“All politics is local” is a prevailing phrase – not only in U.S. politics. Apart from the strategic meaning it implies a liberal view of politics – starting off from the individual, who should be instrumental in all decisions that affect their life. Looking for solutions at the local level, involving responsible individuals and making use of decentralised local competences and knowledge are important principles to get local government politics close to citizens, encourage their participation, communicate with them more effectively and make government more efficient. However, in reality local politicians around the world are facing huge challenges to implement such principles due to administrative, legal, financial, political and practical problems. 

In this episode of IAF TALK we are meeting Petra Franke and Kylie Hatton who facilitated our seminar on "Local Politics and Citizen's Participation" and share the insights and key learnings from the seminar.