The minister of Local Government, Dr Ponts'o Sekatle is currently attending the Pan African Ministerial Conference on Leadership Capacity Development for Decentralised Governance and Poverty Reduction in Africa that started today, Monday and will end on Friday in Cameroon.

According to information from the Ministry's Information Office, the theme of the conference is 'From Policy to Implementation: challenges and strategies for effective implementation of decentralised governance in Africa.’

The principal objective of the conference is to give an opportunity to ministers to review and exchange experiences of leadership in Africa with respect to the implementation of decentralisation policies in local level development.

The conference will examine the socio-economic and political context within, which decentralisation policies are designed with a view to understanding the different challenges that affect their implementation

It will also provide an opportunity for top political leadership in local governance to share knowledge and experience on how to effectively implement decentralisation policies and improve the delivery of services at local level.

The conference will further follow up the recommendations made by the conference of ministers of Local Government held in Maseru in August 2006.

Source: LENA 23/05/2008