The Africa Local Government Action Forum (ALGAF)

Introduction

The Africa Local Government Action Forum is an interactive initiative, which was launched in August 2000 following the Africities Summit held in Windhoek, Namibia in May 2000. ALGAF is meant to provide an accessible and low cost platform for structured dialogue on key issues that impact on the performance of local governments. It is a joint initiative of the Municipal Development Partnership for Eastern and Southern Africa, the World Bank Institute, the Global Distance Learning Network in seven countries namely, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe and the Global Distance Learning Centre in Washington.

Objectives

The objectives of ALGAF are to:

• Provide an accessible and low cost platform for structured dialogue on key issues of financing local authorities, good governance, services delivery, and participation, local government responses to HIV / AIDS, the impact of peace and security in local governance, local economic development, and information and communication technology and the implication for poverty reduction in Africa.

• Facilitate sharing of ideas and experiences between policy makers, implementers and managers of poverty programmes and projects on practical ways of designing and mainstreaming poverty reduction in expenditure processes.

• Strengthen linkages between expenditure management and poverty reduction.

• Increase awareness of gender issues in the design of fiscal decentralization and poverty reduction policies and programs.

• Develop support networks for policy formulation, implementation and evaluation on fiscal relation and poverty reduction

Delivery Strategy

ALGAF is delivered through videoconferencing every 1st Friday of each month. The use of ICT in the form of videoconferencing has made it possible for all the seven participating African countries to link together and share experiences through live discussions. During ALGAF sessions identified experts give keynote presentations followed by lengthy discussions whereby participants are given the chance to ask questions and share experiences.

Course Design 

ALGAF is divided into Phases with each Phase running for at least eight months. The 1st Phase was the Pilot Phase which spanned from August 2000 to June 2001. This was followed by Phase II (ALGAF II) which covered the period November 2001 to August 2002. The recommendation after AGAF II was that the programme was beneficial and that it should continue. On the basis of this recommendation ALGAF III was launched to run for 12 months from October 2002 to October2003. ALGAF IV was delivered from November 2003 to October 2004. ALGAF V will begin in February 2005.

ALGAF Presentations

ALGAF presentations are delivered and guided by high level regional and international resource persons who are specialists and practitioners in the local government field. They are made on a rotative basis with each participating country being given a chance to identify a presenter. To ensure that the presentations meet the needs of the participants a review and planning meeting which brings together the organisers, country co-ordinators, and some participants is held at the end of each Phase. This together with evaluation forms completed by participants at the end of each Phase helps to ensure that the needs of the beneficiaries are addressed. (See all ALGAF Presentations) 

Target Audience and Levels of Participation

 The participants for ALGAF are drawn from policy makes; managers of poverty programmes and projects from both government and NGOs, local authority officials, training institutions, the private sector, civic organisations and the media.

For More Information Contact:

Mr. Phillip Kundishora
Knowledge Management Officer & ALGAF Coordinator
Email: pkundishora@mdpafrica.org.zw