Dr. Avnish Jolly,9 June:Mr. Raj K Mishra, Regional Director, CYP Asia Centre said Commonwealth recognizes democracy as one of its guiding principles. As a form of government democracy cannot succeed without effective people’s participation in the process of governance as well as development.
This becomes possible when governments who swear by democracy are willing to decentralize power. Decentralization in this context means a gradual transfer of decision-making powers, functions and resources to structures of government which are closer to the people. The value of decentralization lies in the fact that it is expected to ensure greater efficiency, accountability, transparency, responsiveness and opportunities for people to participate actively in governance.
In pursuance to the mandate given by the Commonwealth Youth Ministers in their meeting in the Bahamas in 2006 and reiterated in the recent meeting at Colombo, Sri Lanka to make the CYP Asia Centre one of excellence in the area of Youth and Local Self-Governance, the Department of Youth Affairs, Government of India and the Commonwealth Youth Programme Asia Centre are jointly organizing a 5-day Commonwealth Asia Regional Workshop on the theme of `Youth and Local Self-Governance’ starting from 10 June, 2008. The Secretary in the Department of Youth Affairs, Mr. S.K. Arora, IAS will inaugurate the workshop while Mr. S. Wirithamulla, Secretary, Ministry of Youth, Government of Sri Lanka will be the Guest of Honour.
The Workshop is being attended by 30 delegates from the Commonwealth countries in Asia viz. Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, India, Maldives, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore and Sri Lanka. They include senior officers dealing with local self-governance, youth functionaries of LSG institutions and young men and women active at the grass root level. The workshop will have lecture sessions by eminent experts on statutory provisions governing LSG institutions, structures, devolution of powers and functions to these bodies, the importance of social audit and accountability, and above all, the role of young men and women in effective grass root level planning, implementation and monitoring. In addition, it will have experience sharing through country presentations by the delegates, group work on important themes, and field visits to gram Panchayats and the Zilla Parishad in the district of Kurukshetra (Haryana). The delegates will also pay a visit to the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh. The workshop is aimed to achieve the following outcomes.
• Policy makers, LSG functionaries and youth participants enriched in their knowledge of implementation of local self-governance in the region.
• Capacity of youth participants strengthened in the field of local area planning and development.
• Best practices at the regional level shared and documented