How Much LCE Support Do We Need?
E veryone agrees that the support of Local Chief Executives is important in pushing for local governance reforms. Sadly too many of us fall prey to the fallacy that because the LCE has signed a formal cooperation agreement his support can automatically be counted on. When things go south and program proponents find less LCE support than expected, there’s a lot of sighing about the need for “political will”. But I think the problem does not lie with the LCE - the problem lies with the project proponents, and it has to do with inadequately engaging the LCE through different levels of engagement, and it has to do with not providing the LCE with an exit strategy if and when he feels he could not support certain project activities. Way back in College when I was involved in a student organization we used to categorize fellow students in terms of engagement with our advocacy (back then it was called a “cause”). At the least engaged level were fellow students who were “Interested” -...