Rewards and Risks of Implementing Citizens' Advice Centres in Promoting Accountable Local Self Government

This report entitled "DLGUD Network Consolidated Reply" explores some of the issues surrounding comparative experiences of implementing citizens'
advice centres in promoting accountable, local self government. Elena Marcelino, facilitator of the DLGUD discussion, reports on this dialogue by
including the original query from Michael Stott, of UNDP Serbia and Montenegro, and then posting the four responses received. Stott asks advice
from individuals in the DLGUD network based on their experiences. The consolidated responses suggest that most centres are setup with the purpose
of providing advice on a range of issues such as consumer issues, tax, housing, employment, legal matters, immigration, etc.

The DLGUD (Decentralisation, Local Governance and Urban/Rural Development) Network is a platform that seeks to maintain connectivity among practitioners and engage them in building and sharing lessons and experiences that lead toward building approaches that promote decentralisation, local governance and urban/rural development.

Based on the responses to Stott's request for information, a number of considerations are presented. Jonas Rabinovitch, of BDP/DGG New York offers a series of questions to help establish the key steps needed for setting up a service centre. He asks: when setting up Citizen's Advice Centres, what is the objective? (Is it purely an advisory facility or does it have an implementation role related to specific urban services such as payment of local taxes, education, health services, road maintenance, issuing IDs, etc.) It is important to consider if there is serious governmental commitment in the form of a consistent budget? Is the possibility of sustained interest and a wish to develop and improve capabilities?

Based on feedback to Stott's query, the majority of European Centres are described as being run by NGOs and relying on volunteers. There are many examples of “citizen advice” centers all over Europe. In the United Kingdom this kind of a centre was established in 1939. Poland's Union of Citizen Advice Bureau is described as considering three key steps: 1) the existence of a non-government organisation or foundation which is ready to take on the responsibility; 2) ensured financial support of local authorities; and 3) an estabished infrastructure, for instance a current database of local institutions.

Further feedback to the query describes the United Kingdom's Citizens’ Advice Bureau as offering legal advice free of charge as well as information about job opportunities. In various large Brazilian cities, for example, certain City Hall functions such as road maintenance are decentralized to facilitate service delivery. In other cities such as Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire, UNDP has promoted the establishment of legal advice centres in slum areas in the periphery. In Macedonia, the citizen information centers located in the municipal buildings are described as "greatly underutilized" and were unstaffed or not open because of so little traffic.