Talent for Governance Network

Last weekend five new young civil servants from five different countries arrived in the Netherlands to participate in the Talent for Governance program. They will attend the Local Service Delivery & MDG’s, organized by the The Hague Academy for Local Governance. The five talents: Ryan Barcelo, Dickson Baidoo, Irene Achola Origa, Bangun Panji and Eren Derya will, after the course, participate in a short internship at three Dutch municipalities and the Province of Drenthe.

 The course Local Service Delivery & MDG’s focuses on local services, which have a huge impact on our daily lives and well-being. We can think of drinking water, waste management and basic health care. During the two weeks course, participants try to answer questions as: How can we ensure that basic services reach the poorest? How can financial management of services be organized in a transparent and democratic way? How can partnerships with NGOs and the private sector help local governments to operate more effectively? And, what  are the particular challenges for delivering services in violent-prone situations?

 After the course, the talents will do an one-week  internship at the municipalities of Den Haag, Huizen, Steenwijkerland and the Province of Drenthe.

 We wish the talents a fruitful local governance experience!

The Talents will share all their present and future work experiences on the Talent for Governance network. You get the chance to become acquainted with the Talents, share knowledge and ideas with them.

As Abraham Lincoln once said “the best way to predict the future is to create it”. We are curious how you are creating your future!  With an eye on our upcoming Talents for Governance event,  How to get ahead as a young civil servant , we would like to know how you plan to further build your career.

During the last decade we saw a boost of networking behaviour and use of social media. In his book The Rise of the Network Society (click here for the online version), Manuel Castells stipulates the fact that our societies are increasingly structured around a bipolar opposition between the Net and the self. Subsequently, a fast search through the internet leads us to a huge amount of advise how to use social media to boost your career (example).

Have these new ways to put yourself in the picture officially replaced the oldfashioned strategies of hard working and being the smartest? Is a mix the key to succes?  Or can you reveal us one of your secret keys which we do not know yet? Let us know your opinion!

As said before this question is related to our upcoming Talents for Governance event,  How to get ahead as a young civil servant. Since we know it is not possible for everyone to join this event, this is your way to give your opinion about the theme and we look forward to hear your story!

Dear Talent for Governance Members. 

We are proud to present the Talent for Governance Network Event 2010.   The event will take place in The Hague at 17 september from 15.00 – 17.30 with drinks afterward.  All Talent for Governance network members are invited, but since the event takes place in The Hague and travel costs will not be covered we especially expect a lot of you Dutch members to attend!

The Talents that have been selected for the Talent for Governance programme this September will also be present at the event! It will be the perfect oppertunity to meet your fellow Talent for Governance Network members Ryan Barcelo, Derya Eren, Irene Achola Origa, Bangun Winarno, Dickson Baidoo and Habip Demirhan.

For more information also check out the offcial announcement. And in order to be able to attend the event you will need to fill in this form.

See you the 17th!  Best wishes,  Marlies de Jong

This month we have taken the subject for our question of the month from the website of the United Cities and Local Governance website ( http://www.cities-localgovernments.org/index.asp )

This is what it says:

Local governments mobilized in July: proposed amendments to the Outcome Document of the MDGs Summit

The Summit of the Millennium Development Goals shall take place from 20-22 September 2010, at the United Nations General Assembly, at United Nations Headquarters in New York.

In the framework of the preparation of the event, a MDG Summit Outcome Document is being negotiated daily until the end of July by national government representatives in New York.

Whilst the MDG Summit Outcome document recommends a number of actions in areas where it can be argued that local governments should hold greater responsibility, the references to local governments are disappointingly few. To see the report, please click here.

United Cities and Local Governments calls upon their members to write to national governments requesting that they give serious attention to the role of local and regional governments in writing their national MDG report, and asking them to consider our proposed amendments which focus on the areas of local ownership, the importance of governance and the cultural dimension of the MDGs.

In the links below you can download the proposed amendments:

to download the proposed amendments

With a view to the September Summit, UCLG will also call upon local and regional authorities to engage in a global mobilization for the achievement of the MDGs.

What is your opinion of these proposed amendments, what would you like to add or extract from them?

This years’ World Cup has brought the eyes of the world to South- Africa and the whole African continent. The former president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki saw the World Cup as a moment when the African continent “turned the tide on centuries of poverty and conflict’.

After years of preparation, and the first round of matches played, what is your opinion on this prediction?

To give you some more information on the subject we have selected three articles/documents for you to read:

1. Will the World Cup change South Africa? (Blogg by David Bond, BBC,11 May 2010 )
2. Results of the International Symposium on the Impact of Mega Sports Events on
Developmental Goals. (5-7 March 2008)
3. Africa doesn’t need the World Cup to change its fortunes (Peter Guest, Guardian.co.uk,14 June)

When you start commenting, also feel free to also add links to other interesting articles/documents on the topic!

