Building Bridges between Citizens and Local Governments

THIS SERIES OF 13 handbooks, focused on training for local government officials or councillors, has been produced by the UN–Habitat in response to an urgent need for capacity building in many municipalities.

The package as a whole offers an overview and a trainer's guide as well as guidance on 11 specific roles performed by local councillors. They cover the councillor as policy maker, decision maker, communicator, facilitator, enabler, negotiator, financier, overseer, power broker, institution builder and leader. Part I of each of these guides includes a section describing the complexities of the role in question in some detail. Part II contains a number of practical exercises for training purposes, including warm-ups, role playing, relationship mapping, case studies, problem identification and self assessments. The package as a whole is clearly written and laid out, and covers a wealth of detail about the responsibilities and challenges of local government officials.

1. Building Bridges between Citizens and Local Governments
THIS TRAINING SERIES is geared to the needs of NGOs and CBOs. It covers two topics: managing conflict and differences between local groups and organizations and local governments; and increasing participation and collaboration among these groups.
Each of these issues is dealt with in two volumes – the first is on concepts and strategies, and the second provides a tool kit for trainers and facilitators who want to plan workshops or meetings based on the concepts covered in the first volume. The tools are based on experiential learning approaches and include a range of exercises and training ideas.

2. Building NGO/CBO Capacity
This training series, like Building Bridges, is targeted at the needs of NGOs and CBOs. In this case, however, the focus is the internal needs of these organizations. Three topics are covered: managing and developing financial resources; managing and developing human resources; and organizational outreach. Each of these topics, as in the Building Bridges series, is dealt with in two volumes, the first focusing on concepts, strategies and systems, and the second on specific tools or exercises that will help NGO and CBO staff to increase their knowledge and develop their skills. There are other manuals available from the web site listed above for local governments, training needs assessments, training methods and techniques, urban management and municipal finance and gender perspectives in human settlements development. Most of these publications are available electronically at no charge.