Press Release - BPRA Holds Devolution Conference

Date:               19 November 2013

Contact:         Emmanuel Ndlovu

                        Advocacy and Programmes Manager

                        Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA)

BPRA Holds Devolution Conference

BULAWAYO Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) will on Friday 22 November 2013 hold a devolution conference to finalize a framework for a devolved local government system in Zimbabwe that shall be used as a basis for advocacy on devolution. The conference is part of BPRA’s ongoing ‘Local Governance Project’ which is aimed at ensuring that the devolution of power adopted by the country is based on the principles of active citizen participation, transparency and accountability. The Local Governance Project seeks to take advantage of the devolution provisions enshrined in Chapter 14 of the new constitution to lobby parliamentarians on the form and content of the devolution law that the country will adopt. BPRA believes that anchoring the design of devolution on citizen participation will ensure a local governance system that is developmental in nature, where local authorities shall be able to formulate pro-poor policies that help meet local needs and promote social and economic development of communities. 

The devolution conference, to be held at Montgomery Gardens from 10am to 4pm, will be attended by local governance stakeholders and residents associations from across Zimbabwe, members of the parliamentary portfolio committee on local governance, local parliamentarians and councillors. Its core purpose will be to collate and validate the findings of a nationwide consultation exercise that BPRA undertook throughout the country’s ten provinces to gather the views of Zimbabweans on how devolution in the country should be structured and operationalized. It will also serve as a platform for the launch of a white paper to be used to lobby parliamentarians on Zimbabwe’s devolution architecture.

Among the issues to be addressed by the conference and in the white paper are the preferred levels of government, the geographic units of governance, the distribution of functions and responsibilities of provincial councils, allocation of resources, institutions of governance and the relationship between central government and provincial councils.

Signed

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Mr Emmanuel Ndlovu

Advocacy and Programmes Manager

Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA)