Over the next two days stake holders in local government will be at a symposium talking about the development of a comprehensive national local government policy and plan. The goal is to improve the quality of services offered to all Belizeans. Recent criticisms levied against the Belize City Council emphasizes the need for improvement and as such the two day symposium hosted by the Ministry of Labour, Local Government and Rural Development is viewed as a timely initiative. According to the Director of Local Government Eugene Palacio the participants will assess the status of local governance in Belize, formulate proposals to address concerns and then make resolutions that will be forward to Cabinet.
Eugene Palacio, Director of Local Government
“Local Government is the institution, your elected councils, they govern the municipality; the town, the city, the village. It is about being closer to the people instead of having to go to Belmopan to look to answers. The issues that affect your daily life, your streets, your garbage, your roundabouts, your drains, your cemeteries, your parks and stuff like that. People from your own local community elected by you the people of the community to manage your affairs so if anything goes wrong or if you are interested in any particular aspect of your affairs, you can find those people within your community to address it. Local governance now is the process of people participation in the decision making and stuff like that. So it is about the institution, the local government, and the process, how you the citizen can participate in the decision making that affects your daily life.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
And when both are not effectively working what happens to that community?
Eugene Palacio,
“Well you have a breakdown, you have failure in all of those responsibilities I just mentioned just now or in some of them. So it is important then that the community puts check on the local government. One of the things we wanted out of this symposium, one of the main objectives, is the formulation of a national policy and strategic plan for local government because for too long we’ve been working without a comprehensive policy, a written policy therefore when decisions are made, sometimes in one situation we address in a particular way and when a similar presents itself and we may address differently and that frustrates both the administrators in the system and the people we are supposed to serve so it is attempt to structure to all of it so we give our decisions and actions on a sort of consistency.”
Today’s presentations included a presentation by Senator Godwin Hulse on the socio economic concerns. Friday’s presentation by Dr. Carla Barnett will focus on the fiscal and financial challenges in local governance in Belize. Participants include elected officials of city, town and village councils, representatives of water boards, the Mayor’s Association, the National Association of Village Councils, the Toledo Alcalde Associations, civil society and International organizations.