And don’t forget to fill in our POLL of June! Vote now for your favorite team in the World Cup tournament 2010!

Four young municipal talents, Ivan and Khrystyna from Ukraine, Zulkifli from Indonesia and Ina from Albania have joined the Local Economic Development course as part of their Talent for Governance-scholarship this Sunday. After finishing this one-week programme, they will spend one week in a Dutch municipality to follow an internship.

During the course the scholars will learn how local governments can develop and implement a Local Economic Development vision and strategy. Together with the other participants they will practice in involving different stakeholders in the realization of their ambitions, and they will have the opportunity to exchange experiences with each other. During the study visits they will be inspired by Dutch examples of LED practices. After the course the young talents will stay at a Dutch municipality where they can experience what activities local authorities in The Netherlands undertake and how they cooperate with stakeholders. Host municipalities are Delft, Drechterland and Meppel.

The young municipal talents are invited for a networking event with young civil servants from The Hague in the first week. Apart from this live meeting during their stay in the Netherlands, the scholars will also share their experiences with other members of the Talent For Governance online network afterwards. Through this network, they can stay in touch with their host municipality and colleagues from other parts of the world.

The next round of six Talent for Governance scholars are expected to arrive in the Netherlands in the beginning of September to join in the programme with ‘Local Service Delivery & MDG’s’ as the topic.

With the summer holidays rapidly approaching, once again ten thousands of Europeans are planning to pack their suitcases for a safari in Africa, a beach retreat in Thailand, or fast-paced sightseeing in places of cultural heritage across the world. Tour operators from many developed countries take their wealthy clients, driven by a sense for adventure, on all-included explorations of local cultures and traditional lifestyles in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Simultaneously, an ever growing number of students and youngsters take part in local voluntary work projects, teaching missions and individual backpacking.

The global tourism industry offers ample potential for local economic development in destination countries. Nevertheless, this also requires that popular tourist destinations are flexible enough to meet the demands of an increasingly diverse tourist population. Popular destinations engage in, or get trapped in, a fierce competition for tourists.  Nevertheless, catering for the taste of western tourists may well come at a price. Spatial redevelopment plans entail the relocation of native populations. Traditional lifestyles become an object of European curiosity. Local traditions and economic activities may be endangered by the more profitable tourism industry.

Our statement for this month is therefore: The Global Tourism Industry Threatens Traditional Local Lifestyles.

We would love to hear from your own experience. Does your municipality have a strategy to stimulate tourism? How do you try to cope with the potential negative effects? Has tourism increased or decreased in the wake of the global financial crisis? What strategies do you propose for a sustainable local tourism industry? How can traditional lifestyles and global tourism reinforce each other?

Please submit your response before June 13 and engage in a lively debate with other network members. After June 13, Talent for Governance will pick one respondent and offer him/her a € 200 discount voucher to use on any of The Hague Academy for Local Governance training courses in 2010.

 On 24 April 2010  the Hague Academy for Local Governance will organize a debate during the yearly Africa day  held in the Hague. You can subscribe to be a part of this day at www.afrikadag.nl.

We will be discussing the role of local governments in achieving the millennium goals in Africa with , among others, a Dutch local politician, a civil servant from the Dutch ministry of Foreign Affairs and development expert. The audience will be actively involved in the debate ( traditionally students, politicians, development workers and many other interested people) .

In light of this debate Talent for Governance would like to initiate an online debate on this very subject with you! We hope we can also use your online input from all over the world in our debate on 24 April in the Hague.

The Statement/ Question of April 2010 is therefore:

‘Localizing the Millenium goals’ – What is the role of local governments in achieving the millennium goals?

Many local governments in developed countries are also involved in programs which aim to achieve the Millennium Goals.  Critics say local governments in (western) developed countries should stay away from international development work, and leave this to the central government. What is your take on this?

Dear members,

Welcome! We are very proud to present to you the new and improved Talent for Governance network. After testing the network we have experienced that is has become easier to find and connect with other members, to upload info, to join groups and to participate in the discussions there!

You might have already noticed that unfortunatly we have lost quite a lot of info with the transfer of the members to the new netwerk surroundings. Please do take the time to upload your photo (again) and to fill in your public profile.

Have fun! Please write your comments on the changing of the network below.

Best wishes,

Marlies de Jong
Programme Manager
Talent for Governance

Siebren van der Berg, employee of the Muncipality of Smallingerland, Dutch young civil servant of the year 2009 and member of the Talent for Governance Supervisory Committee, is posing next to an ‘almost live size’ standee of Thulani Twala. The standee was a gift from Talent for Governance for the municipalities that supported the scholars last year by organising an internship and making a financial donation.

The reactions in Smallingerland were great.They had a very good time organising the internship and getting to know Thulani. And now they will never forget him!