The Challenge

In many developing countries, local governments lack critical capacity that would allow them to be engine for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. The response to this capacity gap requires the creation of an enabling environment with appropriate policy and legal frameworks, institutional development, including community participation, human resources development and strengthening of managerial systems.

How We Are Helping?

The UNCDF-ICLD International Joint Training Programme to Strengthen Local Government in Support of Local Development in Southern and Eastern Africa aims to be this response. It aims at offering a high quality capacity development programme to future local governments’ leaders in developing countries, and combines ICLD’s comparative advantage in terms of methodologies for training programmes, network and resources, with UNCDF’s strong expertise in ensuring that local capital investment – in schools, irrigation schemes, roads, water supply – is sustainable, and responds to the needs of poor communities.

Currently being implemented in five African countries (Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe) this program is specially designed for professionals who work actively with issues related to decentralization, local development and local democracy and who hold positions in their institutions with a mandate to run processes of change. If planned well, decentralization can move decision making closer to people and thereby improve democracy at the local level as well as local development, including efficient service delivery. Local authorities are able to respond more quickly to local needs if they do not have to await approval from central governments, a major obstacle to equitable and sustainable global human development.

In Detail