| Overview : Geographical, economic and social and to some extent cultural factors have contributed toward the overarching challenges associated with governance in the outer islands of Kiribati. Situated on 33 atolls and reefs spread over a vast area of the central Pacific Ocean – 4200 kilometers from East to West and 2000 kilometres from North to South – Kiribati shares many of the development challenges common to small, remote, resource-poor island states. These include limited sources of economic growth, limited livelihood options, lack of arable land and arousing vulnerabilities associated with climate change. These factors, along with the concentration of the cash economy in urban areas, have contributed to the migration of many I-Kiribati to Tarawa and Kiritimati. In recent years, the rate of urbanization has slowed and more than half of the population continues to reside on outer islands, reaffirming their enduring importance to Kiribati’s economic, social and cultural development[1]. Urbanization, however, still continues to be a serious issue in Kiribati with 45% of the country’s population reportedly living on the island of Tarawa. Other problems associated with unplanned urbanization such as petty crime, theft, unemployed youth, use of illegal drugs, traffic accidents, pollution, and related issues are also increasing in Tarawa[2]. Local governance in Kiribati is characterized by the ongoing and increasing fiscal and administrative reliance of the island level authorities (Island Councils) on central Government. While the Local Government Act 1984 (LGA) formally devolves political and taxation powers to the island level, Island Councils rely on grant funding and seconded staff from central Government to meet their operational and most or all of capital development needs. In practice, implementation is strangled by lack of resources and capacity and these constraints have resulted in a number of challenges for local governance overall in Kiribati. UNDP has in the past provided some level of support toward strengthening the capacities within the Ministry of Internal Affairs which is the line Ministry responsible for supporting outer island councils and also some support has been provided to the outer islands through setup of ICT facilities for managing communication with mainland. However, support has been very ad-hoc and very limited in the past and there is a need for a much longer term and comprehensive programme of support to the Government of Kiribati and the outer island councils to be able to respond to the development challenges that they are facing. The Kiribati Strengthening Local Governance and Rural Development (KIRILOG) Project Initiation Plan has been developed by UNDP as an initial form of assistance to Kiribati and it will be used to undertake some preliminary level activities to provide capacity building training activities to local and urban island councils, policy advisory support to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and to undertake formulation and resource mobilisation of a substantive programme of support through UNDP to the Government of Kiribati to strengthen sub-national level governance. Hence, the UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji is looking to recruit a Local Governance Specialist – Consultant to provide lead technical advice and capacity development support under the Kiribati Strengthening Local Governance and Rural Development Project. The Specialist Consultant is expected to support the implementation of the preliminary activities under the Project and also undertake the full formulation of a multi-year local governance strengthening project for Kiribati and support resource mobilization activities for this project. |
