Georgetown: Municipalities have a responsibility of promoting equity amongst citizens to improve their economic future and quality of life, says Dawn Hastings-Williams, Minister within the Ministry of Communities.
The Minister expressed that notion at the opening session of a recent two-day Local Economic Development workshop targeting administrative staff of New Amsterdam Municipality, Rose Hall Town Council, Linden Municipality, Anna Regina Municipality, and Corriverton Town Council.
The interactive workshop held at the Herdmanston Lodge, Georgetown was facilitated by Caribbean Local Economic Development Project (CARILED) and presented by Dr. Gordon McIntosh. This workshop is one in a series designed to provide support for Municipal development with respect to capacity building.
According to Minister Hastings-Williams, the Ministry is partnering with CARILED to build the capacities of service officers in preparation of the March 18, 2016 Local Government Elections. The aim is to have technically capable administrative personnel, who understand the respective roles and responsibilities of the Municipality, businesses and Government, to work along with newly elected Councilors.
The Minister emphasized that the creation of a Plan of Action for Municipal Development is needed to propel local economic development. She is cognizant that the growth desired by Government would not occur immediately but efforts must be made to create the enabling environment.
According to Roger Rogers, National CARILED Coordinator, CARILED recognizes that the creation of a Plan of Action for Municipal Development would be futile without the necessary technical and capacity building of relevant officers to support its implementation.
Therefore, equally important is an understanding of the utility of the process of strategic planning and Local Economic Development (LED). He pointed out that LED is not a new concept, however, it has returned to the global agenda within the last decade primarily because of the failed model that was being implemented over the past three decades.
Rogers stated that the thrust of LED emphasizes the strategic utilization of resources within communities and their strategic alignment to exploit the comparative advantage to create income generating activities and other economic opportunities for communities.
Therefore, municipalities need to be engine that allows small and medium businesses to grow through the provision of essential public services. This is according to Dr. McIntosh, who emphasized that Municipalities need to operate business-like but not as a business to be in competition with local enterprises. He reminded participants that Municipalities do not create employment but provides the conditions that lead to prosperous businesses that employ persons from within communities.
Utilizing the analogy of the germination of a bean, Dr. McIntosh challenged participants to list the conditions needed to start, sustain and expand a business. Some of the responses such as infrastructure, money, low crime and labour were present under each or more than one category. This helped to paint a clear picture as to how the Municipality, when functioning effectively and efficiently, would help businesses.
Municipalities do operate in isolation and needs the assistance of key players such as businesses, civil society and Government. However, the the roles of each player in economic development should be clear to prevent duplication and waste of resources. These should be taken into consideration when Councilors are developing their Strategic Plan.
Importantly, the Strategic Plan should comprise an Action Plan which would outline the objectives (what are to be accomplished), how they would be achieved, and timelines for completion. Dr. McIntosh noted that this Action Plan should be referred to periodically to measure achievements and tweaked if necessary. He advised that these documents should be simple.
Participants expressed gratitude for the workshop and believe that the newly elected Councilors should benefit from similar workshops. They noted that positive changes are already occurring in the Local Government System and are of the view that more would occur following the elections.
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