat and UNDP as well as other international organisations such as the EU can target their existing support to decentralisation processes and programmes designed to promote local leadership and initiate support for new initiatives. International development partners should consult with national ministries to ensure that resources flow to local levels within the context of national and local priorities.

35. Such agencies should also help to ensure that local government, especially through its national associations, is fully involved as a partner in the design and implementation of national development strategies which they are supporting eg under the ACP-EU Cotonou Agreement and programme budget support to national governments.

36. The three Commonwealth countries that are also members of the European Union (EU), should provide a valuable mechanism to encourage the practical realisation of the EU’s commitment to support local government which is set out in the Cotonou Agreement.

37. Enhanced support should be given to the CLGF’s programmes to assist its members to develop their institutional capacity, including for local leadership, and to ensure the exchange and widespread dissemination of good practice in this area. Particular importance is also attached to an early resourcing of the next phase of the CLGF Good Practice Scheme (2007-12) as well as the provision of resources for CLGF local government capacity-building programmes, building on the successful experience of CLGF work in the Pacific.

Engaging with research partners

38. Welcomes the success of the inaugural Commonwealth Local Government research colloquium held March 25, 2007.

39. Through its associate members CLGF will expand the role of the Research Advisory Group to support and strengthen CLGF policy and programmes, with greater emphasis on collaborative research. Central to this will be close linkages between academics and practitioners. In order to disseminate and share good practices both through existing CLGF channels (eg CLGF website, Handbook) and possible new initiatives (dedicated web-pages, regular e-journal, specialised research publications). CLGF will seek to identify a lead institution on local leadership located within a centre of excellence from among its associate membership, initially in the Asia-Pacific region, to underpin its work by undertaking case studies, managing the relevant web-pages and strengthening CLGF’s research base and supporting its wider capacity-building programmes.

Linking with Civil Society

40. Local voluntary and community based organisations, which should be demonstrably accountable and transparent, faith based bodies and traditional institutions, including advocates of marginalised communities such as slum dwellers, the rural poor, those living in remote communities and squatter settlements, are core partners in local development. They accordingly need to be provided with the necessary opportunities for dialogue, resources and capacity building to develop their own contribution as local leaders, working with the local council, and within the framework of locally agreed plans. There is an opportunity for greater linking, networking, and learning between local government and civil society organisations.

Engaging with the Private Sector

41. Local private sector bodies including both local businesses and multinational corporations can support employment and local development objectives by programmes of social responsibility and by taking an active role in local institutions. This will often be coordinated by local business associations. The respective national business associations will also have a key role in encouraging and supporting good business local leadership practice, including by resourcing local leadership capacity.

42. The private sector can contribute directly to local leadership through private-public partnerships and local government service partnerships (LGSPs). These do not only relate to the delivery of specific services, agreed in partnership with the local leadership, but can also involve so-called ‘growth coalitions’, aimed at promoting economic development in a particular city or region.

VIII. Role of CLGF

43. CLGF member organisations are urged to commit themselves to actively implementing the Auckland Accord at local/provincial/national level. CLGF will also ensure the widespread dissemination of the Accord among its members and other stakeholders and partners and advise them, as necessary, on its detailed provisions.

44. CLGF will mainstream local leadership capacity-building into existing/planned CLGF programmes in the various regions of the Commonwealth. This could build on the CLGF regional programme in the Pacific which already has an important element of leadership capacity-building/training being undertaken in collaboration with UN Habitat. The CLGF Good Practice Scheme also offers another valuable channel by which CLGF can strengthen local governance structures including local leadership.

45. CLGF will follow-up the outcomes of the conference by exploring and identifying innovative ways in which local leadership can be promoted, for example through a new Commonwealth local government mentoring programme or an initiative to strengthen local governance structures and promote accountability and transparency. CLGF’s work on measuring local governance systems and developing comparative international local peer review mechanisms is of relevance in this regard. It is further suggested that local leadership programmes give particular attention to supporting young people and women into positions of leadership. The use of new technology, which provides innovative methods of exchanging information, ideas and training should be explored.

46. To undertake these tasks effectively, CLGF would require dedicated resources to coordinate with researchers, promote Commonwealth-wide learning and support the proposed regional centre of excellence. Additional resources would need to be secured from interested partner agencies to allow the development of appropriate new CLGF activities on local leadership in the different regions of the Commonwealth.

47. CLGF would wish to ensure high level political endorsement of the Auckland Accord by Commonwealth Heads of Government in Kampala in November 2007. In particular it will wish to see that discussion of the 2007 CHOGM theme ‘Transforming Commonwealth Societies’ in Kampala takes account of the importance of democratic local government and local leadership in transforming societies.

48. We strongly welcome the commitment that Prime Minister Clark made to draw attention to this in the CHOGM Executive Session and help to ensure that an appropriate policy recommendation, including reference to the outcomes of the Auckland Conference and the role of the CLGF, is contained in the relevant CHOGM statement.

Appreciation

Warm appreciation is expressed to the New Zealand hosts and sponsors, notably the Government of New Zealand (Ministry of Internal Affairs), Local Government New Zealand and Auckland City Council and all New Zealand councils providing support including for local study visits and pre-conference tours and hospitality. We further acknowledge the lead role played by our Board members, Hon Mark Burton and Basil Morrison and all members of the Conference Steering Group, its sub-groups and associated staff.

Appreciation is given to the conference Chairs: Hon Mayor Robert Montague, Hon Mark Burton, and Cllr Basil Morrison, the conference Co-chairs, Hon Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, Hon Jim Lloyd, Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa and Cllr Ken Bodfish and the conference Secretaries, Carl Wright, Chris Blake and Mike Reid.

CLGF also wishes to acknowledge the keynote addresses provided by, in particular, Prime Minister Clark, HE President Museveni, Prime Minister Lowassa, Commonwealth Secretary-General McKinnon, and the valuable interaction with Dr Sachs of the Earth Institute, including on the Millennium Village and Cities project. We are indebted to all our plenary and working group speakers and contributors.

The conference discussion paper prepared by Professors Geddes and Sullivan and the accompanying research, supported by funding from Canada, New Zealand and the Commonwealth Secretariat provided a valuable resource for the event.

CLGF acknowledges the support of the AusAID, CIDA, the Government of New Zealand, the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Commonwealth Foundation in providing sponsorship to delegates who would not otherwise been able to attend. It also thanks Microsoft for its sponsorship and all the exhibitors for their contribution.

Ends

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