A SUSTAINABLE APPROACH TO EXCELLENCE IN LOCAL

GOVERNANCE IN RIVERS STATE

What is the Excellence in Local Governance Initiative?

The ELGI is a program of the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency, RSSDA, designed to transform the current abysmal state of local governance in Rivers State.

It is a program designed to sensitize top leadership of the Local Government Areas on quality and excellence in service delivery .

It will use an incentive and award driven platform to encourage healthy competition among the local government areas.

The Excellence in Local Governance Initiative became necessary because of the following:

Poor service delivery in local governance in Rivers State;

Political exclusion of hitherto marginalized groups at the local governance level;

Slow development of the local government areas;

Lack of trust by the people in the ability of the elected officials to deliver good governance at the local government level;

Increased underdevelopment of rural areas under the control of the local government councils.

The aims of the Excellence in Local Governance

Initiative include the following: To encourage healthy competition for

rewards and incentives among the leadership of LGAs;

To create an assisted and competition-driven platform for recognition of excellence in local governance;

To provide a possible preparatory ground for future leadership

To expand the horizon of local governance by employing the twinning cities concept.

The objectives of the ELGI program include the

following: To assess the performance of elected

leadership and staff of LGAs; To reward the excellent performance of

elected leadership and staff of LGAs; To ensure improved service delivery by

elected leadership and staff of LGAs;

To create a competition and award-driven platform for recognizing excellent performance in local governance;

To encourage the adoption of e-governance as a vehicle for improved local governance in Rivers State;

It is hoped that the twinning concept, will be the topping on the cake of ELGI. Exposed to the reality of cities where excellentlocal governance has delivered tangible benefits, the elected officials of LGAs in Rivers State will be encouraged to apply best practices

in service delivery in their respective LGAs.