With the completion of the islandwide Parish Visioning Symposiums staged between February 15, 2010 and March 11, 2010, the Department of Local Government and the Local Authorities will be working intensely to ensure that meaningful action is taken in the pursuit of the priority goals emanating from the symposiums.

Within the next month each Local Authority will be completing and circulating to the Department of Local Government (DLG) as well as all stakeholders, a report on their respective symposium. These reports should be drafted by the chief rappateurs and finalized by Councils/Local Authorities, the Social Development Commission (SDC), Parish Development Committees (PDC) and group presenters were applicable.

While the symposiums were primarily strategic visioning exercises, many constituents/citizens identified a number of programmes/projects which they would like to see implemented within the short (3-6 months) to medium term (2-3 yrs). Local Authorities in conjunction with the SDC and PDC are expected to solicit suggestions from persons within the business community and other select stakeholders who were unable to attend the symposiums, on priority areas for implementation as well as support in advancing the programmes identified.

Although the DLG will be ensuring that projects identified during the workshop sessions are forwarded to likely sponsoring agencies, it is the Local Authority as the governance body of the jurisdiction that will be taking the lead role in partnering with the relevant stakeholders in setting the priorities and ensuring implementation of these programmes/projects.

Sometime in the next six (6) months, DLG will be inviting the leadership of the Councils to a series of regional fora in which they will be required to speak on the concrete achievements and measures taken in the pursuit of the priority goals emanating from the symposium.