The Asian Regional Conference on Effective Local Governance: Accountability, Participation and Inclusion

The Asian Regional Conference on Effective Local Governance: Accountability, Participation and Inclusion was organised by PRIA Global Partnership (PGP), Local Governance Initiative South Asia (LoGIn), Logo Link South Asia andInstitute for Governance and Development (IGD). It was conceptualised as a multi-stakeholder platform of civil society organisations, academicians, government and donor agencies to engage in debate and discussion on strengthening local governance in the Asian region. The Rt. Hon’ble Prime Minister of Nepal, Mr. Jhala Nath Khanal, inaugurated the conference, which was also attended by Mr. Jagath Balasuriya, Hon'ble Minister, Ministry of National Heritage, Government of Sri Lanka and Ms. Urmila Aryal, Hon'ble Minister, Ministry of Local Development, Government of Nepal. The conference was attended by 110 participants from 26 countries from South Asia, South East Asia, Latin America, Canada, Africa and Europe.

The conference generated discussions around three themes:

Theme 1 - Capacity Development of Local Governance: Opportunities, Challenges and Ways Forward: Capacity development is indispensable for strengthening local governance and key actors within and outside the State need to be involved in the process. Capacity development should have an integrated approach to help the most marginalised. National and regional level capacity development strategies for focused interventions have to be prepared. Public private partnerships can be one future possibility in local economic development.

Theme 2 - Democratic Accountability in Local Governance:Though constitutional or legal provisions are important for establishing accountability and democratic governance, they are not the only means of acquiring the goal of accountable governance. Many cases exhibit that citizens have participated in processes that are beyond the confines of constitutional/legal frameworks. Informal and new forms of participation have to be explored by communities to demand accountability from the State.

Theme 3 - Citizen Participation and Social Inclusion in Local Governance:Deeper exploration of institutional and capacity development issues that need to be addressed in order to facilitate participation of socially excluded communities in local government is required. Monitoring and evaluating the implementation of policies which are supposedly promoting social justice and social inclusion and their impact at the national and local levels would be relevant in the present context.

Recommendations:

1. Local governments in different countries in Asia are at different stages of evolution, so they can learn from each other and identify practices which can be adopted or inspire.
2. Political and legal frameworks define the opportunities of participation and accountability in the local government system and effort should be made to make these frameworks vibrant. Efforts should also be made to ensure meaningful participation in these institutional frameworks. 3. Capacity building of local governance institutions with the objective of spreading political awareness among citizens, building capacities of local governments to work effectively for the people and creating a culture of inclusion in all decision-making processes can be expected to yield better results.
4. Policy advocacy at the regional level should comprise of the systematic and on-going monitoring of existing policies, their implementation and reformulation. A variety of initiatives such as structured dialogues, lobbying, campaigning and public education can be planned.
5. Building networks and collaborations at the regional and local level can collectively take up the issues of participation, inclusion and accountability in local government.