African Unification Front
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AUF POLICY ON LOCAL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT & DECENTRALIZATION
The AUF supports decentralisation in which local authorities take over development roles from the States. The AUF will foster those economic sectors with greatest potential for creating wealth and jobs (through supporting the local economic structures and mechanisms) and ensuring that local taxes are retained for local investment.
The African Union must compile spatialized national accounts data, eco-demographic, and social data models on which to base model of the local economies in Africa. The value to the communities will be in sharing analyses of local economic development issues: strengths, constraints and prospects of the major sectors, including their linkages; local development priorities for taxation and investment; priorities for land-use planning and infrastructure to reduce transactions costs both within the local economy and between the local economy and national and regional economies; objectives for developing high-potential sectors; establishing/augmenting a group responsible for promoting local economy.
Local authorities, together with local and external financial partners can then be able to:
-formulate municipal investment policy;
-formulate measures for raising local resources;
-revive specific private business sectors (construction, retail, livestock farming, market gardening, fisheries, tourism, transport, etc.);
-negotiate with external partners (national, State) for targeted financial support;
-create local community groups to promote specific investments with national authorities (for example, improving local market and communication networks);
-ex-changing with local authorities from neighbouring other African regions on issues related to land-use planning, regional trade and market organisation.
DECENTRALIZATION & AUTONOMY FOR ALL COMMUNITIES
The variety of configurations of community structures is too wide to define. However, there are a few key issues that cut across all kinds of community arrangements. Among these are Decentralization and Local Autonomy, Development Planning, Community Relations and Alliances, Decision Making, Financial Management, and Training and Instruction.
Furthermore not all communities are located in a single contiguous physical address. However, it is important that the government of unity must actively encourage all kinds of communities to have access to the means and skills that will allow them to be represented at levels where
there concerns can be addressed adequately.
The failure to address concerns of "silent" communities leads to unforeseen consequences which catch government leaders by surprise. Failure to comprehend the issues of repressed communities has taken a dangerous toll on the cohesiveness of Africans.
Key among the means for community building is ease of communication, as well as transportation, and recognition from authorities.
Therefore the AUF will:
[1] strengthen the capacity of local groups in data collection and analysis, planning, implementation, and monitoring;
[2] providing training in local-level conflict resolution;
[3] encouraging local alliances that cut across clan, gender, age, and political ideologies;
[4] devising local techniques to manage and account for money;
[5] building capacities for transparency in decisionmaking;
[6] offering training in technical skills pertinent to local needs in agriculture, water, credit, veterinary medicine, health, and education, as well as small finance and marketing;
[7] strengthening capacities of local leaders in skills such as running meetings, deciding on action, building local alliances, and implementing project activity;
[8] opening research efforts on scaling up local priorities and resource contributions to district and regional levels; and
[9] introducing community-based monitoring and evaluation.
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