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<The Councillor as Guardian of the Environment>
In the last few years, a number of countries ranging from Nepal to Poland and Uganda to Paraguay embarked for the first time in several decades, and in some cases for the first time ever, on the elections of councillors and mayors. The training needs of local government elected officials are also at the top of the agenda in established municipal democracies such as India, Ecuador, and the United States of America. Habitat and UNEP IETC have initiated programmes in response to these needs. The UNCHS (Habitat) has developed and tested a series of handbooks under the collective title Training for Elected Leadership. The intent of the handbook series is to assist councillors to represent the citizens, provide civic leadership, and effectively work with the central government and with the management, technical, and professional staff in local authorities and other local institutions. The handbooks cover policy and decision making, communication, negotiation and leadership, attending, managing and conducting meetings, councillors' enabling and facilitating activities, financial management, and other related needs. To promote adoption and transfer of Environmentally Sound Technologies (ESTs) the IETC has developed a capacity-building strategy by designing and implementing pilot training programmes in EST assessment and management. These programmes focus on the training needs of local government decision makers in IETC target countries. These programmes are now being implemented through regional workshops in Asia, Africa and Eastern/Central Europe. This handbook, The Councillor as Guardian of the Environment, is intended as both an extension of the Training for Elected Leadership series and as a separate handbook within the IETC Technical Publication Series. The handbook generally reflects a continuation of style and design ideas exhibited in the UNCHS series. Its main purpose is to enable training institutions or government training units to design, organise and implement follow-up training to regional activities facilitated by IETC, UNCHS (Habitat) and their partner organisations. This handbook has been field-tested in October 1996 during a workshop for councillors in Nakuru, Kenya. I thank Dr. Fred Fisher and Mr. David W. Tees for preparing this handbook in collaboration with Dr. Christian Holger Strohman of the UNEP/IETC and staff of the UNCHS (Habitat) Training and Capacity-Building Section. My thanks also go to the Government of Belgium which provided partial funding for preparation of this manual within the framework of the capacity-building programme "Localizing Agenda 21, Action Planning for Sustainable Local Development." Part I - Essay on the Councillor as Guardian of the Environment
Part II - Workshop on the Councillor as Guardian of the Environment
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As
shown by results of training needs assessments conducted by the UNCHS (Habitat)
and the UNEP-International Environmental Technology Centre (IETC), the training
needs of local government officials (councillors), or of local politicians,
appear among the most urgent world-wide and, at the same time, the least
attended areas of capacity building for sustainable local development and
municipal management.
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