Local government twinning between Australia and Kikibati

Scoping of local government twinning between Australian councils and Kiribati

TARAWA, KIRIBATI; The Commonwealth Local Government Good Practice Scheme (CLGGPS) currently supports practical capacity building projects between councils in Australia and their counterparts in Papua New Guinea. Projects are designed to draw on the skills and expertise of councils in Australia and combine that with the skills of councils in their developing counterpart to help the council to identify and develop workable and sustainable solutions to challenges being faced on the ground. Projects normally comprise a series of exchange/work shadowing visits for staff and councillors, combined with joint working, piloting new activities, and other local activities such as community workshops.

Building on the success of the CLGGPS in PNG, the Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF) Pacific and Local Government Managers Australia (LGMA National) are working together to expand the Good Practice Scheme into the Pacific with an initial start in Kiribati.

This week, the Hunter Group of Councils (Australia) will be undertaking a scoping mission to Kiribati to explore the possibility of establishing a twinning partnership with key Kiribati Local Government Sector partners in particular the Betio Town Council and Teinainano Urban Council. The mission will provide an opportunity for the key partners to meet, identify issues and priorities and develop an agreed partnership approach. Some of the priority areas for capacity support include strategic planning, waste management, financial management and sustainability. Aprat from these two urban councils, the team will also meet with a number of stakeholders including the Ministry of Internal and Social Affairs (MISA), the Kiribati Local Government Association (KiLGA) and the Kiribati Institute of Technology (KIT).

Other aspects of the mission will include scoping the training needs of the Kiribati local government sector as well as investigating ICT capacities in terms of infrastructure, providers and access to different forms of information technology to better improve communication and overall ICT capacity of local governments in Kiribati.

The Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF) is a not-for-profit, intergovernmental organisation representing the interests of its members who are ministers of local government, local government associations and individual governments together with other organisations with a professional interest in local government across the Commonwealth.

CLGF Pacific is based in Suva, Fiji and works with nine countries in the Pacific region: the Cook Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, PNG, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Its key role is to advocate to and on behalf of the local government sector on key governance and development issues, including gender equity and women’s empowerment. CLGF Pacific also provides program and policy advice, technical assistance and training, and applied research services to its members and the local government sector generally.

ENDS

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