(Continued from last week)
But a contrary position is offered by decentralization advocates who posit that if people lack capacity it is because they have not been given the opportunity since the system does not encourage nor afford nor facilitate the development of that capacity. It is in this context that these persons are motivated by the concept of capacity building. As advocates of local government we fall in this category and as such are convinced that there are vast resources that could be brought to bear if they were only given the opportunity.
For local government to respond to the challenges of being a facilitator, coordinator and leader of a citizen-driven process of development, we need to look at capacities in different areas, at different levels and for a number of purposes.
Starting with the purposes, we note that the purposes to build capacity arise from the need to identify and address problems which currently face and affect local government and their constituents’ communities. We need to have a programme to formulate, articulate and implement policies and strategic plans to achieve those objectives.
We also need to respond to and cope with rapid and unexpected changes in the environment, to provide services at an acceptable level and to do so efficiently and cost effectively. Such capacities will transform customers into being full citizens, enabling them to participate and add value to the delivery of services and the solving of local problems from welfare to a developmental orientation in the approach to services delivery. We need to see capacity building from the perspective of developing and maintaining the framework to act effectively, with the individual community member being made a full participant responsible for the management of his own affairs and to take collective action with others. How do we bring about this transformation? We start by addressing the community – mobilizing its members to identify their needs and priorities and to take effective action. The local authorities need to effectively play the role of facilitator and leader. But here we may ask do we have that capacity at present to play that role efficiently. If not, we need to build such capacity.
Turning to the various levels of capacity, we can take our point of departure with the issue of leadership. Leaders are to be found in all aspects of life, be it among youth women, community, the local government councils or government. Notwithstanding their type, we expect all organisations to respond with vision, dynamism, and with a sense of purpose. Accordingly, leadership is critical. Capacity building helps in developing leaders of calibre, ensuring that each is able to effectively pursue and achieve stated goals.
Capacity building directed towards facilitating effective leaders must start by exploding the myths of incompetence and irresponsibility of our citizens and communities. The explosion of these myths can be pursued in various ways. We, by our presence here in this workshop, serve as a way of exploding that myth. But we need to advocate for our institutions of higher learning, like the University of the West Indies, to address the exploding of these myths by research and dissemination of information which challenge these views and present a clear case to say why they are not and never were true.
We need to effectively lobby the sources of power to forcefully bring to their attention that the excuses that were purported and their promotion of centralization because of this lack of capacity are not true.
Another means of increasing our capacity would be by improving our human resources potential. Training and development of a critical mass of professionals and managers and other persons in key areas add to the building of capacity. Furthermore, we must look at strategies of recruiting and attracting the best talents to the services of local government. By upgrading our leaders, human resource potential, administration, as well as the organisational structures through the use of modern technological methods, aids and systems, we can effectively build the required capacity for development.
But capacity building will only prove useful when we can promote long-term stability and secure place for local government. In this regard we focus on the various areas of capacity building. Thus, to ensure long-term stability we must build popular support for local government as an institution and promote it sufficiently enough for its inclusion in our country’s constitutions. Another area in which we can build capacity so as to promote stability and security for local government relates to social partnerships. Relation-ships with NGOs with the private sector, with service clubs and with local sectoral interest in the communities help to build the community, while allowing the local government authorities to play the role of facilitator. In such partnerships there should be clarity in the allocation of responsibilities based primarily on technical competence and effectiveness.
But building capacity is not limited to internal partnerships. Accordingly, we need to look at securing external support from the range of institutions that are either ready or available to give support to these effects. These institutions should be identified early and targeted for whatever assistance may be available.
