In 1994 The World Bank established the Municipal Development Program [MDP] in Sub-Saharan
Africa to acknowledge the fact that "effective local government is critical to improving access
to social and infrastructure services and to mobilizing local resources" 
[Ref:Building Capacity for Decentralisation and Local Governance


In Australia, AusAID is the Government Agency that assists the World Bank to promote Local
Governance issues through tenders similar to "The Philippines Local Governance Development
Program [LGDP]" which requires a Managing Contractor by 10 Jul 2006.


In addition the Prime Minister's Department is promoting APEC 2007 and is well supported by the
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade which was issued several recent tenders to support
Australia hosting APEC 2007


These tenders include APEC - Youth Education Program and APEC - Public Relations &
Communications to "raise public awareness and deepen understanding of policy issues
related to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum".


The Rio Tinto Future Fund is one company in Australia that has assisted one Local Council with
the development a Volunteer Management Scheme


The Webinar on Thu 27 Jul 2006 will include a review of how Youth Sport Activities can be a key 
aspect for effective Local Government participation.

The Webinar on Thu 22 Jun 2006 reviewed the new Local Government User-Pays Economics and the
implications to rate-payers and Small & Medium size Enterprises [SMEs].

Registration for Seminar - Early Bird by 17:00 Mon 17 Jul 2006