The two day Regional Conference of North-Eastern and Eastern Region on ‘Fostering Good Governance’ at Police Complex, Chumukedima, Dimapur beginning November 2 is a significant event that will hopefully prove beneficial for top level bureaucrats from the region who are the real managers of public delivery systems. More importantly, the main objective of the conference to generate awareness about the recent reforms for promotion of good governance should not be lost sight of on the participants. Improving Public Service Delivery, Reforms in Government, Best Practices of the participating States, Capacity Building, Training and e-Governance are all vital areas that need urgent attention of those who run the day to day affairs of the administration. The two day conference will hopefully also come out with some concrete proposals based on shared experiences of the different states. The best practices of each participating State should also be highlighted in order that successful models can be further studied and replicated wherever applicable.
In this regard, it should remain a pride for Nagaland to host the landmark conference given that the “Communitization Model” of development had its origin here. Communitization has proved to be a fine example of people’s participation in governance and the selection of Nagaland as the venue for this Regional Conference is very appropriate in this backdrop. Precisely, the ingenuity of people centered initiative will have much to offer in terms of providing the answers to many of the administrative dilemma that each state or region is confronted with when it comes to implementing large scale tasks. It is therefore crucial to look for appropriate models that remains relevant to the problem or the situation in which it is going to operate rather then imposing structures that may be unresponsive and irrelevant. As the “Communitization Model” proves, the General Theorists would have to now seriously think about going back to some of the traditional knowledge base and practices and finding application for them particularly in the broad area of governance and decision making. In essence, it has to be a marriage of the best of both worlds.
As rightly pointed out at the start of the conference, the paradigm shift in today’s governance conceives citizens to be at the centre stage. It therefore goes without saying that the Government machinery should have as its priority, the reestablishing of that vital link with the people and also use the tremendous power of social capital to meet its development goals. It will be in the fitness of things for policy makers to turn their attention in tapping the traditional ‘technologies’ or assets of people themselves rather than depending merely on the systems and programs. What we require is also less government and more governance in which the high impervious wall between the administration and the people is broken down. It is important to once again emphasize that governance must be developed within a particular context in order to sustain a governing model unique to that context.
