MONTEGO BAY, St James — Furthering his call for the strengthening of the local government framework, Montego Bay Deputy Mayor Councillor Richard Vernon says the time has come for decentralisation.

Vernon, who is currently representing the Caribbean at the European Union-Latin America and the Caribbean Forum in Brussels, Belgium, told the Jamaica Observer that decentralisation has been identified as “a vehicle that is necessary to implement” as countries aim to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs) as outlined by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

“The European Union’s Latin America and the Caribbean Forum pulls together all of those regions into conversations on how we can advance the agenda locally and globally to achieve the sustainable development goals and to accelerate them moving towards 2030,” the deputy mayor said.

Vernon explained that the forum, which is being held under the theme ‘Partners in Change’, is highlighting the reasons behind the need for decentralisation across Latin American and Caribbean countries.

“The thing is that decentralisation has been a topical matter for many years. We’re looking at about 30 years regarding decentralisation in Jamaica and in other places across the world, so the entities are focusing more on decentralisation as a means to accelerate the goals. They believe that when you decentralise, certain responsibilities of government can reach the communities, effect change, and have greater impacts in the municipalities,” Vernon told the Observer.

“They see it as a vehicle that is necessary to implement at this point so what we did [on Wednesday] was discuss decentralisation in the context of women inequality, gender inequality, and climate change,” the deputy mayor said.

According to Vernon, the discussions held at the week-long forum will play an important role in the upcoming EU-CELAC Summit of Heads of State and Government.

“They intend to use the conversation, draw the thematic areas on decentralisation and local governance from it, and put recommendations together for the European Union summit, which will be next week. They want these recommendations to help inform the European Union on how best to approach the sustainable development goals, especially SDG level 11 which is sustainable cities [and communities],” Vernon explained.

The EU-CELAC Summit of Heads of State and Government is a conference that brings together European, Latin American and Caribbean leaders to renew and strengthen relations between the two regions after almost a decade of absence of bi-regional dialogue at the highest political level. The summit will be held under the theme ‘Renewing the bi-regional partnership to strengthen peace and sustainable development’.

At the same time, Vernon said that with decentralisation being a major topic across the region and Jamaica moving towards becoming a republic, there are decisions to be made regarding the authority given to local municipalities. The deputy mayor said that this may require the Government to ditch the “archaic system” which describes geopolitical areas as parishes.

“We have several things happening, and if we are serious about moving forward with local government in Jamaica we should also now look at the fact that in the constitutional reform, parish is a [reminder] of the archaic system that existed. A parish was the area defined by the plantation system as the area of governance, and also by the Church through the vestry system,” said Vernon.

He continued, “Today these spaces have become more complicated and transformed, which demands more from local governments. Therefore, we need to move beyond parishes — particularly now that we are moving towards a republic. The archaic geopolitical and economic classification of these spaces must be replaced by the official status of municipalities.”

The deputy mayor further noted that it is an idea that should be considered by the Government as it would greatly benefit the push for local government reform.

“This is something I am putting forward for the consideration of the Government as we continue to deliberate constitutional reform and the possibilities of moving towards a republic,” said Vernon.

“However, being a municipality is not merely a name change; there are political implications set out by Section 8 of the Local Governance Act 2016. Though the Act speaks to town and city municipalities, nothing prevents an entire parish from being declared a municipality. If we were serious about moving ahead with local government reform in Jamaica [then] this should be the way forward, along with strengthening the institutional capacity of the local authorities, more training of the practitioners, and real devolution of certain responsibilities — not on paper, but in practice and law,” Vernon told the Observer.

He said that the push for global local government reform is also being expressed by different municipalities at the EU-Latin America and the Caribbean Forum.

“It is the consensus of the panel that there is no sustainable development goal without local government, and not just local government, but local authorities. If they are not in the conversation then Vision 2030 will not be realised because local government is the epicentre of sustainable development, and that is where the global dialogue is going,” argued the deputy mayor.

“These are the conversations that we are having, and other municipalities are having similar challenges so we are coming together to have these discussions and to see how best we can help our countries move forward and collectively achieve the sustainable development goals,” he added.

In his bid to drive the idea of decentralisation home, Vernon told the Observer that Montego Bay’s current vulnerabilities require solutions from a local government standpoint.

“With Montego Bay being a coastal city, we are very vulnerable so we have to think about how we can build resilience, address the inequalities, address climate change and other vulnerabilities that we face from a local standpoint,” he said.

“But to do this, decentralisation must be a conversation — and we are not talking about decentralisation on paper, we are talking about decentralisation in reality. We are talking about decentralisation being legitamised by law where the power of the corporation is protected by legislation,” Vernon added.