Back to Index

Local authorities in need of capacity building
Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA)
July 28, 2008

Local authorities are in dire need of capacity building for them to be able to discharge their duties effectively. Councilors countrywide are being sworn in against the background of growing poverty and collapsed service delivery in the communities, both urban and rural. Residents and the local communities who elected the councilors expect the Local Authorities to urgently design and implement measures that address the local developmental needs as well as the deteriorating service delivery.

However, a survey carried out by the Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) reveals that, most of the elected councilors are in urgent need of local governance capacity building in order for them to discharge their duties as well as meet the developmental expectations of their constituencies. The fact that most of the councils are bankrupt as a result of perennial and sustained corruption further worsens the plight of the councilors and their constituencies. The bankruptcy status of the city councils incapacitates them to implement development strategies that demand financial expenditure. What is happening in most cases is that the councils are resorting to the traditional means of revenue collection; which is the taxation of the local residents. Reference is made to the recent rates hikes by the Harare City Council. 81% of the recently approved supplementary budget for the city of Harare will be financed by the residents themselves through rates payment. This further drives the local residents into poverty, while it creates hostility between the council and its constituency. Thus the traditional revenue collection strategies for the city councils generate resistance and hostility from the residents; a situation or rather relationship that is not conducive for development. Furthermore, owing to the fact that the councils are bankrupt, they are not able to attract or retain human resource with technical capacity to spearhead their developmental and service delivery policies.

Very soon, most councils countrywide will be embarking on a process of budget formulation. Given that most of the councilors; are in need of technical capacity in the areas of financial management as well as participatory local governance, CHRA is seriously concerned about the councilors' ability to prioritize the issues, and whether the councilors will be able to implement the sophisticated but necessary guidelines of participatory budget formulation processes.

CHRA is also worried about the ability of the councilors to implement such techniques like the gender budget analysis; as they approach the budget formulation process. Given that female representation is seriously compromised at council level, women's interests or issues are likely to be sidelined in the council activities, especially the upcoming budget formulation processes. Local Government provides the critical link between the grass root persons and the central government. The absence of strong women's representation in local government structures is a cause for concern for CHRA in that women's issues will be marginalized at national development level since the women are missing in that structure which links the central Government and the community's developmental needs. Thus there is an urgent need for intervention strategies that ensure that although there is minimum women's representation in the local Government structures, women's interests will nevertheless be prioritized.

CHRA is deeply concerned by not only the fact that councils (both rural and urban) may not be able to improve service delivery but also fail to develop their local areas because they are bankrupt and more importantly; the councilors themselves lack technical know how. Furthermore, CHRA is also worried that the state may take advantage of these weaknesses and manipulate as well as undermine the local authorities, especially those that are controlled by the Movement for Democratic Change. Most importantly CHRA is worried about the possible marginalization of women's issues in the council activities, including the upcoming budget formulation process.

Traditionally CHRA runs programs aimed at developing the technical capacity of the councilors in the following areas; project formulation and design, project implementation and management, project monitoring and evaluation, financing and fundraising, participatory budget formulation and gender budget formulation and analysis. All this induction is premised on the need to develop and support a culture of democratic and participatory local governance that enhances and respects the right of the locals to effectively participate in all council activities.

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP