1. The Good Practice of The Bahamas and Jamaica LGAs and ARIAL
Final ARIAL seminar: Sharing Good Practices
17th/18th June 2013, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad
Presentation by Dr. Hamid Ghany

2. Content of the presentation
Issues at hand [approx. 5 min]
Steps taken [approx. 5 min]
Approach and ARIAL support [approx. 5 min]
What makes this a good practice? [approx. 5 min]
Lessons learned [approx. 5 min]
Questions from the audience [approx. 20 min]
Workshop activity [approx. 10 min]

3. Issues at hand
The recent involvement of the ARIAL Project in the facilitation and provision of technical assistance to BALGA in the Bahamas and ALGAJ in Jamaica for the development of their Action Plans for the ARIAL Project has emerged as a good practice that can be emulated for a new relationship between regional and local bodies.

4. Steps taken
By virtue of the difficulties faced by BLAGA and ALGAJ in being able to complete their Action Plans for the ARIAL Project, there was a proposal for CALGA to join the Senior Regional Expert for the ARIAL Project in the Caribbean to jointly provide technical assistance to these two LGAs to complete their Action Plans.

5. Approach and ARIAL Support
This partnership took the form of the Senior Regional Expert for the ARIAL Project travelling together with the Senior Technical Officer and the Junior Technical Officer from CALGA on organized visits to the Bahamas and to Jamaica to conduct three-day workshops in each country with BALGA and with ALGAJ respectively in March 2013 to finalize the preparation of their Action Plans for the ARIAL Project.

6. What makes this a good practice ?
This level of facilitation and the provision of technical expertise and advice led to the successful completion of the Action Plans over the three days allotted for the exercises.
The Senior Regional Expert was able to guide the discussions through all of the template requirements for the completion of the ARIAL Action Plans and he was ably supported by the Senior Technical Officer in the preparation of documentation and completion of tasks on an overnight basis for the continuation of the workshops on the following day.
The Junior Technical Officer was able to engage in discussion during the facilitation process to add to the discussions and to play the role of devil’s advocate in discussing various aspects of the Action Plans.

7. Lessons learned
The ability to work as a team that delivered a complex set of actions and discussions into a consensus-based Action Plan provided an example of a good practice whereby two LGAs were able to benefit from a new role in which the ARIAL Programme engineered the delivery of technical support for these LGAs by leveraging its relationship with CALGA. This was not a role that had been envisaged for the ARIAL Project in relation to CALGA and this was not a source of technical support that was envisaged for the two LGAs.
While this may have been confined to the preparation of two Action Plans for the ARIAL Project, it must be noted that it can be considered a good practice for emulation in the future in other areas for LGAs by virtue of their membership in CALGA.

8. Diagrammatic explanation
ARIAL
LGA
CALGA

9. Areas of discussion and questions
During the discussions in both the Bahamas and in Jamaica it was noted that there may be the need for technical assistance in the preparation of position papers and project proposals for these LGAs to become the kind of non-Sate Actors in the field of local government that can sustain their entry into this area.

10. Workshop on External Partners and LGAs
Mediation and conflict resolution in LGAs;
Preparation of position papers and project proposals by LGAs;
Facilitation of development workshops and seminars by LGAs;
Sourcing and provision of experts in partnership with LGAs for development projects;
Provision of technical and advisory services;
Election monitoring and enhancement of democratic practices in LGAs