The Commonwealth Local Government Conference (CLGC), which will be held in Malta in November 2017, has chosen the theme ‘One world. And it is local’. During this conference, some 600 delegates from 53 countries with an estimated total population of 2.3 billion citizens will discuss policies and learn about new ideas, approaches and products that can support councils and local governments to deliver more effective services.
The conference, which is held every two years, is run by the Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF), which has teamed up with the Ministry of Justice, Culture and Local Government, the Parliamentary Secretariat for Local Government and the Local Councils Association.
The last CLGC was held in Botswana in June 2015. This is the first time the CLGC will be organised in Malta, and our successful bid was helped in no small measure by the resounding success of last November’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which Malta hosted.
The 600 delegates expected to participate in the CLGC in-clude policymakers, practitioners and other stakeholders, including heads of government, ministers, mayors and council leaders, senior officials and partners from development agencies, the private sector, academia and civil society from all corners of the Commonwealth.
They will be looking into strategies that strengthen the resource base and capacity of local governments to improve performance and delivery and ensure they are fit for purpose to deliver for local communities and ready to play their part in meeting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals.
During the CLGC, delegates will also be discussing the importance of an enabling environment, revenue raising and ways in which local governments can work smarter, as well as innovations in financing infrastructure and big development projects.
The CLGC will be a very interesting forum where we, as the inhabitants of a small island State, will have the opportunity to compare our experiences with fellow Commonwealth members. The beauty of this commonwealth of nations lies in the fact that its members are so much different from each other.
Local councils have become an indispensable layer of government
Suffice it to mention that the past organisers of the CLGC are Botswana, Uganda, Wales, the Bahamas, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa and England. How’s that for diversity?
When we share experiences, we learn that our friends from the Pacific region or municipalities in a large African country face the same problems that we might be facing.
In the 23 years that local government has been in place, Malta has amassed an extraordinary level of experience in this sector.
Local councils have become an indispensable layer of government, which has empowered citizens to increase their engagement in their communities. After all, this is the essence of the principle of subsidiarity, which lies at the heart of the process of the democratic decentralisation that gave birth to local government.
Thus the CLGC will be an invaluable opportunity for us to share our experience, acquire new insights and collaborate with fellow Commonwealth members with the aim of setting a clear agenda for the attainment at local government level of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals.
As host of the new Commonwealth Centre for Small States, we will surely exert due emphasis on the particular challenges faced by small island States, given that we will be expecting a healthy discussion, particularly with our friends from the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and the Pacific.
I am looking forward to the 2017 CLGC, which will be launched today. In November 2017, we will have a healthy discussion, aiming to set a clear agenda for sustainable development at the local government level across the globe.
This is why we believe in ‘One world. And it is local’.
Stefan Buontempo is Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government.