As part of the implementation of the National Action Plan for Social Inclusion (NAPinclusion) and the National Anti Poverty Strategy (NAPS), Combat Poverty worked with local authorities to develop and build their capacity to play a more strategic role in the prevention of poverty and social exclusion through the Local Government Programme since 1999.

Through this pilot programme the Agency supported local authorities to embed social inclusion in their work and policies over a period of five years. The ultimate aim was to have NAPS extended to local level, which would result in the development of local strategies in all local authority areas through the County/City Development Boards (CDBs).

A key priority for our work in 2009 is to support and strengthen the role of Social Inclusion Units through training inputs and technical support. In 2008, a formative evaluation of the units was conducted to identify the units could best be supported to meet social inclusion objectives set down by the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government. The outputs of the evaluation include the final report of the formative evaluation and two discussion papers, Getting Social Inclusion into the Corporate Plans and The Role and Potential of Research in Local Authorities.

In November 2008 an updated how-to guide called Developing a Local Anti-Poverty and Social Inclusion Strategy was produced to support the development of anti-poverty strategies at local level.

In 2007 Combat Poverty commissioned Mapping Social Inclusion in Local Authorities, a study examining the developing role of local government in addressing social inclusion and to consider the opportunities for building on this progress to underpin the strategic objectives of the recently launched National Action Plan for Social Inclusion (NAPinclusion).

Since the pilot programme ended in 2004 Combat Poverty has continued to support local authorities to mainstream the learning from the programme.

Read more about Combat Poverty's Local Government work here:

Publications

Combat Poverty has published a number of local government related titles. Visit our publications pages to browse the full range of Combat Poverty publications.

Contacts

For further information on Combat Poverty's local government work, contact:

• Julie Smyth, Programme Manager: 01 647 3246 or jsmyth@pobail.ie

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Social Inclusion Division Gandon House Amiens Street Dublin 1	Tel: 353 1 704 3284	mail: socialinclusion@welfare.ie web: www.combatpoverty.ie
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