Nettleford

Professor Rex Nettleford is proposing that financial resources be channelled back to local communities to assist them in the provision of vital social services. This, he said, could be achieved under a reformed system of local government.

Professor Nettleford, chairman of the National Advisory Council (NAC) on Local Government Reform, told a JIS Think Tank recently that while some amount of revenue from the Consolidated Fund finances parish councils, there is need for resources to "go back to those communities to ensure that some basic needs are met, such as good roads and housing."

He cited tourism centres, which attract significant revenue, stressing the importance of ensuring that "the people who have been largely responsible for attracting such funds become direct beneficiaries of that funding."

In explaining the point, Professor Nettleford said: "Just think of a chambermaid in a deluxe hotel, tending a room for our visitors, then she has to leave and go to a shack not very far away. That disjuncture is just too much for her to cope with, and in a funny kind of way it will in fact numb her spirit and rob her of any enthusiasm for the job."

Nettleford's call for a greater reinvestment of resources in communities from which they were extracted echoes earlier positions put forward by political and civic representatives and officials.

Bauxite levy

Members of Parliament of bauxite mining areas have advocated consistently for greater benefit to communities from the bauxite levy. And speaking recently during a Gleaner Editors' Forum, Ian Reid, secretary-manager of the St. James Parish Council, argued for a portion of the Tourism Enhancement Fund to be earmarked for improving the physical infrastructure of the resort capital.

The NAC chairman further explained that in seeking to bring about social transformation it was important that the capacity of communities be built to facilitate the inclusion of everyone in the provision of services such as health, education and community development. "Although we speak of local government, [the NAC] is even more concerned with local governance, [which is] the mobilisation of the creative energies of our people where they live and have their being," he noted.

As such, he said that the furtherance of the reform process, which commenced in 1992, would see the establishment of an "appropriate instrumental framework and system of governance and government that will facilitate effective and efficient action."

According to JIS, Professor Nettleford revealed that the council, after studying the operations of the local authorities, has made recommendations to address areas of inefficiency and ineffectiveness in the local government system.

Strong recommendations

The recommendations, which are contained in the 2007 Interim Report on Local Government Reform, address the areas of democracy, participation and accountability; finance and funding of local government; accounting and financial management; and the structure and functions of local government.

The report makes strong recommendations for the entrenchment of local government in the Jamaican Constitution; the formulation of a national policy on decentralisation; as well as the retention of the parish development committees model as the primary vehicle for facilitating participatory local governance.

Also contained in the report is the recommendation for a plan of action to achieve gender equity in respect of local governance representation and for local government to play a lead role in the empowerment of all marginalised groups. Professor Nettleford said that among the benefits to emanate from a system optimised along these lines would be the increased participation of women and youth in governance processes.

Meanwhile, the council has conducted a series of consultations on the report with stakeholders, to consolidate the recommendations made. Among the sectors consulted were local authorities, parish development committees, community groups, youth groups, gender and women's groups, and the media.

A final report will be produced and submitted to the Minister of Local Government and Environment, Dean Peart, after which it will be deliberated by a parliamentary committee, before its recommendations are implemented.

"We would like to feel that this is a contribution to national development," said Professor Nettleford, noting that the empowerment of local government was not in opposition to central government.