THE second annual National Conference of Local Democratic Organs (NCLDO), the forum which brings together the leadership of all three layers of government to empower and equip local democratic organs (LDOs), is scheduled for this Thursday and Friday at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, Liliendall, East Coast Demerara.

The conference is being held by the Ministry of Communities (MoC) in collaboration with the Ministry of the Presidency and is expected to be attended by the top officials from the 10 Regional Democratic Councils (RDCs), the 70 Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) and 10 municipalities.

“This year’s conference will consolidate and build on the achievements made in restoring functionality to the system of local governance,” Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan, explained.

The main focus of the Conference will be an assessment of how much of the recommendations from last year’s Conference were, thus far, able to be implemented within the various LDOs

The Conference is being observed under the theme “Advancing National Development through Empowered and Innovative Local Democratic Organs in a Green Economy”.
“The objectives are to provide an update on the implementation progress since the inaugural NCLDO was held in July 2018; secondly, to review and prioritise the recommendations from the inaugural NCLDO 2018 and to develop a plan of action to guide the implementation of the recommendations; also to stimulate innovation through improved awareness on the role of local government in achieving local and national development.”

This year, the two-day programme will see the first day being used to focus on progress made since the inaugural NCLDO and improved awareness on the role of local government in achieving local and national development.
The second day will review the recommendations emanating from the inaugural conference and develop guiding principles for the implementation of that plan.

The conference brings together the leadership of all LDOs, including the chairman, vice-chairman and Regional Executive Officers (REO) of the RDC; the chairman, vice chairman and overseers of the NDCs; and the mayors, deputy mayors and Town Clerks of the municipalities. Minister Bulkan also noted that a representative of the minority group in each of the LDOs is expected to attend.
Since 2015, government has embraced effective local government as an important partner in national development, which represents a distinct break from the centralist approach of the previous administration and entails citizens having access to essential public services within their respective regions.

With the return of local government after an absence of 21 years with the change of administration, the APNU+AFC government felt it necessary to build the local democratic organs, and organized the conference to do situational analysis of the local governance sector and identify solutions to the challenges faced within and across LDOs.
Bulkan emphasized that central government is about giving more power to the citizens to govern how their communities should be run.

He also sought to address rumours of the plans by opposition-controlled local Councils to boycott and even prevent public officers (overseers) from attending the conference.
“It is all about empowerment, and it is this strategic approach that the administration has been doing. This is a disturbing phenomenon whereby opposition majority LDOs have been given instructions not to attend. We condemn the actions of the political opposition. This intimidation has even gone beyond encouraging overseers not to participate in this event,” Bulkan noted.

“Uninterested councils are handicapping themselves, it is only through collaboration, cooperation and partnership with central government that the concerns of individuals of respective councils can be addressed in a meaningful manner. The ultimate victims would be the residents who are looking towards those elected councillors [for service].”