General Framework of Local Development

Local development is a quite broad concept, which comprises many elements. However, the aim of the essay is to identify some of the most important elements of the local development, their interconnection, as well as the local development’s direct impact in people’s daily life.

How can one define the local development? Is it important for citizens? How does the local development affect citizens wellbeing?

There are various definitions of the local development. However, one of the most often definitions could be: the engagement of the local residents, including elected officials, citizens, NGOs, various educational, cultural, and social organizations, to identify what are the main concerns of citizens and try to find long-term solutions for the existing problems that citizens face in their daily lives. In short, the main goal of the local development is to create as better living conditions for citizens.

There are many elements, namely stakeholders that play an important role in the local development, and whose contribution is indispensable. And all these elements are in a way interconnected, or linked to each-other. Some of these elements are the local government, citizens, NGOs, and various educational, cultural and social organizations.

The local governance is in charge of providing public services to citizens. The most important responsibilities of the local government are public services, including healthcare, housing, water and electricity. Moreover, the local government is also in charge of development planning, economic and environ­mental development.

Also the decentralization plays an essential role in terms of the local development. First of all, a decentralized government would mean greater accountability of local government to their constituency. Moreover, this accountability as well as the transparency will urge citizens to be more active in public debates as well as local decision-making processes. This way the local government would be more familiar with the needs and demands of citizens. The central government can in no way be more effective in understanding and solving problems at local level as good as the local governance can.

Another positive side of decentralization is that the ordinary citizen will feel that he is being represented, that through the local government his/her voice will be heard at the highest level of governance.

But in order to have a successful decentralization, it is the municipal government’s duty to know how to handle it. First of all, elected leadership, qualified administration personnel, and revenues are the backbone of a successful decentralized local government.

Citizens participation in decision-making processes is also an important, but at the same time a difficult objective to be reached. To some extent, it can be said that it is the local government itself that discourages the citizens to participate in this process – the municipal officials consider that by taking the office they have been vested all authorities to make decisions. And in return, the citizens feel their suggestions will not be considered and do not find it worth it to attend public debates or make any suggestions to local government officials. This is certainly a wrong conclusion, because as a matter of fact it is the citizens’ vote that enables the officials to govern the city.

As for the efficiency of the local development, capacity building, namely investing in municipal administration is necessary, because they as well as the elected leadership will be the ones in charge of drafting policies and implementing them. Without their professional contribution the development would not be operational.

And certainly, legal framework plays significant role in the local development. The legal framework regulates local government’s budget and finances, taxes and fees. Another important role of the legal framework - more precisely the fiscal framework - is to enable the local governments to ensure financial resources for their own priorities and needs, without having to expect for a help from the central level. Legislative framework, including primary and secondary legislation, ensure transparent administration as well as access to public information. To be more precise, citizens would be more informed about the way their municipality is ran, what are the municipality’s main objectives and main achievements.

Inter-municipal cooperation is another way of helping the local governments provide more efficient services to their citizens and creating better local development. Although sometimes inter-municipal cooperation can have some negative effects (such as job cuts), still it has a positive side, as the remaining posts are usually performed by qualified staff and at the same time significant cost savings are made and more quality services are provided to the citizens. Certainly it takes some time for the first results of this kind of cooperation to be seen. A good cooperation plan can help communities capture economies of scale, gain use of the latest technology and equipment that they (if acting on their own) would otherwise be unable to afford, eliminate duplicative efforts and achieve significant cost savings.
But in a way, the aforementioned elements are difficult to be reached without having a Local Economic Development (LED). The aim of the LED is to strengthen the economy of a local area as well as the quality of life for all citizens. Thus the economic growth and creation of new jobs is the main objective of an LED. The LED also incorporates environmental planning, business development, infrastructure provision, real estate development and finance.

WELCOME!

Masters in Civil Society and Local Development at the Prishtina UniversityMCSLD In conjunction with the National University of Ireland Galway and Karl-Franzens University Graz Interdisciplinary MA program: Political Science/Sociology/Law/Economics