Ministerial Conference On Leadership Capacity Building For Decentralized Governance And Poverty Reduction For Sub-Saharan Africa

-- Exchange of knowledge, information and experiences to contribute to the enhancement of the leadership capacity of the participants to initiate, promote, and manage local governance systems.

Kigali, 22 June 2005 - In a concerted effort to better address the needs of the poor, and bring the Millennium Development Goals to the local level, 150 government representatives from across Africa recently gathered in the heart of the continent in Kigali, Rwanda. The authorities and stakeholders came from all levels of government, from the districts to ministries, indicating a concerted effort to both empower local authorities to take action in addressing their challenges, and increase synergies with and support from central authorities.

The Ministerial Conference for Ministers of Local Government was hosted by the Ministry of Local Government, Good Governance, Community Development and Social Affairs of the Republic of Rwanda, in Kigali, from Monday 6th to Wednesday 8th June 2005. This Ministerial conference was organized by the Municipal Development Partnership Eastern and Southern Africa (MDP-ESA), and funded by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Netherlands Government and US Agency for International Development (USAID). This was a direct follow-up to the conference on "Decentralization the New Dimension of Peace, Democracy, and Development held in Florence in 2004 and organized, jointly by the Regional Assembly of Tuscany, the Conference of European Regional Assemblies (CALRE) and the UNDESA. This followed on several Ministerial conferences held since 1999 and meetings of the East Africa local Government Association.

The principal objective of the Kigali's Conference was to give opportunity to the delegations to review and exchange experiences of leadership in Africa, with respect to Leadership Capacity building for Decentralized Governance and Poverty reduction, and the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Through this Ministerial conference UNDESA, UNCDF, UNDP, MDP ESA, and the Government of Rwanda have created a special platform for strengthening leadership for good governance especially at local level.

There were eleven delegations with Ministerial representation and several with lower level representation who participated in the conference, which in total was about 150 participants, including representations from international and regional organizations: UNDP, UNCDF, MDP-ESA, NEPAD, the East African Community, United Cities and Local Government of Africa (UCLGA), UK Department for International Development (DFID), German Development Agency (GTZ), World Bank, Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC), Swedish cooperation and the European Union.

During the first day, a total of ten papers were presented on the following themes: i) Local governance and leadership capacity building; ii) strengthening leadership integrity, ethics, transparency and accountability in local governance: the role of local authorities association; iii) the role of local level leadership in improving the delivery of services at community level.

Mr. Kadmiel Wekwete, Director of Local Development Unit at UNCDF, made a presentation on "The role of Local Governments in Local development focusing on pro-poor provision of infrastructure services." The presentation highlighted the comparative advantages of local governments in infrastructure provision and promotion of local development. Mr. Wekwete shared with the assembly some of the lessons learned by UNCDF through the implementation of the Local Development Programmes set up in several countries in Africa and Asia. Finally, Mr. Wekwete presented the different innovative approaches in infrastructure delivery and the implications for planning, budgeting and capacity building.

The second day was dedicated to 3 working groups. The following three topics were discussed: a.) "Leadership capacity building: integrity, ethics, transparency and accountability in local governance"; b.) "Local Level leadership and service delivery improvement"; and c.) "Coordination and Partnership among Public, Private and Civil society in Local governance". The groups identified the main challenges faced by national governments, local governments and communities in promoting and sustaining effective leadership.

During the third day, all the recommendations were discussed in a plenary meeting where consensus was achieved in terms of the way forward. Indeed, the Head of Delegations signed a Ministerial Declaration to commit themselves to the following:

1) Promoting and supporting decentralization in Africa through facilitating the formulation of enabling policy frameworks, legislation and implementation; creation of a conducive environment for local economic development; management of local resources in an efficient and sustainable manner and facilitating intergovernmental fiscal transfers; and more specifically:

• Cooperate, share information and promote capacity building programs,
• Promote decentralized cooperation at all levels of governance in the Africa region,
• Support the strengthening of and cooperation with national associations of local government and all structures of the UCLGA,
• Facilitate access to resources necessary for the decentralization process,

2) Reiterate the Yaoundé Ministers declaration, which approved the establishment of the All Africa Ministerial Conference on Decentralization and Local Development (AMCOD), and more specifically:

• Urge the chairman of AMCOD together with his colleagues from Rwanda and Senegal and with technical support from MDP-ESA to expedite the drawing up of the draft Statutes, Rules and Regulations to be adopted by the Conference of Ministers of local government before the 4th Africities to be held in Nairobi, Kenya in 2006, to institutionalize the Forum of Ministers of Local Governments,
• Invite and request MDP-ESA in collaboration with UNDESA, UNCDF, UNDP, USAID, the Royal Netherlands Government, EU countries and other development partners to support further the work of promoting decentralized governance and poverty reduction in sub- Saharan Africa, especially in capacity building activities,
• Request MDP-ESA to explore the possibility and viability of establishing an African Local Government Institute, for championing sustained local governance capacity building initiatives and report to the Conference of Ministers in 2006,
• Resolve that the report and recommendations from this conference be inputs in the 4th Africities Summit in Nairobi next year.
• Approved that the next Ministerial Conference in June 2006 would be held in Khartoum, the Sudan. The Head of the Sudan Delegation also indicated that an African Cultural Gathering, to foster a United Africa, would follow the conference.

Read the Ministerial Declaration [ pdf ]

Read the MDP-ESA bulletin on the conference [ pdf ]