I am inviting everyone to describe local government structure of their region and how people participate in the process.
I am just, 29th June 2011, seeing this but as there is no indication the topic is closed for discussion and there is apparently no contribution from Nigeria I want to say that in Nigeria the 1999 constitution provides for 774 local government areas in 36 states. Each local government is headed by an elected Chairman and a number of councilors. The number of councilors in a local government area is decided by the number of wards recognized in the constitution. The constitution also provides for the appointment of supervisory councilors to oversee operating departments. The supervisory councilors are appointed by the Chairman subject to the approval of the local council. The local government council Chairman and councilors are elected on the platform of registered political parties to a 3 year tenure.
A Director Personnel Management is the head of administration. He is assisted by 6 Head of Departments. These are The Chief Personnel Officer, The Head of Community Development and Social Welfare Department,The Head of Agriculture and Natural Resources Department.The Head of Works Department ,The Primary Health Care Coordinator and The Treasurer who is the Head of Finance Department. Activities of these operating departments are controlled by laws of the Federation and edicts passed by the states. The Financial Memorandum and the Scheme of Service guide the day to day running of local governments.
Local governments are directly under the purview of the State Houses of Assembly. The assemblies decide when to dissolve local governments, and in cooperation with state governments appoint care taker councils or sole administrators to run the affairs of the local governments.
People participation in local governments is often minimal due largely to the fact that candidates to council seats are most often imposed by powerful state governors, party chieftains and ''godfathers''. In addition elected officials often disregard opinion of the stake holders the moment they are sworn in, heeding only the powerful state governors and godfathers. People participation is therefore at the best of times restricted to the horse trading culminating to polling day.
[PS This is largely off the cuff. I hope you find it useful.]
Thank you Goldon Bhs for your contribution which give opportunity to have knowledge regarding the local governance structure of your country. In addition to this I like to request you to throw more light on "spaces of participation of people" in this local governance structure and people's role in local decision making and planning.
Thanks and Regards.
Debabrata
local governance and participation has been a practiced by Ghana since 1988. at the political level the country has come far with four different decentralized levels. there are other governance arrangements such in the water sector. The structures and the system is far from perfect and struggling with dilemmas. Nonetheless, it is a step in the right direction
Participation is a broad spectrum and can not be dealt with in just this piecemeal approach, however i would rather refer you to recent publications on the same subject matter if you are interested. My thesis dealt with aspect of community participation in development practice
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