UNITED CITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS OF AFRICA (UCLGA)

Institutional/ Organisational Development (OD) 

Purpose and Description

The key institutions in the UCLGA network are the UCLGA Secretariat, Regional Association Secretariats and National Associations of Local Government. All three levels require strengthening in order to improve their capacity to facilitate development and foster longer term sustainability.  They are the organs that will be responsible for providing advice, training and knowledge sharing to local governments throughout Africa. The guiding principle is that of subsidiarity whereby the centre recognizes and promotes the local level as agents for implementation and change for the improvement of people’s livelihoods. Despite the widely accepted legitimacy of UCLGA as a unified body representing all African local governments, many of its members are still not able to access the services of their network. These members are not in the position to participate in the advancement of democracy and continental development on account of constraints in communication, logistics and technology. Nor are they able to reap the benefits of continental dialogue and engagement in order to better respond to the aspirations of their constituencies. In some countries, due to various intervening circumstances, such as wars and centralized administrations, national associations of local government have not been established, yet, national associations are the backbone of the network when it comes to interfacing with local and national governments within the individual countries. Regional dynamics are also pointing to the need to establish coordination offices throughout the five AU regions. There is also need to establish a permanent headquarters for the UCLGA in order to effectively service the regions and national associations.

The UCLGA espouses the creation of a network that practices and promotes institutional transparency and accountability and champions the development of viable, professional and transparent local governments in Africa. Institutional capacity building will be undertaken through organisational development, systems development, training as a means of ensuring greater impact at the national, regional and continental levels. The envisaged outcome of the Institutional/Organisational Development component is

‘An increased capacity of the UCLGA network (Headquarters, Regions, And National Associations) leads to improvements in communication and operational efficiency in executing their functional mandates towards constituencies’.

The UCLGA will undertake the following:

Ref: OD1 UCLGA Africa Secretariat Set Up & Development  

1. Identify, through an open bidding process, an African country, which is an active member of the African Union (AU) to host the UCLGA Africa Secretariat
2. Establish a well-functioning Secretariat headed by a Secretary General
3. Establishing the governance policies and procedures of the UCLGA. This will be translated into a manual of operations for UCLGA interventions, including human resources, finance management, procurement policies, and definition of standards for implementation and performance management that will be leaned on results based management.
4. Holding regular Meetings of the UCLGA bodies (General Assembly, Council, Executive committee, meetings of the UCLG Regions)