Commonwealth Local Government Good Practice Scheme in Papua New Guinea

The Commonwealth Local Government Good Practice Scheme (CLGGPS) was launched in 1998 and has been designed to support the implementation of focused projects, based on the exchange of good practice and skills between practitioners working in local government. it uses a partnership approach to help councils improve the efficiency of service delivery and local democracy.

The Scheme aims to promote effective, responsive and accountable delivery of local authority services, particularly to poor and disadvantaged communities, identifying examples of good practice for application elsewhere. Its purpose is to improve planning and management performance, and the implementation capacity of local authorities in the target countries and beyond.

The CLGGPS programme in Papua New Guinea began in 2000 and addresses the challenges and realities being faced by urban local level governments in the country's rapidly changing environment.

The programme is designed to build capacity at the local government level to improve the management and delivery of services to communities in PNG. It has three key elements:

1. Facilitating council to council partnerships.
These are currently:

Townsville Regional Council and the National Capital District Commission

Sunshine Coast Regional Council and Alotau Urban Local Level Government

Orange City Council and Mount Hagen City Council

Cairns Regional Council and Lae Urban Local Level Government

Mount Barker Regional Council and Kokopo Urban Local Level Government

Adelaide group of councils and Madang Urban Local Level Government

Hunter group of councils and Goroka Urban Local Level Government

2. To provide capacity building support to the Papua New Guinea Urban Local Level Government Association (PNGULLGA), the national association of local government bringing together and representing Urban Local Level Governments in PNG.

This follows the support of the New South Wales Local Government and Shires Association to the development of a corporate plan for the Association.

3. To disseminate the outcomes and learning from the technical partnership projects to other local government stakeholders in PNG and beyond through information sharing and training seminars.

A series of activities are being carried out in the individual partner authorities, linking to overall programme objectives. These include systems reviews, organisational development, revenue collection, capital project planning, waste management strategies and operations, information technology enhancement, empowering women, amongst others. Implementation methodologies will include technical staff exchanges, direct technical and material assistance, training, self empowerment, skills transfers and information dissemination.

The PNG programme is being implemented by CLGF and its partners after having received funding and other support, since its inception, from the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) under its broader Sub-National National Strategy. A proposal for the next 3-year phase and scale-up of the Programme is currently being considered by AusAID after consultations with stakeholders.

Other activities in Papua New Guinea

In addition to the CLGGPS, project activities for PNG included in the CLGF Pacific Regional Project workplan include:

Support to PNGULLGA Secretariat
Support to PNGULLGA Annual Mayors Conference and City/Town Managers Conference
Training of Trainers in Local Elected Leadership (LEL) Development Training, including publication of LEL training materials and launch
Buka/Arawa technical twinning with PNG Councils (town planning and service delivery)
Urban profiling (with UN Habitat and UNDP)
Technical assistance to development of key performance indicators for National Capital District Commission.
Participation in Pacific Capital Cities Forum and other regional events.

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Last updated: 11 July 2008