ABSTRACT
This chapter will provide an overview of the global norm setting for supporting local action for community development, poverty alleviation, and sustainable development. Beginning with the process of local agenda-setting under Local Agenda 21 during the Earth Summit in 1992, the chapter will briefly describe the context of government-, market-, and civil society–based approaches for devolving power to local government authorities and civil society institutions to replace exclusionist administrative and fiscal practices, and overview inclusive development efforts made by civil society organizations (CSOs) and philanthropists. It will shed light on the strategies for supporting Local Agency 21 through multilateral and bilateral small grants programmes and international NGOs (INGOs) located in the formal sector. A comparative view of the formal sector initiatives and informal sector approach of community-centred initiatives will also be presented. The chapter also dwells upon the negotiating strategies, accessing mechanisms, and spending practices of the community-based programmes; especially the strategies for accessing public resources in the context of local government budgetary processes and indigenous philanthropy. The chapter will close by presenting the better spending strategies of some innovative local initiatives based on realist costing and designing for improving Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and Human Development Indicators (HDIs) at the local level.
