Our future is in genuine community led development
September 15 12:00 PM
AUTHOR: Robin Gunston
Community led development is a current buzz word in many parts of the world , and is gaining some traction in Aotearoa too.
The Dept of Internal Affairs says on its website that, ”Community-led development gives communities control of their development process. It involves the whole community – including business organisations, iwi Māori, neighbourhoods, local and central government agencies working in the community, and NGOs. It takes a holistic approach.
Under the model communities get together to decide on their issues and concerns and what strengths they have that they can build on to meet some of those challenges.”
UnitedFuture applauds such moves but wants to see such communities genuinely empowered to make a difference in all aspects of their lives.
In such a situation the following would occur:
A proposal to remove or change any democratic process from a community would be voted on decisively by the community, not be unilaterlally imposed by Government. This would apply to such aspects as replacement of School Boards by Commissioners, replacement of elected officials by appointed people etc.
A proposal to modify the provision of key services such as schools, hospitals, prisons etc for a community would be floated in principle with a broad cross section of that community, long before officials had done all their studies and the Government had taken a decision.
The removal of powers from a local Council would be preceded by dialogue with the broad community as to which of those powers it would like to take up and how the funding and accountability processes would then work. If there are not willing partners then a presumption of delegation of such powers cannot be assumed.
What would that mean to the nature of Government as we know it?
- Policy development would be a totally inclusive process which would take far longer but would in the end achieve community acceptance of the long term desired outcomes.
- Communities would have to establish broad local groups of residents/businesses/organisations who are empowered by their stakeholders to hold the welfare of those stakeholders for the long term future on local issues. (nb this is where the notion of local government first started in the 1850s until it lost its way!!)
- The notion of changing something in a holistic manner for the wellbeing of communities within the present 3 year electoral cycle has to be dispelled amongst politicians. As Christchurch has shown decisions made 2 years ago will probably not see the initial light of day until past 2020, and some far beyond that.
- The preparation of a written Constitution would have to consider the fundamental rights of a “community” to decide on how it develops, and somehow weave this into the ability to govern from a national perspective- a very tall order.
Who is up to this massive challenge? UnitedFuture sees community led development as one of its central policy platforms to ensure that once again Aotearoa New Zealand becomes a great place to bring up one’s family.
What do you think?