Background

Most Asian countries have now embarked upon reorganising their

governance structures through decentralisation process. Local
governance institutions in these countries are expected to assume
greater responsibilities to promote participatory democratic practices,
equitable development and effective provisioning of public services. As
these institutions assume such roles and responsibilities, they must be
capacitated as well as be made accountable to the citizens, particularly to PRIA GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP (PGP)
the poor and marginalised. in association with
LOCAL GOVERNANCE INITIATIVE SOUTH ASIA (LoGIn)
The Conference LOGOLINK &
Asian Regional Conference on Effective Local Governance: INSTITUTE FOR GOVERNANCE AND DEVELOPMENT (IGD), NEPAL
Accountability, Participation and Inclusion is conceptualised as a announces
multi-stakeholder platform of civil society organisations, academicians,
government and donor agencies which engages in critical reflection on
strengthening local governance in the region. It is envisaged as a forum
for deliberating findings from empirical research, systematisation of
As i an
learning from grassroots actions and experiences from on-going policy
engagements. R e gi on al
PRIA Global Partnership (PGP) with the support from Local Governance
Initiative South Asia (LoGIn), a project of Swiss Agency for Development
and Cooperation (SDC) and LogoLink undertook a number of empirical
C on fer e n ce
cross-country (Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka)
comparative research studies on the themes of democratic

Effective Local Governance:

decentralisation, capacity development, democratic accountability,
citizen participation and social inclusion, right to information and
participatory planning in the context of local governance. The findings of
these studies will be shared in this conference with the expectation that
they will be further enriched by the deliberations in the conference. Accountability
The conference is expected to catalyse a regional coalition of
practitioners of local governance, citizen participation and democratic
accountability. It is envisaged that such coalition through exchanges of
Participation &
practice based knowledge would strengthen in-country local actions and
inform the policy processes on an on-going basis. Inclusion
2-4 June 2011
Kathmandu, Nepal
Specific Objectives
• Sharing knowledge and lessons learned for enhancing capacities of
practitioners in strengthening local governance institutions;
• Identifying issues and priorities for multi-stakeholder actions at the country
and regional levels towards strengthening local governance institutions;
• Catalysing a multi-stakeholder coalition in the Asian region which fosters
cooperation and partnership for strengthening local governance institutions.
Expected Outcomes
• Shared understanding among the participants on the emerging challenges of
strengthening local governance institutions and their implications on future
policies and programmes in the region;
• Articulation of a strategic direction with clarity on roles and responsibilities for
various actors in the regional coalition with a view to enhance efficiency in
capacity development support to local governance institutions.
Participation in the
Conference
Participants will be invited from about 15 countries from South and South East
Asian regions. Participation in the conference is primarily by invitation.
Practitioners and scholars interested in self-sponsored participation in the
conference, please contact the Conference Coordination Team by 31 March 2011.
Conference Coordination Team:
Dr. Kaustuv Kanti Bandyopadhyay Dr. Vikas Jha
Director Programme Manager
PRIA Global Partnership (PGP) PRIA Global Partnership (PGP)
kaustuv.bandyopadhyay@pria.org vikas.jha@pria.org
The Organisers
PRIA GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP (PGP) is an initiative of PRIA to foster
knowledge and relationships globally. PGP strengthens and nurtures partnerships
across communities and countries to ‘make democracy work for all citizens’ through
developing local capacities, harvesting and sharing innovations through research
and action learning, organizing learning processes and promoting multi-stakeholder
engagement and convening.
LOCAL GOVERNANCE INITIATIVE SOUTH ASIA (LoGIn South
Asia) is a project of Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). It seeks
to disseminate and upscale good practices and lessons learnt from SDC supported
projects in the field of local governance and decentralisation in India as well as in
other South Asian countries where SDC works. The project provides furthermore
support to knowledge exchange between developing countries and between
Switzerland and the countries in South Asia.
LOGOLINK, the Learning Initiative on Citizen Participation and Local
Governance, is a global network of practitioners from civil society organizations,
research institutions and governments created to deepen democracy and social
justice through greater citizen participation and engagement in local governance.
Supported by the Ford Foundation, LogoLink encourages learning from field-based
innovations and expressions of democracy that contribute to social justice.
INSTITUTUE OF GOVERNANCE AND DEVELOPMENT (IGD),
Nepal affirms the rights of all citizens, particularly the most vulnerable,
discriminated and marginalised, to take part in the conduct of public affairs. It has
been working on various initiatives on decentralisation aiming principally to
strengthen the legal frameworks and to provide training to local elected authorities,
disadvantaged and marginalised women and other citizen groups.

