Stronger Communities through Improved Local Governance: an Idea Whose Time has Come

Two important policy design principles have emerged from earlier considerations of local governance and community strenthening policies. First, social and economic problems were increasingly recognized as having multiple, intersecting dimensions requiring a coordinated set of different interventions by government. Second, these collaborative interventions were felt to require new forms of local governance in which different agencies, both national and local could act with sympathy for unique local circumstances.