Commonwealth Local Government Forum in Belize

The Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF) has an important role in developing municipal bodies among member countries. The Secretary General of the CLGF, Carl Wright, has been in the Jewel for an official visit and has been meeting with the Mayors Association and the Ministry of Local Government to discuss the work of the organization and how Belize stands to benefit. On Wednesday, a press conference was held at City Hall where Mayor Zenaida Moya Flowers, who Chairs the group, and Wright explained that the CLGF is the voice of local governments on the international level.

zenaida moya flowers

Zenaida Moya Flowers, Chair, Commonwealth Local Government Forum

“It’s very important that local government bodies have an organization that represents them, not only on the local level and the national level and the regional level, but at the world level. And this is where the Commonwealth Local Government Forum comes in. We represent these municipalities and these local government authorities and bodies at the world level. We also have associate members as well that come from the tertiary institutions, which includes the University of the West Indies.”

Carl Wright, Secretary General, Commonwealth Local Government Forum

carl wright

“The work of our organization falls into three broad areas; number one, we act as the voice of local government authorities, of ministries at the commonwealth and international. So for example when the commonwealth prime ministers, the heads of government including the prime minister of Belize meet, as they did last year in Port of Spain, we have a delegation there and are able to present some of the issues of our concern, make sure that our views are heard and some of the policies affecting local government are incorporated. What we can provide is a wealth of access of information and knowledge about real core business of local government like effective sanitation, community policing, issues around how we can ensure more inclusive development addressing the needs of women and youth and other members of the community. We’re involved in some programs of technical assistance to strengthen the capacity of local governments. The Commonwealth Local Government Forum is not a donor body like an international donor agency but we can channel some funds to our members to strengthen their capacity.”

Moya Flowers travelled to Mexico on Wednesday for a two-day world conference.

Wright also discussed new initiatives by international partners that will benefit Belize while Marian McNab, the C.E.O. in the Ministry of Local Government, spoke on plans for local improvement.

Carl Wright

“We just started a program funded by the European Union under its African Caribbean Pacific Program, which is just being launched and initial contacts have been made with Belize to take that forward. And we’re at a very advanced stage of negotiating another program which we hope will be funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and involving our Canadian partners called CARILED, Caribbean Local Economic Development Program.”

marion mcnab

Marion McNab, C.E.O., Ministry of Local Government

“We need some good practices on which to draw and Mr. Wright has mentioned that I think in Botswana, for example a Commonwealth Country in Africa and closer to home in Dominica, that there are examples that Belize can draw from wherein we can look at the policies that exist in these countries and how we can adopt to the Belize situation and then move forward with the government to have local government enshrined in our constitution. Along similar lines is an act, an Alcalde’s act that is in the process of being formulated where the idea is to take all what has become norms and traditional practices of the Alcalde system and incorporate those in legislation.”

The CARILED project, which is set to be launched in March 2011, will see twenty-three point three Canadian dollars dispersed to member countries over six years.