Capacity Development
In recent years there has been renewed interest
on capacity development of the local governance
institutions among civil society, academia,
government, donors and other development
partners. A number of innovations both in the
methodology as well as in the contents have
been made. Realising the limitations of ‘training
dominated’ approach to capacity development,
there is now greater readiness to experiment
with a broader repository of learning methods.
The discussion will take a systemic view of
capacity development and inquire into the
theme from three angles (i) Individual (ii)
Organisational, and (iii) Institutional views of
capacity development. The theme will explore
the following key questions:
• What kind of policies, programmes,
institutions and resources enable capacity
development of local governance
institutions?
• What lessons could be drawn from capacity
development practices across the countries
in the Asian region?
• What positive changes have been brought
about through capacity development
initiatives across the countries in the Asian
region? What evidences could be
showcased?
• Which positive experiences could inform
future capacity development policies and
programmes?
Conference Themes
Democratic Accountability
The Asian countries suffer from several common
democratic deficits. These deficits are often identified as
lack of transparency and accountability in the working of
public institutions, poor implementation of rule of law to
guarantee individual and group rights and security, non-
participatory methods of designing policies, programmes
and service delivery by the government institutions and
almost non-existence of effective institutions for checking
corruption. What makes the matter worse is the non-
functioning of mechanisms for horizontal accountability
and slow beginning of vertical accountability
mechanisms1 in large parts of Asia. Horizontal
accountability mechanisms largely falling in the domain of
government often fall short of creating spaces for citizens
to participate. On the contrary, vertical accountability
mechanisms give opportunities to citizens to participate
in governance processes. Following questions will be
unravelled in this theme:
• What kind of policies, institutions, political systems
enable democratic accountability mechanisms and
practices?
• What are the pre-conditions, preparations and
processes for initiating and sustaining democratic
accountability mechanisms and practices?
• What are the impacts of democratic accountability
practices on the local governance institutions, civil
society, and citizens and on the relationship between
these actors?
1 Horizontal accountability is the capacity of state institutions to check
abuses of power by other public agencies and branches of government;
e.g. Parliament, Judiciary, Anti-Corruption Commissions, audit
institutions, ombudsman offices, human rights institutions etc. ; while
vertical accountability is the means through which citizens, mass media
and civil society seek to enforce standards of good performance and
conducts on officials; e.g. various social accountability mechanisms.
Participation and Inclusion
In Asian societies, inequalities are manifested in
different forms which can be attributed to social
constructs (gender, race, ethnicity, religion etc.),
geographical disparties, non-inclusive economic policies
and non-participative political systems or combination
of these structural elements. Such inequalities have
resulted in exclusion of various social groups and
individuals in appropriately using social relations and
institutions for fuller participation in the society in
which they live. More often the existing social systems
and structures push groups or individuals in
multidimensional disadvantages and deprivations.
Social inclusion connotes affirmative actions to change
the circumstances and habits that lead to (or have led
to) social exclusion. Local governments have the
potential to be the most proximate and participatory
institutions that citizens could have access to and have a
key role in promoting social inclusion and citizen
participation at the local level. The experiences with
regard to local governments effectively dealing with
social inclusions and citizen participation are yet to be
systematised. The theme will discuss and unpack the
following key questions:
• What specific policy and institutional design for
local governments make them effective in
addressing issue of social inclusion and citizen
participation?
• How have local governments functioned in different
contexts to address issues of social exclusion? What
has worked and what hasn’t?
• How have excluded groups especially women,
deprived social groups and indigenous people made
local governments more inclusive and participatory
and what has been the impact?