SYMPOSIUM ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND CIVIC SOCIETY IN SMALL ISLAND STATES TO BE HELD 17-19 MARCH IN MALTA
Press Release
DEV/2201
SYMPOSIUM ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND CIVIC SOCIETY IN SMALL ISLAND STATES TO BE HELD 17-19 MARCH IN MALTA
19990316 Event Sponsored by United Nations Department Of Economic and Social Affairs and Commonwealth Local Government ForumNEW YORK, 16 March (Department of Economic and Social Affairs) -- The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (Division of Public Economics and Public Administration), together with the Commonwealth Local Government Forum are organizing a Symposium on Local Government and Civic Society in Small Island States from 17 to 19 March in Malta.
About 50 participants, including local government practitioners (elected councillors and senior officials), central government officials and representatives of the private and non-governmental organization sectors, from Caribbean, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, Pacific small States will gather in Malta to review the current practices of methods and procedures for social service delivery and to propose how to develop partnerships in local government and non-government sectors to improve the service delivery.
The Forum will discuss current common themes and identify issues of mutual interest and concern. It will aim at exploring best practice policy and develop strategies for future action.
Those common themes will include:
-- A concern with public sector reform, including decentralization to the local level, sometimes involving the establishment or re-establishment of formal local government structure.
-- Attention to the role of community development and the relationship between civic society and the private sector, including developmental non- governmental organizations, in the delivery of services at the local level.
-- Establishment or re-establishment of formal local government structures.
- 2 - Press Release DEV/2201 16 March 1999
-- Accountability, transparency and local democracy.
-- A role, in some instances, for traditional leaders or " Chiefs".
-- Value attached to regional or sub-regional cooperation and Commonwealth contacts.
It is planned that much of the discussion at the symposium will be highly interactive and conducted in small working groups. Particular attention will be paid to the problems of public service reforms to enable good governance in small island countries in the context of improved social service delivery.
The Department of Public Economics and Public Administration of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs will present two papers on public service delivery. One is titled "Improving methods and procedures for social service delivery in small island countries", which includes basic principles of public service delivery, as well as various cases of practices in improving service delivery in small island States. The other, "Medical and health care service: The case of Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan", introduces the case study of health and medical service delivery in remote island countries.
The Symposium papers will be published together with its recommendations.
For further information, contact Itoko Suzuki, Chief of Governance and Public Administration Branch or Mariko Nishizawa at: telephone: 963-2299; Fax: 963-2916, E-mail: nishizawa@un.org.
* *** *